AustinKGB
July 8th, 2016, 07:11 AM
Hey Everyone,
I generally don't like to get involved in discussions like this, since it often leads to division and anger instead of intelligent conversation, but this is something I am tired of keeping bottled up. First of all I would like to express my sympathies for the victims families affected by the shootings that have happened over the past few days. Sometimes when discussing these issues we forget that some people have to feel their impact for the rest of their lives.
In this post I would like to try to bring some balance to and depolarize the narratives commonly repeated by the media, and as a result, the general populace. For the past 4 years, but especially after the death of Freddie Gray last year, a narrative that seeks to expose African Americans murdered and oppressed by a racist, American police force has been constructed and perpetuated by the media. This narrative is harmful to the fabric of America as it creates a division across racial lines, and because it is founded on a handful of highly-visible cases instead of fact.
Statistics:
Before talking about the effects of this narrative further, lets take a look at some statistics of deaths at the hands of the police. I will put a link to the Washington Post statistical compilation below- it lets you find the number of deaths during confrontation with police and sort through them based on race, gender, if the suspect had a weapon, etc.. It has been my experience that the most commonly repeated phrase you will hear when listening to social or political analysts following one of these incidents is something along the lines of "we all know black men are killed/sent to prison in rates much higher than white men". Without doing any research, this claim seems somewhat reasonable- America does have a history of racial discrimination, and black Americans have a lower standing of living compared to most other races. I am not here to argue about the rates of imprisonment for African and white Americans, but I do want to point out that these claims are often only backed up with cherry-picked statistics or propped up with nothing more than stereotypes.
Now lets look at some statistics. Based on media narratives we would expect to find that a higher percent of unarmed black men are shot compared to white men. This, however, is not the case. Of all the black victims only 2% were unarmed, compared to 4% of white men. This contradicts a lot of the information surrounding surrounding these incidents, that senseless murders happen much more frequently in run-ins between black suspects and the police. Something to note is 75% of unarmed deaths of white men, and 66% of unarmed deaths of black men, body cameras or other recording devices, which is a legitimate problem and is something that could be addressed. With both black and white victims, police officers who were responsible were only identified in 25% of cases.
Now there is one more important percentage to look at: the percentage of unarmed shooting victims that are black compared to demographics in America. If you look at the percentage of black victims (24%) compared to the percentage of African Americas in the United States (13%) it looks like they are much more highly represented. Its because they are overrepresented in this area. Why is this? Well, this is where things can get sort of sketchy. Let me be clear, the purpose of this post is not to compare the violent crime rates of different races in America. Sharing these statistics can often be viewed as racist, but I would like to point out that these statistics are not my personal opinions, they are facts. I've seen a few figures calculated about black participation in total violent crime within the US, and I went with the absolute lowest calculation I could find that was based on credible information. According to research and calculations done by Politico, roughly 35% of homicides are committed by African Americans. This is similar to other reports issued by the government about arrests. Now there is also the notion that black men are arrested at a higher rate per incident compared to whites- that could very well be true, but even if you removed 33% of these arrests to balance out for this possibility, African Americans would still overrepresent for homicides and other violent crimes by a factor of 2. Bottom line is, if African Americans are committing 35% of homicides or other violent crimes, a 24% representation in police-related deaths is not an overrepresentation.
These statistics paint a much more balanced picture than the media and political figures allege. Its important to check everyone's sources- in matters like these you can never be too careful. I would have to go back and try to find the specific videos on youtube, but MSNBC has been the worst culprit of cherry-picking statistics in my experience. In some cases statistics from certain regions or communities were shared (such as statistics about how <60% of police-related deaths were black, while the statistics were from <60% black cities in the first place (such as Detroit, Birmingham, and Flint)).
The Narrative:
Lastly, I want to address the social and political ramifications of this narrative. Talking about internalized, closeted racism in white America is not the answer to these problems. While I completely believe there are racists in every position, class, and of every color in America, talking about these beliefs as if they are commonly held is dishonest and only makes blacks and other minorities feel like victims. Referring to the police as if they are a haven for racists is not a way to fix the system. Officers who commit these acts of murder should be dealt with using the full extent of the law. Police men and women with a history of racially themed violence should be punished. I'm not saying that we should say that the police are 100% racist free, but to paint the system like an "us vs. them" for the African American community is fear-mongering and unhelpful.
My objective for writing this was to get more people to think about what they hear on the news and over the internet and to analyze everything to find the truth of the matter. The African American community faces a lot of problems, and this is one of the bigger issues. In order to properly address it and bring about change we need to stop polarizing issues, drowning out everything with sensationalism and using isolated or dishonest information.
