Don't you ever say 'black on black crime' again

[Igel]

109. Not everything racial is racist.

We're terrified of being called the word "racist," against there is no defense. The best you can hope for is to ignore it--the more you protest, the more you lose.

Sometimes it's just plain idiocy to confuse the two. There was a hypertension drug that passed the FDA tests. But once in use, it was found to be fairly ineffective. They squared the circle by looking at the data and found that the drug was effective among African-Americans. The drug was useless with whites and Asians. The first impulse, the first reports, declared the study racist because it said there was a difference between blacks and whites in the US. This was pure knee-jerk mindless drivel of the highest order: The "racism" pointed out a biological, gene-based difference that was targeted by a specific chemical when in the human body, a difference that had the not trivial promise of saving lives. Why? Because it's also true that the AfAm community has a higher hypertension rate. And, yes, this simple factual, true observation has also been called racist because it pointed out something racial. (Last I heard, preliminary evidence showed that this was also true of sub-Saharan Africans who adopted a Western, high-salt diet, but that was preliminary.)

We also twist ourselves into little knotted nappies every time SNAP and other entitlement programs crop up because we're afraid of self-appointed spokesmen who are concerned about image. Now it's inflammatory and racist to point out that AfAm folk disproportionately receive SNAP; at one point 45% or so of welfare recipients were AfAm. Now it's progressive to point out the same fact, because it's prima facie evidence that something needs to be done to alleviate poverty. Same fact. Now it's racist, now it's progressive. Depends not on what use you make of it. What matters is what the self-appointed Judge of the universe condemning or praising you suspects you really intend by mentioning the fact--is it this 30000 Hz dog whistle that only dogs hear? Or is your heart pure, cleansed of all sin? Because you can't be trusted to mean what you say you mean.

That said, there are lots of classes of crimes. One is called "stranger homicide." Most homicides are between people who know each other. Stranger homicides are homicides in which there's no (known) connection between the killer and the killee.

AA offenders commit about half of stranger homicides. 13% of the population, 49% or so of offenders. This is a fact; it is not racist, it is not progressive, it is not reactionary. It merely is. However, like a lot of other categories, it is skewed. If the homicide rate were constant across all racial groups, it would not be nearly that high.