“Black-on-Black crime is the biggest hoax since ‘liberty & justice for all.’” Michael Harriot breaks down why Black-on-Black crime is a figment of white people’s imagination.
You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, Black Culture Amplified.
Michael Harriot [00:00:05] Hello and welcome to another episode of theGrio Daily, the only podcast that thinks the sun rises and sets on you. And I hope you know that there’s nothing, nothing that we wouldn’t do. Michael Harriot world famous wypipologist and this is theGrio Daily. I’m your host, Michael Harriott. And I’ll be here every day for like ten, 15 minutes to let you know what’s going on in your village. We won’t necessarily be regurgitating the news like, you know, CNN, but we’ll be examining some of the stuff that everybody’s talking about, you know, the stuff that’s going on in your village. And, of course, you know, there’s some things that we won’t be talking about. We won’t be keeping up with the Kardashians. We won’t ask you whether you prefer salt sugar or grits, because, you know, only a crazy person would put dixie crystals, on grits. If you want candy corn, you should wait till halloween or Thanksgiving was just wanted to eat candy corn all following Thanksgiving. Oh, stupidly. Yeah. Anyway, if you want candy corn, you should wait until then and we won’t be asking stupid questions. Now, I know you heard that there are no stupid questions, but they’re awesome. Like, can I get some sugar or my grits or “but what about Black on Black crime?” You know, every time somebody brings up Black Lives Matter, police brutality or anything that has to do with racism, some white person is gonna to chime in and ask, “Why do y’all why don’t you all over talk about Black on Black crime” or “but what about what about Chicago? You know, how they do. So for this episode, we’re going to explain exactly why we never talk about Black on Black crime. Now, there’s a few reasons, but the first one is usually Black on Black crime has nothing to do with what you’re talking about. Like imagine the head of Homeland Security walking up to the microphone to hold a press conference after a terrorist attack. And, you know, people are mad that people died. And when people start asking them about catching the murderers or, you know, the lives lost, he starts talking about texting and driving. Now, that sounds stupid, right? But distracted driving kills more Americans every year than terrorism, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. So according to the advocates of conversations about Black on Black crime, we should be discussing that first. Right? Because people die. It is true that the vast majority of Black murders are committed by Black men, and we should do something to combat that. And we’re going to get to that later, I promise. But, you know, distracted driving has nothing to do with state violence or police brutality. So when anyone interrupts a discussion about Black Lives Matter by bringing up Black on Black crime, it sounds as stupid as if a doctor addressed a cancer brain tumor by asking, “but what about domestic violence?” Or if America’s highest ranking government official addressed a white supremacist Nazi palooza by asking about the so-called “Alt-Left” and the very fine tiki torches carriers? I mean, that would be stupid, because, you know, no one would ever do that. Right? Right? Right? The second reason would never talk about Black on Black crime as we’re actually waiting. Yeah. See, we want to have a conversation about white on white crime first. See if you actually believe that all lives matter, you are just trying to perpetuate a racist trope about Black people being thugs and criminals and violent. Then why don’t white people ever talk about white on white crime? So according to the latest data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, white or white violence is actually higher than Negro or Negro thuggery or Hispanic or Hispanic crime. Yeah, you can look at the statistics, but when Nazis organize a parade or when a white boy shoots up a school, no one ever asks, like a Caucasian person, “what are you going to do about all this white on white crime in white neighborhoods?” We’re waiting. The third reason is that we actually do talk about Black on Black crime all the time. But I understand why white people think we don’t. The reason they make this assumption, it goes back to this thing that my grandmother used to say. My grandmother used to say “it ain’t no damn business.” Ask a white person if they ever knew what pledging a grad chapter means or if they ever been a part of a Upward Bound, or if they ever joined a Kappa league or spent a summer in a church basement doing puzzles and coloring books. Ask a white person if they go to a Black church, or if they ever been to a Black barbershop, or if they ever been to a Black person house for Thanksgiving. And they usually going to tell, you no. The reality is white people don’t know that we talk about Black on Black crime because white people ain’t never around Black people. They never around Black neighborhoods. The reality is, in neighborhoods, living rooms and pews throughout Black America, there are countless organizations, activists, movements dedicated to curbing violence in Black communities. I mean, KRS One made a song about it called Self-destruction, you headed for, I think he’ll get kicked off of the Internet if we keep singing it. But trust me. The Stop the Violence movement has actually been around longer than Black Lives Matter movement. There are more stop the violence movements in neighborhoods across the America every year than there are Black Lives Matter marches. Like, do me a favor like go to Facebook and, you know, Facebook events page go there and look up how many stop the violence rallies are in your community this year. I bet you there’s more than there are Black Lives Matter marches. See, white people have no idea that Black people spend billions on change programs for at risk youth, gang counseling, neighborhood watches, mentorship programs, youth counselors, and too many other projects and groups to name. And they all lead the charge against crime