_________________________________________________________________
1. Fatal Force Report by the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/
2. Disproving the 69% Violent Crime Statistic:
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/apr/02/sally-kohn/sally-kohn-white-men-69-percent-arrested-violent/
I generally don't like to get involved in discussions like this, since it often leads to division and anger instead of intelligent conversation, but this is something I am tired of keeping bottled up. First of all I would like to express my sympathies for the victims families affected by the shootings that have happened over the past few days. Sometimes when discussing these issues we forget that some people have to feel their impact for the rest of their lives.
In this post I would like to try to bring some balance to and depolarize the narratives commonly repeated by the media, and as a result, the general populace. For the past 4 years, but especially after the death of Freddie Gray last year, a narrative that seeks to expose African Americans murdered and oppressed by a racist, American police force has been constructed and perpetuated by the media. This narrative is harmful to the fabric of America as it creates a division across racial lines, and because it is founded on a handful of highly-visible cases instead of fact.
Statistics:
Before talking about the effects of this narrative further, lets take a look at some statistics of deaths at the hands of the police. I will put a link to the Washington Post statistical compilation below- it lets you find the number of deaths during confrontation with police and sort through them based on race, gender, if the suspect had a weapon, etc.. It has been my experience that the most commonly repeated phrase you will hear when listening to social or political analysts following one of these incidents is something along the lines of "we all know black men are killed/sent to prison in rates much higher than white men". Without doing any research, this claim seems somewhat reasonable- America does have a history of racial discrimination, and black Americans have a lower standing of living compared to most other races. I am not here to argue about the rates of imprisonment for African and white Americans, but I do want to point out that these claims are often only backed up with cherry-picked statistics or propped up with nothing more than stereotypes.
Now lets look at some statistics. Based on media narratives we would expect to find that a higher percent of unarmed black men are shot compared to white men. This, however, is not the case. Of all the black victims only 2% were unarmed, compared to 4% of white men. This contradicts a lot of the information surrounding surrounding these incidents, that senseless murders happen much more frequently in run-ins between black suspects and the police. Something to note is 75% of unarmed deaths of white men, and 66% of unarmed deaths of black men, body cameras or other recording devices, which is a legitimate problem and is something that could be addressed. With both black and white victims, police officers who were responsible were only identified in 25% of cases.
Now there is one more important percentage to look at: the percentage of unarmed shooting victims that are black compared to demographics in America. If you look at the percentage of black victims (24%) compared to the percentage of African Americas in the United States (13%) it looks like they are much more highly represented. Its because they are overrepresented in this area. Why is this? Well, this is where things can get sort of sketchy. Let me be clear, the purpose of this post is not to compare the violent crime rates of different races in America. Sharing these statistics can often be viewed as racist, but I would like to point out that these statistics are not my personal opinions, they are facts. I've seen a few figures calculated about black participation in total violent crime within the US, and I went with the absolute lowest calculation I could find that was based on credible information. According to research and calculations done by Politico, roughly 35% of homicides are committed by African Americans. This is similar to other reports issued by the government about arrests. Now there is also the notion that black men are arrested at a higher rate per incident compared to whites- that could very well be true, but even if you removed 33% of these arrests to balance out for this possibility, African Americans would still overrepresent for homicides and other violent crimes by a factor of 2. Bottom line is, if African Americans are committing 35% of homicides or other violent crimes, a 24% representation in police-related deaths is not an overrepresentation.
These statistics paint a much more balanced picture than the media and political figures allege. Its important to check everyone's sources- in matters like these you can never be too careful. I would have to go back and try to find the specific videos on youtube, but MSNBC has been the worst culprit of cherry-picking statistics in my experience. In some cases statistics from certain regions or communities were shared (such as statistics about how <60% of police-related deaths were black, while the statistics were from <60% black cities in the first place (such as Detroit, Birmingham, and Flint)).
The Narrative:
Lastly, I want to address the social and political ramifications of this narrative. Talking about internalized, closeted racism in white America is not the answer to these problems. While I completely believe there are racists in every position, class, and of every color in America, talking about these beliefs as if they are commonly held is dishonest and only makes blacks and other minorities feel like victims. Referring to the police as if they are a haven for racists is not a way to fix the system. Officers who commit these acts of murder should be dealt with using the full extent of the law. Police men and women with a history of racially themed violence should be punished. I'm not saying that we should say that the police are 100% racist free, but to paint the system like an "us vs. them" for the African American community is fear-mongering and unhelpful.
My objective for writing this was to get more people to think about what they hear on the news and over the internet and to analyze everything to find the truth of the matter. The African American community faces a lot of problems, and this is one of the bigger issues. In order to properly address it and bring about change we need to stop polarizing issues, drowning out everything with sensationalism and using isolated or dishonest information.
_________________________________________________________________
1. Fatal Force Report by the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/
2. Disproving the 69% Violent Crime Statistic:
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/apr/02/sally-kohn/sally-kohn-white-men-69-percent-arrested-violent/