Following the George Zimmerman ruling and President Obama's emotional speech regarding race in America, it seems that many far-right wing media outlets and talking heads tried to make it a point that racism doesn't exist in this country and George Zimmerman had every right to shoot and kill Trayvon Martin.
One such person was neoconservative columnist of the right-wing site National Review Victor Davis Hanson, who wrote an article entitled, "Facing Facts about Race - Young black males are at greater risk from their peers than from the police or white civilians." Yes, it only gets better from there.
Here's one bit from Hanson's article:
"Is it ethical for the president to weigh in on a civil-rights case apparently being examined by his own Justice Department? The president knows that if it is true that African-American males are viewed suspiciously, it is probably because statistically they commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime. If that were not true, they might well be given no more attention as supposed suspects than is accorded to white, Asian, or Latino youths. Had George Zimmerman been black, he would have been, statistically at least, more likely to have shot Trayvon Martin — and statistically likewise less likely to have been tried."
...and another:
"It was after some first-hand episodes with young African-American males that I offered a similar lecture to my own son. The advice was born out of experience rather than subjective stereotyping. When I was a graduate student living in East Palo Alto, two adult black males once tried to break through the door of my apartment — while I was in it. On a second occasion, four black males attempted to steal my bicycle — while I was on it. I could cite three more examples that more or less conform to the same apprehensions once expressed by a younger Jesse Jackson. Regrettably, I expect that my son already has his own warnings prepared to pass on to his own future children."
...and yet another:
"Barack Obama will never suggest that the suspected killer physically resembles himself some three decades ago — and there would be no point in doing so. Nor will he admit that if Barack Obama owned an urban jewelry store and needed its profits to send his daughters to Sidwell Friends, he too might have become apprehensive when a young black male entered his store."
...and another:
"In such cases, too many Americans find there is a sort of tired sameness. The victims were white or Asian. The murder and robbery suspects were young African-American males. The violence was aimed not at acquiring food or clothing, but at stealing luxury goods. The armed small-business owners tried to defend themselves by firing back at their attackers. Had they been unarmed, both would have probably perished. In one case, the police were fired upon. The suspects had prior arrests."
...and lastly:
"The world will long remember Trayvon Martin, but few people — and certainly not Barack Obama or Eric Holder, who have a bad habit, in an increasingly multiracial country, of claiming solidarity on the basis of race — will care that Khin Min and Lina Lim were torn to pieces by bullets and a knife. Few will care that they died in a vicious assault that had nothing to do with stereotyping, Stand Your Ground self-defense, weak gun laws, insufficient federal civil-rights legislation, or any of the other causes of interracial violence falsely advanced by the attorney general — but quite a lot to do with an urban culture that for unspoken reasons has spawned an epidemic of disproportionate violent crime on the part of young African-American males."
So, according to Mr. Hanson, there is a significant link between violent crime and race, culture is the main reason for the violence, and the police - even wannabe cops like George Zimmerman - have every right to be more suspicious of blacks than any other race.
I'm sorry to disappoint Mr. Hanson, but the link isn't between violence and race; it's between violence and poverty. While it's true that blacks are more likely than whites to be in poverty and therefore are more likely to commit crime, the main factor for this isn't a person's skin color - it's whether or not they're fighting poverty. It's not like when a child is born, he or she can be labeled as a definite or likely future criminal just by looking at the color of their skin. Studies have showcased that crime among disadvantaged whites is nearly identical to that of disadvantaged blacks. So, once again, I'm sorry to disappoint Mr. Hanson, but it's not "black culture" which is the main factor in a higher crime rate amongst that demographic. I know many neoconservatives would like to spend all day blaming the entertainment industry for this country's violence, but what they seem to forget is entertainment is just that - it's fiction. When people are in poverty and fighting on a daily basis just to survive, common sense would state that they'd be mathematically more likely to commit a crime - to steal luxury items to sell for cash, to steal food, cars, mug people for money, etc. The common denominator is not race - it's poverty. The thing we really need to work on has nothing to do with "culture" and everything to do with getting more people better educated and with that, make them less likely to fight poverty. For every cut that is made to fund education, hundreds and even thousands of kids become more likely to live in poverty and resort to crime in their futures.
After reading Hanson's article and doing further research on matters, I believe the National Review columnist may want to alter the title of his piece to, "Facing Facts About Race - I, Victor Davis Hanson, Don't Have Them."
