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Is the Black Lives Matter movement trying to reignite a race war?

Over the past eight years of the Obama administration, race relations have gotten much worse in the United States. The Black Lives Matter movement has gained momentous support from fellow citizens who argue that police officers unreservedly target black Americans for both petty and violent offenses. Although there is strong evidence to prove that the killings of unarmed black men is particularly high in comparison to whites and Hispanics, the notion that black Americans are disproportionally a victim of police interaction and the justice system is not true when we analyse crime data as provided by the FBI. African Americans -although they only account for 13% of the population - are responsible for over 50% of all intentional homicides; and more so the killing of black Americans by police officers only accounts for 2.5% of all intentional homicides of black people, compared to over 92% committed by fellow black citizens.

- Black police officers are 3.3 times more likely to shoot than white and Hispanic officers.
- White Americans are three times more likely to die from lethal police force than black Americans.
- Black on black violence accounts for over 92% of all intentional black homicides last year, as oppose to 2.5% by law enforcement officers.
- Even though black people represent 13% of the population, they committed over 27% of all crime and over 50% of all murders.
- White Americans - who represent 192 million people - killed less than 200 black people last year, as oppose to black Americans - who represent 30 million people - who killed more than 300 white people.
- Out of all fatal police shootings, black Americans only accounted for 25% of deaths, with whites and Hispanics accounting for over 70%.
- The vast majority of all police shootings against black Americans are justified as declared in a court of law.

Just to reiterate the extent of black on black violence in the United States, if the US consisted of only black Americans, its homicide rates would align it alongside countries such as Zimbabwe and Djibouti. Conversely, if the US consisted of only white Americans, its homicide rates would align it alongside countries such as Canada and Finland.

Although excessive force by police is commonplace in American society, I don't believe the Black Lives Matter movement is the best response given that it has done nothing but drastically deteriorate race relations. The high levels of violence and crime in the black community can be attributed to one factor: poverty. If we want to tackle crime and poverty in the black community in the United States, maybe we should focus instead on the causes of the aforementioned as oppose to protesting against a nameless and faceless being otherwise known as institutional racism. Of course racism exists, and where unarmed men are killed by police where it's obviously unjustified, then the police officer should face the full force of the law - including the death penalty. However, if we're going to create a narrative which says to African Americans that every obstacle they face is because of institutional racism then they'll never succeed in that environment.

Back on the topic of reducing crime and poverty, a study shows that if you want to live a prosperous life you have to do three things:

1) Stay in school.
2) Don't have children before marriage.
3) Get a job.

The reason that black Americans often struggle to achieve these things is because of two reasons:

1) Single motherhood rate in the black community (which is more than 70%).
2) The environment in which they're brought up, both socially and academically.

Sources:
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba428
http://newsone.com/1195075/children-single-parents-u-s-american/
https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2014.xls
http://www.dailywire.com/news/7264/5-statistics-you-need-know-about-cops-killing-aaron-bandler
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/07/fatal-shooting-of-black-man-by-police-during-traffic-stop-in-min/
https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/system/files/2015-10.0_Ridgeway_PoliceShooting.pdf
http://www.politifact.com/florida/article/2015/may/21/updated-look-statistics-black-black-murders/
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2014.xls
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/02/08/black-and-unarmed-behind-the-numbers#.tRfWudb4F
http://www.allenbwest.com/ashleyedwardson/these-statistics-for-police-violence-will-make-blacklivesmatter-folks-very-angry

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Reply 1

Danny the Geezer

Not a race war, but the "them vs us" mentality that they use will only create deeper divisions in an already divided country.

Reply 2

TaintedLight

hmmm... one only needs to read the Ferguson report prepared by the Justice Department to acknowledge the systemic racism that is all too prevalent in Missouri city.

You can read the report here: http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/department-of-justice-report-on-the-ferguson-mo-police-department/1435/

Here is one excerpt (out of several)

Spoiler

Reply 3

The Wavefunction

No, they're trying to gain equality for blacks.

Reply 4

IYGB

Original post by The Wavefunction

No, they're trying to gain equality for blacks.

Blacks have equality in my opinion

Reply 5

username1022139

Original post by TaintedLight

Spoiler

I didn't say racism doesn't exist, but I'm questioning whether the BLM movement is the best way to ease race relations and achieve non-discrimination?

Reply 6

username1022139

Original post by The Wavefunction

No, they're trying to gain equality for blacks.

Equality? If they want social equality they have it. If they want economic equality they have to work for it.

Reply 7

41b

44% of cops killed are killed by blacks

33% of police killings are on blacks ... :dunce:

90%+ of black shooting deaths are at the end of another black's gun. Every year ~300 blacks are killed by the police. ~3000 are killed by other blacks. ~600 whites are killed by the police.I remember a line I heard from a Zimbabwaen, said many years ago with utmost honesty, that has really stuck with me all these years : Referring to Rhodesia, the only non-racist White government in Africa, with a leader who was actually committed to uplifting blacks - and succeeded a great deal - "I would rather live in a corrupt, murderous economic basket case than under the white man's racism!"

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 8

TaintedLight

Original post by jake4198

I didn't say racism doesn't exist, but I'm questioning whether the BLM movement is the best way to ease race relations and achieve non-discrimination?

Yes, BLM is a result of the systemic racism and the flawed justice that is dished out to people because of the color of their skin.

In Ohio, a police shot a blackman shopping in Wallmart on the word of a whiteman saying he was running around pointing a rifle.

The reality was he was a customer with a toy rifle which he picked up off the shelf and intended to purchase.

If you find this kind of "civilian justice" from a police officer, a movement like BLM is inevitable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_John_Crawford_III

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 9

StrawbAri

Original post by IYGB

Blacks have equality in my opinion