Black-On-White Crime

I've really been out of the blogging loop, so I don't know if anyone else has written about this. It is a story about four or so blacks attacking two whites who were out on a date. And so, apparently, because a group of blacks attacked some whites, that automatically makes it a hate crime. Or because of the vicious nature of the attacks, that makes it a hate crime. Many whites are jumping to call it a hate crime.

You know...I'm really getting tired of the growing tendency of whites to play the victim. It just seems like being a victim is really fashionable nowadays. It needs to stop. I am certain hate crimes happen against whites for various reasons. But just because someone happens to be gay, that doesn't make it a gay hate crime. Just because someone happens to be Jewish, that doesn't make it a Jewish hate crime. And just because someone is white, that doesn't make it a white hate crime. Incredibly gruesome same-race attacks happen all the time but other identities are involved--oftentimes gender. No one calls those hate crimes.

Here's a difference between the most publicized white-on-black crimes that have been labelled hate crimes vs situations such as this one that some people are so angry over its not being called a hate crime as well: those situations usually have some sort of indication that race was a motive other than the fact that the victims and the perpetrators were of different racial backgrounds. Um, like "nigger" being said by the perpetrator a ridiculous number of times as in the Rodney King situation. Or police officers who aren't supposed to be randomly stopping anybody and beating the hell out of them, yet do engage in this behavior and only seem to do this to black males.

When I hear whites ask why nobody ever considers black-on-white crime hate crimes, the first thing I think, honestly, is...black men commit so much crime anyway...how could one possibly tell the difference between what they do as a hate crime and what they do as business as usual? Black men victimize everyone, regardless of race. And if I'm black and thinking like this, I don't see why whites wouldn't think like this. In fact, I'm certain many do. And then, as I did with this Knoxville case, I remember all the crazy things white men do...and then I just get angry with men. You see, I see this case as an example of gender and crime in our society, not race and crime. Men commit crime, and it's getting out of control when two people can't even go on a date without something completely insane happening to them. Whites have tried to make this a racial discussion when I feel what we need to do is wake up and say enough of the violence, period. And we need to get real about who is making us feel unsafe in America. It's not just black men, and it's not always about race. But oftentimes, there is a gender trend to observe. One woman was mentioned in this crime, I believe, but crime is overwhelmingly male in America.

You say black-on-white violence is played down. Then why the hell was I unable to watch "The Young & the Restless" for about a year all because OJ Simpson allegedly murdered his white wife and one of her many white boy toys? And what about Kobe Bryant allegedly raping some white girl? And why weren't these considered hate crimes? You can say that these cases were covered ad nauseam because of the celebrity factor, but be honest--black men are on the news for committing crimes--any crime--daily, nightly and midday. And if it's a black male, they'll say it's a black male, show his picture and sometimes even give out his home address. When it's a white male, depending on where you live, the media won't do anything but report the crime and then move on to the next story. And when it's a black person who is the victim, no one really cares. When it's a white person who is the victim, everyone's talking the maximum sentence or the death penalty...which is exactly what's going on with this Knoxville case.

Let's go back to my point about clear racial motivation. Now, just because a black person has white friends and otherwise socializes with whites doesn't mean they aren't capable of a hate crime or don't hate white people. To be honest with you, every black person I know has expressed at some time or another that they don't like white people...and, yet, they interact with whites on a regular basis. And since I'm in law school, most of these blacks I'm talking about are blacks who grew up around whites, have white friends, know how to interact with whites without seeming "militant" or racist and so on...but many of them are militant and/or racist, more so than I am. My friend Nikki, who I've written about in this blog in regards to her obsessive attraction to white males, has several white friends and has expressed dislike towards whites on several occasions. I won't say all blacks do it, but a lot of blacks live with this dual feeling towards white people. I think there's a piece of nearly every black person that feels hatred towards whites, given history, our forced social status in society and just general ongoing racial discrimination/inequality...but many of us control it and live with it.

Basically, we can dislike, even hate, whites and deal with it because we have to. This is not our world. We can't hate groups of people and arrange to never have to deal with them like whites can. My feelings towards whites are very mutable, and I would guess the same is true for the majority of blacks. Sometimes, one white person can say/do something and reflect badly on all whites for me.

The article actually makes a point that I have made in this blog before, i.e. the majority of crimes are same-race. As far as blacks allegedly attacking whites more than whites attacking blacks, that doesn't surprise me. But I don't think that means what white people would like it to mean. As I mentioned, whites can arrange to be away from groups they hate. So if whites attack us, a lot of times they'd have to be looking for us. That's not as true for blacks--whites are often everywhere we go. And some of those stories will be lies, because some whites still lie about blacks harming them. And, as I said, black men do commit a lot of crime, so much of that crime will not be attributable to racial motives so much as the ordinary course of black-committed crime. And if it's a situation such as how the Knoxville case started out, i.e. carjacking, that makes sense, too--whites tend to have more resources and/or nicer resources, so of course blacks will attack them more than other blacks.

As far as coverage, if there's one thing I've noticed being from the South is, other than what kind of crime it is, where the crime (or other big news story) takes place tends to matter a lot in terms of whether or not it'll get covered. Almost nothing big that happens in Tennessee gets national coverage--not the consistently devastating weather Tennessee experiences seemingly at least once a year, not school shootings, and not "hate crimes." The TN/Arkansas area had a Columbine before the Columbine, and TN had a Virginia Tech before Virginia Tech...but I wonder if anyone from anywhere besides TN, Arkansas and maybe Mississippi know about it. Let something happen in Los Angeles or New York. I'm not saying every white-on-black crime in those areas would make the national news, but they'd have better odds of making it than one coming out of Knoxville, TN. Nobody gives a damn about Knoxville. Those blacks would have had to kill about 30 white people for a Knoxville crime to make the national news, i.e. the Virginia Tech shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia. TN just doesn't make the news.

Similarly, the media picks and chooses which gruesome white-on-white stories it wants to make a huge deal out of. Why Elizabeth Smart vs some other kidnapped or runaway kid? There are tons of them every year. Why Jon-Benet Ramsey? Why Laci and Scott Peterson? And why when these kinds of things involve blacks do we not hear about them every-damn-day on the news like we have with the three above-mentioned stories?

The desire of whites to blow this Knoxville thing up as a racial double standard while ignoring other issues and questions I've raised just goes to show how important race is in America, more so than any other identity.