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/354122/facing-facts-about-race-victor-davis-hanson
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/badcomm.htm
One such person was neoconservative columnist of the right-wing site National Review Victor Davis Hanson, who wrote an article entitled, "Facing Facts about Race - Young black males are at greater risk from their peers than from the police or white civilians." Yes, it only gets better from there.
Here's one bit from Hanson's article:
"Is it ethical for the president to weigh in on a civil-rights case apparently being examined by his own Justice Department? The president knows that if it is true that African-American males are viewed suspiciously, it is probably because statistically they commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime. If that were not true, they might well be given no more attention as supposed suspects than is accorded to white, Asian, or Latino youths. Had George Zimmerman been black, he would have been, statistically at least, more likely to have shot Trayvon Martin — and statistically likewise less likely to have been tried."
...and another:
"It was after some first-hand episodes with young African-American males that I offered a similar lecture to my own son. The advice was born out of experience rather than subjective stereotyping. When I was a graduate student living in East Palo Alto, two adult black males once tried to break through the door of my apartment — while I was in it. On a second occasion, four black males attempted to steal my bicycle — while I was on it. I could cite three more examples that more or less conform to the same apprehensions once expressed by a younger Jesse Jackson. Regrettably, I expect that my son already has his own warnings prepared to pass on to his own future children."
...and yet another:
"Barack Obama will never suggest that the suspected killer physically resembles himself some three decades ago — and there would be no point in doing so. Nor will he admit that if Barack Obama owned an urban jewelry store and needed its profits to send his daughters to Sidwell Friends, he too might have become apprehensive when a young black male entered his store."
...and another:
"In such cases, too many Americans find there is a sort of tired sameness. The victims were white or Asian. The murder and robbery suspects were young African-American males. The violence was aimed not at acquiring food or clothing, but at stealing luxury goods. The armed small-business owners tried to defend themselves by firing back at their attackers. Had they been unarmed, both would have probably perished. In one case, the police were fired upon. The suspects had prior arrests."
...and lastly:
"The world will long remember Trayvon Martin, but few people — and certainly not Barack Obama or Eric Holder, who have a bad habit, in an increasingly multiracial country, of claiming solidarity on the basis of race — will care that Khin Min and Lina Lim were torn to pieces by bullets and a knife. Few will care that they died in a vicious assault that had nothing to do with stereotyping, Stand Your Ground self-defense, weak gun laws, insufficient federal civil-rights legislation, or any of the other causes of interracial violence falsely advanced by the attorney general — but quite a lot to do with an urban culture that for unspoken reasons has spawned an epidemic of disproportionate violent crime on the part of young African-American males."
So, according to Mr. Hanson, there is a significant link between violent crime and race, culture is the main reason for the violence, and the police - even wannabe cops like George Zimmerman - have every right to be more suspicious of blacks than any other race.
I'm sorry to disappoint Mr. Hanson, but the link isn't between violence and race; it's between violence and poverty. While it's true that blacks are more likely than whites to be in poverty and therefore are more likely to commit crime, the main factor for this isn't a person's skin color - it's whether or not they're fighting poverty. It's not like when a child is born, he or she can be labeled as a definite or likely future criminal just by looking at the color of their skin. Studies have showcased that crime among disadvantaged whites is nearly identical to that of disadvantaged blacks. So, once again, I'm sorry to disappoint Mr. Hanson, but it's not "black culture" which is the main factor in a higher crime rate amongst that demographic. I know many neoconservatives would like to spend all day blaming the entertainment industry for this country's violence, but what they seem to forget is entertainment is just that - it's fiction. When people are in poverty and fighting on a daily basis just to survive, common sense would state that they'd be mathematically more likely to commit a crime - to steal luxury items to sell for cash, to steal food, cars, mug people for money, etc. The common denominator is not race - it's poverty. The thing we really need to work on has nothing to do with "culture" and everything to do with getting more people better educated and with that, make them less likely to fight poverty. For every cut that is made to fund education, hundreds and even thousands of kids become more likely to live in poverty and resort to crime in their futures.
After reading Hanson's article and doing further research on matters, I believe the National Review columnist may want to alter the title of his piece to, "Facing Facts About Race - I, Victor Davis Hanson, Don't Have Them."
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/354122/facing-facts-about-race-victor-davis-hanson
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/badcomm.htm
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