and violence and at risk youth. But white people don’t know this because white people don’t live around Black people. Seriously. According to the Brookings Institute. The average white person lives in a neighborhood that is 71% white and only 8% Black. Meanwhile, the average Black person lives in an area that is much more diverse, and Black people donate more of their income to charitable organizations dedicated to improving their communities than white people do. So Black people are actually doing more than white people to fight crime and violence and underprivileged youth. I don’t think you fight underprivileged youth because you know I heard the underprivleged youth can fight. But my point is that we are doing more than white people, but Black people combating crime doesn’t make the evening news because, I mean, what are you going to show? Like Black people donating money, right? Or Black people helping kids color in coloring books? Nah,, that’s not as salacious, is protesters blocking traffic or demonstrators screaming against police brutality. Plus, there’s no way white people would know about this unless they stopped deflecting and actually went to a Black neighborhood to check out what’s going on and selflessly join the effort to address the problems plaguing. All right. I know you can stop laughing now because we know that ain’t gonna happen. But, since we never talk about Black on Black crime, we’re going to take this opportunity, just this one time to talk about it. So just for this podcast, just for this episode, let’s talk about Black on Black crime. Let’s forget the fact that sociologists, criminologists and people who know things will tell you that crime is a socioeconomic phenomenon. Forget the racist tropes. Forget the fact that poverty and education drives crime more than just like skin color. Forget the racist tropes, the research, and the actual facts. Just for this episode, let’s go into it. First, I got to tell you that besides being a world famous wypipologist, I just I have an actual masters degree in macroeconomics. And I taught a class on race as an economic construct. And using this crazy technique called math. I’m going to break down to you why only a racist person would bring up Black on Black crime. Specifically, we’re going to talk about why they always bring up that FBI chart that supposedly proves that Black people commit more violent crime. You know what I’m talking about? You know, the FBI data chart that shows that Black people are 13% of the population, but they commit half of the murders. That’s like the literal quote that’s on white supremacists Twitter or white Facebook. Yeah, I didn’t know. Like there’s a Black Twitter. Yeah, there’s a white facebook. white people love Facebook. But that chart is true. Kinda see the FBI chart only counts arrests, it doesn’t count convictions. And if you look at the small print, those numbers come from about 10,000 law enforcement agencies who report to the FBI out of the about 19, 20,000 total agencies in America. But even given that, I’m willing to believe that the people who disproportionately stop, frisk, shoot and kill Black people, I’m willing to believe they’re doing it right. I’ll accept that the people who arrest Black people for drugs at three times the rate of whites, even though white people use more drugs, I’ll assume that they counting correctly. I’ll concede that the cops who stop Black drivers at twice the rate of whites, even though whites are statistically more likely to have contraband. I’ll assume that they aren’t skewing the statistics, but just for this instance, let’s use the white people’s numbers. Those same FBI stats show that Blacks commit about 1.8 million crimes every year. Even if a different Black person committed each crime, there are 46.9 million Black people in America, which means that 45.1 million Black people, or 96% of all Black people in America, don’t commit a crime every year, which is close to the 98% of whites who didn’t commit a crime. And remember, they patrol us, stop us, frisk us at twice the rate, and with them they’re still at the white rate. But I know you’re thinking, well, what about the murders? Well, if you use that same data, 99.9% of Black people don’t commit murder in any given year, and 99.9% of white people don’t commit murder in a given year. Which is why nobody ever talks about all these white murderers. No. 13% of the population doesn’t commit half of the murders. .000 1% of the population commits half the murders and .000 1% of the population commits the other half of the murders. And anyone who asks about Black on Black crime is doing something that my grow, Merriam Webster explained in a previous episode.
Merriam Webster [00:11:54] Racism is the belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacity. This is racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Mmm. Ain’t that somethin’. The more you know, the more you grow.
Michael Harriot [00:12:16] And that’s why we don’t talk about Black on Black crime, because Black people don’t have to answer for the tiny percent of Black criminals any more than white people have to answer for the tiny percent of Caucasians who don’t wash their legs. It’s just science. Anyway, thank you for listening to theGrio Daily. Don’t forget to download theGrio app. Subscribe and tell your friends. I will leave you today, as I always do, with another saying from Black America that three things you can’t trust a liar, a thief, and anyone who doesn’t use a washcloth. See you tomorrow. What you heard? Please give us a five star review. Download theGrio app, subscribe to the show and share it with everyone you know. Please email all questions, suggestions and compliments to podcasts@theGrio.com
[00:13:17] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, Black Culture Amplified.
Panama Jackson [00:13:24] What’s going on, everybody? Panama Jackson here. And I’m the host of the Dear Culture Podcast on theGrio Black Podcast Network. And I’m telling you to check us out every Thursday on theGrio’s app to make sure you get that new, amazing, original Black content, that awesome creativity. Check us out. Dear Culture. Panama Jackson. Out.
