A Brief Consideration of Blacks and Disproportionate Crime

I want you to consider this quotation I crossed yesterday:

Blacks are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime. Blacks, who make up only 1 percent of the population, account for 34 percent of drug dealers, 47 percent of robberies, 47 percent of illegal gambling, 82 percent of gangs, and 98 percent of pimps. The most common expressions in the jargon of gangsters comes from black hip hop and rap. These characteristics alone refute the liberal blabber about “equality.”

I think we’ve all heard something like this before. While a couple of the statistics may be a bit askew, you’ll acknowledge the general spirit and close proximity to actual statements frequently repeated by some conservatives, reactions to some claims of movements like #blacklivesmatter, and even the comments on which some people still base their own diatribes and criticisms of “black culture” or “black youth,” or the like. There is still a very firm streak as well among so-called “paleo-conservatives” that affirms that such statistics form foundational truths about race relations (read: animosities) in American life.

When the Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd killings, to name only the most recent few, generate discussions and protests, a chief conservative reaction is the perpetuation of the “blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime” stats broadcast as much as possible, it seems. Witness the wild popularity of the now-infamous rant of Candace Owens on this and similar issues.

A story from a couple years back highlighted this problem in the minds of a police officer directly. A slight, about 90-lb black kindergarten teacher was wrongfully manhandled by an Austin police officer when she didn’t lock-step as quickly as he liked during a traffic stop. (The Austin PD acknowledged that the actions and comments on the part of two officers involved were wrong.) During her handcuffed trip in the back of the police cruiser, the transporting officer was filmed calmly informing her that people are, yes, afraid of black people, but for allegedly for a good reason: because of their “violent tendencies.” He explained,

“99 percent of the time, when you hear about stuff like that, it is the black community that is being violent.”

You may even be among those who think, or even practice, the type of condemnation-by-statistics in the quotation at the start above, whether as a justification for rejecting black-power or black-equality movements, or rebutting leftism, or for whatever reason. The fact is, statistics create a collective umbrella which provides shelter for certain prejudices or sins committed, often routinely, against individuals of that class to whom such stats may or may not apply.

If you do that, you have no idea of what spirit of death and destruction you are partaking.

Here’s just one more fact for your consideration:

That quotation above—the one about the blacks being disproportionate in crime—yeah, I edited it a bit. I adapted it to fit modern discourse and more contemporary expressions.

The original quotation is not recent, and it is not about blacks. Here’s the original:

The parasite nation of Judah is responsible for a large part of international crime. In 1932, the Jews, who make up only 1 percent of the world’s population, accounted for 34 percent of the world’s dope peddlers, and 47 percent of robberies; 47 percent of crooked games of chance, 82 percent of international crime organizations, and 98 percent of dealers in prostitution. The most common expressions in the jargon of international gangsters and criminals stem from Hebrew and Yiddish words. These physiognomies refute the liberal theory of the equality of all who bear a human countenance.

The quotation comes from the Nazi propaganda film, The Eternal Jew, produced in 1940 in an effort to demonize Jews in Nazi Germany and justify their opposition to the Jewish race. (Hat tip to Jeffery Tucker of FEE for bringing this film to our attention.)

Even if the stats were accurate, it would not justify either the spirit of fear and derision, or the castigation of any given individual as if those stats pertained to them—despite their appearance or race. Yet the use of crime statistics, specifically, was a prime piece of evidence used to turn the hearts of an entire nation against a race. It’s a powerful force, and it has had undeniably powerful effects.

If we don’t fight for our basic constitutional rights for everyone, all the time, we undermine them for ourselves. We destroy our own liberty and future.

If we don’t love the Samaritan, we don’t love our neighbor. It’s that simple. The moment we start down the other road, we start to imbibe this demonizing spirit of the Nazi. You need to assess whether you’ve started down that road or not, and if so, how far.

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(BTW—the stats in that cover photo are false! 81% of whites are killed by other whites, not blacks.)

(A version of this article was published July 22, 2016. It has be updated and adapted.)