THE CASE of John Sanderson, a student at Mississippi State University who was shot to death in his dorm room last week, has not inspired national outrage. Sanderson is white and only one of the three black men suspected in his murder has been arrested so far. The Mississippi Commissioner of Higher Education called the murder “a senseless tragedy.”

Is it racist to use stronger words? Walter E. Williams, in reference  to Trayvon Martin,  asks whether it is racist to state the obvious about black criminality:

In some cities, such as St. Louis, black pizza deliverers have complained about having to deliver pizzas to certain black neighborhoods, including neighborhoods in which they live. Are they racists? The Rev. Jesse Jackson once remarked, “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 – (and) then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.” Does that make the reverend a racist?

The former Charleston, S.C., black chief of police, Reuben Greenberg, said the problem facing black America is not racial profiling. He said, “The greatest problem in the black community is the tolerance for high levels of criminality.” Former Los Angeles black police Chief Bernard Parks, defending racial profiling, said: “It’s not the fault of the police when they stop minority males or put them in jail. It’s the fault of the minority males for committing the crime. In my mind, it is not a great revelation that if officers are looking for criminal activity, they’re going to look at the kind of people who are listed on crime reports.” Are former police Chiefs Greenberg and Parks racist?

According to the Uniform Crime Report for 2009, among people 18 or younger, blacks were charged with 58 percent of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, 67 percent of robberies, 42 percent of aggravated assaults and 43 percent of auto thefts. As for murder, more than 90 percent of the time, their victims were black. These statistics, showing a strong interconnection among race, youth and crime, are a far better explanation for racial profiling and suspicion than simple racism.

Black Americans have spoken out against racial profiling by police. They’ve been insulted by store personnel who might give them extra scrutiny. There’s the insult of the sound of a car door being locked when a black approaches. It’s insulting to have taxi drivers pass up a black person and pick up white people down the street. In a similar vein, I’m sure that a law-abiding Muslim is insulted when given extra scrutiny at airports or listening to Fox News reporter Juan Williams, who was fired by National Public Radio in 2010 for publicly saying that he gets nervous when he sees people on a plane with clothing that identifies them as Muslim. Blacks and Muslims who face the insults of being profiled might direct their anger toward those who’ve made blacks and crime synonymous and terrorism and Muslims synonymous.

God would never racially profile, because he knows everything, including who is a criminal or terrorist. We humans are not gods; therefore, we must often base our decisions on guesses and hunches. It turns out that easily observed physical characteristics, such as race, are highly interconnected with other characteristics less easily observed.

For most blacks to own up to the high crime rate among blacks is a source of considerable discomfort. Beyond that, it creates suspicions and resentment, which are destructive of good race relations, and it’s devastating to the black community, which is its primary victim.

                                            — Comments —

Fred Owens writes:

The only time I ever got beat up by a cop I was wearing a hoodie. This happened in January 1976 in a suburb of Orlando (not Sanford, but nearby), late at night. Wearing a hoodie, you can’t see the face too well. I compounded the error by thrusting my hands in my pockets — a stupid move. The cop worked me over with his night stick. A young man should know — keep your hands visible and don’t cover your face. That’s been my custom ever since.

Orlando was kind of a nice place in 1976, before Disney World blew the place all to hell. But back before that it was a sleepy southern time, and we were there that winter, just hanging out in the park downtown, enjoying the sunshine. The thing is, what was I doing wandering around at 2 a.m. in the morning? That’s when I ran into the cop. I decided, after this one-sided altercation, that I just ought to get off the street and stop hanging around. Shortly after this, I asked my sweetheart to marry me, and we had two children and the rest is history. That’s how it worked for me.

Buck writes:

I like Walter Williams. He’s very smart with a sense of humor. He can get away with saying things. But, he’s preaching to the choir too. He’s talking to his readers, and only his readers will accept it. He’s marginalized and has been dismissed by modern liberals and called an Uncle Tom.

For several days I have sought an opportunity to gently break protocol within a comfortable group of cigar smokers. We gather after work most days at our local lounge. It’s an unspoken, obvious rule that politics and the serious issues of the day are taboo. Occasional slip-ups are met with silence or laughter. Peace and good order, a conscious effort to avoid contention, is unspoken rule number one. You may go for the quick laugh, but one and done. It’s not a sanctuary, but it is a safe haven.

There several black men who drop in occasionally. One is a regular. We’ve enjoyed hours of pleasant conversation and laughs. He grew up in southern Maryland, which still has a grip of its past. Just a couple of weeks ago, I walked in to hear him calling another guy a “cracker” to a room full of laughter. That went on a few days, then faded away, no longer funny. He’s allowed the occasional antidote and reference to race. The segregation that he experienced in his youth is kept alive and fresh and he wears it as an entitlement. He wouldn’t accept that characterization, I’m sure, but when he speaks of it, it sounds like a claim and a warning.

I’ve gotten it into my head, more so since this Trayvon Martin story broke, that I was going to seek and seize an opportunity to break protocol in the lounge. I want to engage him in a discussion about race. I’m certain that the middle class black men that live in my county have no idea what is going on. Our county is one of the most crime-free in the nation. I can not imagine what it would be like for these intelligent, successful black men to be burdened with the truth. They can’t possible know, or believe.

By coincidence, even though I made the effort to get to the lounge more frequently than usual, my black acquaintance stopped coming in. No one has seen him for more than a week.

So, here I am in the lounge with white men, whom most, I’ve grown certain, ignore the news for certain reasons, like the plague.

Maybe…only maybe, a few are paying attention and have an idea about what is really going on, but they won’t let on. What little is said, is always safe; liberal safe, and always tolerant.

It’s a white male paradigm, if that makes sense, that keeping the peace at all costs is the highest value; even as the streets in the neighboring county maybe on fire. I open my mouth and I’m a pariah. I’d be cast out. There is no middle ground. Either submit or go to war. Modern white men, it seems, just want to get out of this alive. If there is a half-step, I don’t know how to take it.

On a rare visit to a shopping mall, I passed a kiost on the way out; “Urban literature”. A black man sat selling a rack of books by blacks about black life and black “truth”. There may be, some where in one of those books, a slight reference to the truth about black-on-white crime. Maybe, but unlikely. I’m betting that there is a comprehensive history of slavery, lynching and Jim Crow; and racist white America. There will soon be, I’m sure, a book about Trayvon Martin. We will never see a kiost that even hints that there may be a “white truth” or “rural literature”, or whatever the euphemism should be.

Please follow and like us: