BLACK HOMICIDE

One of the main problems in the black community, over the last 3 decades, has been the homicide rate. This past year ended with many cities, such as New York, Chicago, Detroit and other major population centers, with homicide numbers the lowest that they have been since the 1960’s. This overall reduction of homicide rates in major cities is primarily due to the reduction of homicide among blacks.

Although rap music glorifies the culture of violence, rap thug culture is not the cause of violence. In truth, there is little correlation between homicide rates and levels and popular culture, although popular culture does help to glorify and promote it, as Faheem pointed out in the Op-Ed below. The real cause of elevated levels of violent crime is the combination of human desire for mind and body altering substances, like drugs and alcohol, prohibition of these substances, poverty and the black market economy for the buying and selling of these mind altering substances. In other words, its ecoonomics.

Most people do not know that rates of violent criminality used to be just as high for white folks in America, during the 1920’s and 1930’s, during the era of prohibition against liquor, as it is for blacks today. This era gave birth to many famous and notorious gangs, that are now romanticized, all of whom were white and who came from the ranks of the white ethnic poor, such as the Italians, the Irish and even many Jewish gangs. The competition for market domination or expansion between competing groups was carried out through violence and lead to one of the highest homicide rates during the last century, for the nation. Many wealthy families, such as the Kennedy’s, rose to wealth, in no small degree due to bootlegging. The end of prohibition, in 1933, resulted in a radical decline in the homicide rate.

Today, there are many more forms of mind altering substances, most of which are disproportionately marketed and sold in the black community. Poor black communities are incubators of such activity because it gives the poor alpha males what they covet, which is economic opportunity to money and status, albeit...illegal. For those who are aggressive, smart and risk takers and ruthless, yet, see no road map to legitimate success in the ghetto, the illegal drug trade fills the gap. It should also be noted that in the proper environment, these alpha males and their traits could be channeled to legal success in the business world, because those same qualities brings success in the legal and illegal business world. Thus, as long as there is a market demand for substances not sold legally, there will be poor folks trying to make it big in the illegal economy. However, it should be noted that the upper class white business types are at the upper end of drugs entering this nation from their source. They are the initial buyers. In some cases, the government has even participated.

Despite this link to illegal drugs, there are more than a small percentage of people who believe that the high level of black homicide rates is due to genetics. I have had debates with people who invoke science and genetics to explain black homicide rates in juxtaposition with other so called races. They point out cancer research that shows that blacks have higher levels of testosterone than do whites. They then make the logical leap noting that males have higher rates of homicide than females, due to higher testosterone levels, in their opinion. They then go on to reason, from that previous inference, that the supposed higher rate of testosterone among blacks over whites is therefor the cause of the higher rates of black violence and homicides. Of course, when I asked then did testrone levels in the 60's vary from levels of the 80s, thus explaining the large increase of homicide in that time window, they could not reconcile their theories with fact.

In truth, the high homicide rates come from the economic competition and the police help to contribute to and promote the competition. The reason being is that when police take down or out major players in the game, other player’s war to compete for the new territory opened up. Thus, the more successful the police are at arresting and breaking up major drug enterprises, the more violence it simply promotes....as long as market demand remains. The reason being is that there is always a steady supply of new entrepreneurs from the ranks of the poor, although not exclusive to the poor, who will compete to fill the market demand at profit. It may seem counter intuitive, but by simply letting major players in the game become powerful, they become so strong that people fear challenging them and thus violence over territory is reduced in the long run. In the legal economy competition is good, but in the illegal economy competition is bad for the community and thus monopolies promote less violence.

What the war on drugs has essentially accomplished is nothing but locking up a hundreds of thousands of young black males, while increasing the black homicide rate simultaneously. In essence, the war on drugs resulted in a war on young black males. However, the war has calmed down mainly due fewer new users of crack cocaine, which was the drug that created the most market demand and associated violence. The fear of becoming a “crack head”, by virtue of observation of those addicted to crack, has reduced the demand for that drug considerably. Now that market demand has fallen, the rates of associated violence have declined as well. The police like to take credit for this decline; by saying it is the resultant of police tactics and strategies, which is far from the truth. The truth is that declining demand for crack cocaine and improved legal economic opportunities of the 90’s caused the decline.

The obvious conclusion from empirical evidence of the last century makes a strong argument for the legalization of drugs. The legalization of drugs would have the effect of reducing black homicide rates as well as black incarceration rates, both of which are phenomenon’s that help to erode our community and deplete a generation of young black males. I am sure that there are some that WANT to see black males making enemies and warring with each other and or locked behind bars. The reason being is that black militancy was once overtly noted by then FBI head, J. Edgar Hoover as being the number one threat to the nation’s internal security. The reason is born from the black reaction to 300 years of our oppression and the young male being the primary threat of any oppressed group. They are the ones likely to rise in rebellion against the oppressor. Thus, it is best the keep them occupied fighting against each other instead of the “System”. I have no doubt that this is the reason why drugs became pandemic in the black communities after the social unrest of the 60’s.

I believe that initially, this was all a conspiracy to keep black people from fighting the system in the 1970’s during the “black power” era. They succeeded in their objectives and society has since become more tolerant of black people, than before. However, once they set the game up, they could not turn it off (not that they wanted to or cared) and it has continued to reek destruction upon the black community until this day.