Confronting Unpleasantries
Picture a person with a temperature reading of 105 degrees. You tell
him something is terribly wrong and he'd better do something about it.
He and his loved ones respond saying the thermometer's no good; the
doctors are lying; or, it's all a conspiracy. Such a person is either
not very smart or lacks the courage to confront reality. Another
possibility is that shame about his condition might lead him to deny
reality.
This scenario came to mind as a panelist on "Inside Story," a popular
show that airs weekly in Philadelphia. The issue was alleged racial
profiling by New Jersey State Troopers who make disproportionate car
stops of black drivers in their quest to catch drug-traffickers. I
suggested that one might explain, not necessarily justify, racial
profiling by the fact that since blacks commit most of the crime in
America, stopping young black drivers had a higher payoff in terms of
catching a criminal. I stressed that if you're a law-abiding black
person, that higher payoff does nothing to reduce the humiliation,
insult and inconvenience.
This observation didn't sit well with one panel member who became
quite agitated with my statement that blacks commit most of the crime
in America; he claimed it wasn't true. But here are percentages of
black arrests for selected crimes in 1995, found in Crime in the
United States, 1995: Uniform Crime Reports: murder & non-negligent
manslaughter (54.4), forcible rape (42.4), robbery (59.5), aggravated
assault (38.4), burglary (31.0), vehicle theft (38.3), fraud (34.7),
receiving stolen property (39.4), weapons violations (38.8) and drug
violations (36.9). The fact that blacks constituted 54 percent of the
arrests for murder and non-negligent manslaughter, for example,
doesn't mean that whites constituted the other 46 percent; there are
other racial groups. For a race of people, there's nothing flattering
about these numbers. But one thing for sure, denying them or
intimidating those who point them out won't solve the problem.
Who bears the cost of black crime? A 1996 survey found that 52 percent
of blacks and 31 percent of whites were afraid to walk alone at night
in their neighborhoods. A 1992 Gallup/Newsweek poll found that 91
percent of blacks felt that crime topped the list of problems in their
neighborhoods. Survey after survey find that blacks live in constant
fear in their own neighborhoods. The fear is well founded - one-half
the murder victims are black and the leading cause of death for young
black males is homicide.
Jesse Jackson commented, in a racial profiling way, "There is nothing
more painful for me at this stage in my life than to walk down the
street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery - then look
around and see somebody white and feel relieved." Another painful
twist is that during the 1940s, my cousin and I shined shoes after
school. The shortest route back home took us through a white
neighborhood. Frequently, we'd be set upon and chased. Most of the
time we could outrun the white boys to the safety of our black
neighborhood. Today, the run might be the other way - safety in a
white neighborhood.
What's to be done? Part of the solution is the recognition that black
people cannot depend solely on politicians and the police for safe
streets. There's enough black men with military experience to form
armed street patrols. Criminals are cowards and you can bet that if
they knew armed, law-abiding citizens were around, they'd have a
different tune. Even with unarmed patrols, such as the Black Muslims
occasionally conduct, have been enough to send a message to criminals.
It's black people, not white people, who must develop a zero-tolerance
for crime.
Walter E. Williams
c20-99
April 30, 1999
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/99/ugly.html
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