Andrew Young II- Response to Comment

An Annonymous commentator from Seattle Wa. or thereabouts posted a comment on my recent post regarding Andrew Young's recent comments about various racial groups business practices in black communities. He, and that is an assumption, posted:

yeah and the facts also prove
1) blacks are more likely to committ crime
2) have children out ot wedlock
3) belive in governement dependancy
4) name their kids stupid faux-african names like "lamisha"
5)use anger to intimidate people

why shouldn't people openly talk about it without being labelled racist? In my neighborhood there have been 2 murders recently where the murderers have been young black men and the victims elderly Asian women. hmmm. yet if they associate blacks with crime/violence the AA community whines. how unfair. black people are the new KKK

So let's address this. Do the facts prove that blacks are more likely to committ(sic) crime? Well if we watch the news, videos, etc. that would seem to be the case. Indeed the facts as they were point to blacks being incarcerated at a rate disproportionate to their population. If we simply took incarceration as the indicator of black criminality, I wouldn't be in a position to argue. However; other facts throw an entirely different light on the subject. In a blog post discussing Bill Bennett's inflammatory remarks about aborting black babies to reduce crime I pointed out the following:

According to the Bureau of Prisons as well as the Bureau of Justice Statistics there are 4,919 black male inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States (June 2004). If you divide the black population (~40 mill) in half and do the math (20 mill *4919)/100,000 you would get a total of 983,800 black male inmates or 2.45% of the total black population.

White males are represented by 717 male inmates per 100,000 white males. In 1988 the white/black population ratio was 6.44. If we assume this number to still be accurate then our hypothetical white male population would be 128,800,000 people. Doing the math we did for the black population, we would get another 923,496 inmates. If we put these numbers together we get close to the total prison population of the US as of June 2005 (2,131,180). What immediately jumps out is that following Bennett’s logic, if we aborted every white baby, we would see the same drop in crime, since eliminating all white babies or all black babies would produce, mathematically, the same drop in inmates, and the crimes they committed.

Therefore, mathematically, whites and blacks are incarcerated at the same numbers. So the claim that "blacks are more likely to commit crimes" doesn't quite hold up. But if we look at this further then other things appear. How often do whites get away with jailable offenses that blacks do not get away with? Or how often do white lawbreakers get away with crimes that blacks who commit lesser crimes (or non at all) get jail time for? Back in September of 2004 I wrote about a NYU student who, well, lets read:

In an incredible (and true) story, a 19 year-old New York University undergraduate student was recently arrested and charged with committing three felonies, including criminal sale and possession of a controlled substance, and criminal sale of a controlled substance on or near school grounds – each charge carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. The undergraduate student sold high-grade marijuana, cocaine and hallucinogenic mushrooms to an undercover New York City police officer on eight separate occasions from the lobby of her dormitory. But that’s not the incredible part.

Despite facing up to 75 years in prison for her offenses, the student, a white female from a wealthy family, will actually never see a prison cell if she satisfies the gracious terms of the deferred prosecution agreement brokered between a Manhattan District Attorney and the defendant’s private attorney. The sweetheart deal – brace yourself for this one – includes 10 months at a drug rehabilitation center in Idaho followed by 8 months of work or school, and 5 years probation. Moreover, she will be permitted to plead guilty to lesser charges (perhaps misdemeanors) in 2006, pending successful completion of her “sentence.” Perhaps most importantly, her case was handled by state, rather than federal, authorities, allowing her to avoid severe federal mandatory minimum laws that would have likely resulted in a lengthy prison sentence.

So we have at least one instance where a white person who should have found herself in jail, not receiving jail time for all manner of drug charges. Meanwhile:

Kemba Smith was a casualty of America’s “war on drugs.” Like the New York University student, Kemba was a college student in 1995 at Hampton University. But unlike the New York University student, Kemba never handled or sold drugs but was in an abusive relationship with a drug dealer. Unlike the New York University student, Kemba is Black, which is a critical distinction.

Law enforcement spent months trying to make a case against Kemba’s boyfriend, but he was murdered before police could catch him. Incredibly, Kemba was sentenced under federal sentencing guidelines to nearly 25 years in prison for her “involvement” in the crack cocaine conspiracy. Although prosecutors admitted that she had never sold drugs, Kemba was held accountable for the crack cocaine distributed by her boyfriend. It wasn’t until President Clinton granted Kemba’s petition for clemency that she was finally freed after serving 6 ½ years of her sentence.

Right then. If this is indicative of the "justice" system, then the supposed "less crime prone" white population is patently false.

Does this mean that there are not criminal black killers out there? no doubt but there existence does not prove blacks being more likely to commit crimes, just that they are more likely to commit crimes that are easy to see, solve and perhaps prosecute.


Next.

2) have children out ot wedlock True. Statistically, black children are more likely to be in single and female headed homes. First I would say that who's business is it if a woman decides to have a baby without a husband? Secondly, I would only want to deal with that issue in the context of minors and people who are not in an economic situation to care for children they birth.

Next

3)3) belive in governement dependancy I'm not entirely sure what that means, but if that means that blacks are more likely to think that the government ought to provide a safety net for its citizens, you can count me in. If this is some thinly veiled "welfare queen" argument the writer should know that there are more white people on welfare (government dependence) than blacks, though blacks, being disproportionately poor relative to their population, are over represented in the idea of who's on welfare. Also, I find it hypocritical to point out black so-call "government dependency" ideology when businesses are actually the largest recipients of government largess in the forms of tax breaks, zoning changes and eminent domain. I won't even get into the largely white population that benefit from current "tax reform" passed by congress. Dependency indeed.

4) name their kids stupid faux-african names like "lamisha" Exactly who's business is it what someone want's to name their child? and who are you to discriminate against someone for having a name you don't like? But aside from that, Had the history of Africans in America been different, say, no slavery, forced name changes, etc. you'd have a population that would be able to name their children culturally appropriate names. So if you don't like the "fake" names, perhaps you ought to take that up with the Washingtons, Jeffersons and Hamiltons.

5)use anger to intimidate people Now this is the typical white male (or female) fear talking here. Blacks must be angry all the time because they want to intimidate people. I'm not even going to get into this one since it is clearly a situational issue and therefore prima facie non-factual.

to the closing comment:

why shouldn't people openly talk about it without being labelled racist? In my neighborhood there have been 2 murders recently where the murderers have been young black men and the victims elderly Asian women. hmmm. yet if they associate blacks with crime/violence the AA community whines. how unfair. black people are the new KKK .

It is never racist to state observations. It is never racist to ask a well thought out question? Heck definitively a 'racist" must ask questions because , definitively a racist is one who is studying a race and therefore must ask questions and seek answers. now a White Supremacist or one who ascribes to it's philosophy will ask such questions with the intent of proving a certain point of view, which in this case would be the supposed inferiority of blacks ie: they are criminal, baby makers who give their kids silly names, think the government should support them and as part of their criminal nature seek to intimidate people. That two black men killed two elderly Asian women must prove that blacks are criminal regardless to the fact that black criminals make up less than 3% of the total black population. Such facts are ignored in favour of racialized conspiracy theories of blacks desires to decimate non-black populations through killing sprees. But to point that out would be "whining".