One week ago, in an op-ed for the far right wing website World Net Daily, National Rifle Association (NRA) Board Member Ted Nugent commented on the violence that has made national headlines in Ferguson, Missouri, and stated, "The overwhelming majority of violent crime across America is conducted by young, black males who, sadly, are on the self-inflicted expressway to prison or an early grave-or more often than not, both."for all that are wondering this is racist speak. White cops kill unarmed Black teens and they are on their way to jail or death anyway so what's his point might as well speed it up, self inflicted is a feel good for them and allows them to reconcile their murderous intent. since they promote buyuing more guns are they not also saying kill more Blacks it's okay they are on a death spiral anyway, well the spiral is called White indifference Michael Brown was on his way to college the other guys that were killed or assaulted were smeared with "the stereotypical things Black guys do" steal, drugs, up to no good.
Where to begin... For starters, Nugent has blatantly misstated the facts. In truth, more whites are arrested for violent crime in the United States than blacks (even though African Americans are arrested for such crimes at a higher rate than whites). There are multiple socioeconomic and structural causes that increase an individual's propensity for violent behavior. Pigmentation is simply not a factor.
But reading Nugent's column brought an equally important point home for me. The way we talk about incidents of gun violence in this country -- and the solutions we propose to stem future acts of violence -- seems to be dramatically different depending on the race of those involved.
Consider the tragic death of 25 year-old African-American Kajieme Powell in St. Louis this summer. Powell came to the attention of St. Louis County police on August 19 when he stole two energy drinks and packet of pastries from a local convenience store. He made no attempt to get away, however. Instead, he placed the cans on the ground outside the store and paced nervously back and forth, as if waiting for something. When two police officers arrived on the scene, Powell walked toward them with a kitchen knife in his hand, yelling, "Shoot me!" As he closed in on the officers, they obliged, shooting him dead.
It was a textbook example of suicide-by-cop. And yet very little of the subsequent national conversation mentioned the issue of mental health. Instead, we got the standard character assassination that is so common when African-Americans are involved as perpetrators. Comments like this one by NBC contributor Jeff Halevy: "Knife-wielding thug who just robbed a store. Get over it. It's not always race."
broad brush painting has influenced and frightened many of all races against Black young men police reports, the courts follow suit with cruel and unreasonable incarcerations media coverage do their best to perpetrate the misleading it sells papers and ad space but leaves the overwhelming majority of our teens in a trick bag those in charge have created for them, if you remember anything i write remember this please "BLACK PEOPLE ARE NOT A MENACE TO SOCIETY, SOCIETY IS A MENACE TO BLACK PEOPLE", recognize facts not hyperbole and misinformation.
when White mass murders were selling papers and commercial space we heard about mental health big thing around getting treatment still nothing done but never mentioned in Black crime if there was a crime however if this account is true it does sound like he wanted to die. they talked about someone having to had notice peculiar activity will all people with problems mentally exhibit that. but as the title says there is a double standard.
