Nearly half US murder victims are black: Why do you suppose that is?

Question

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070809202217.9us2orhu&show_article=1

African-Americans are victims of nearly half the murders committed in the United States despite making up only 13 percent of the population, a report published Thursday showed.
Around 8,000 of nearly 16,500 murder victims in 2005, or 49 percent, were black Americans, according to the report released by the statistics bureau of the Department of Justice.

Broken down by gender, 6,800 black men were murdered in 2005, making up more than half the nearly 13,000 male murder victims.

Black women made up 35 percent, or 1,200, of the nearly 3,500 female homicide victims.

Young black men aged between 17 and 29 bore a disproportionately high burden in the grim statistics, making up 51 percent of African-American murder victims.

Answer 1

It is so plain that I am amazed that the lesbians and single mothers are in such denial.
7 out of ten of African American children are born out of wedlock.
You raise a boy with out a father, he is more likely to commit violent crime. He is more likely to be a victim of violent crime. He is more likely to drop out of high school than graduate. He is more likely to join a gang. He is more likely to be impoverished.
With all this he becomes a violent monster and this spills over in to the women of the African American Community.

Now here is something to think about. All other races-creeds and colors are having more and more children out of wedlock. We are all on the same road down the toilet. It is just that the African Americans are in the lead. Where will the rest of America be in two generations? Look at the African Americans and where they are today.

Answer 2

Most murders are committed by people who know the victim personally. In spite of all our efforts at inclusion, diversity, and de-segregation, many people still insist on fraternizing more or less exclusively with those who share the same racial indentification. Blacks happen to make up a similarly dispraportionate share of inmates in prisons, as well.

That correllation may point to the answer you're looking for. Though, you should always be cautious of statistics, as they never tell the whole story, and can be easily manipulated.

Answer 3

With all due respect to "Truth's" extended and canned answer, I would like to ask the question from a slightly different perspective.

When we take race out of it, what proportion of murder victims are below the poverty line? That is, do we see similar numbers upon the economically disadvantaged?

It strikes me that the disproportionately high numbers of murders among African-Americans may be in large part due to economic circumstance and not something intrinsically racial.

Anyone have figures for that?

Answer 4

You had quite a few people stumble on the right answer.

Primarily, the majority of the blame needs to go to failed Liberal policies. Why is so hard for a 60's style Liberal to admit that replacing Daddy with a government check didn't work? Why is it so hard for Liberals within all levels of Government to admit that throwing money at social problems is not the end all solution? Well intentioned Liberals thought if they threw money at poverty, the Ghettos would go away. It was like throwing gas on the fire. Let's see, we'll tax the heck out of the productive citizens from within the city, ignore everything else from crime to schools to infrastructure, and poof, what happened? White Flight. Remember that? All the whites fled to suburbs to get out of the cities. The suburbs offered new schools, nice houses, lower tax rates, were clean, lower crime, etc. Meanwhile, back at the city, Liberal Democrats kept paying single mothers added benefits to reproduce! And if you got married you were going to lose some of your benefits! What kind of nonsense was that? And everyone knew what was going on. Liberal Democrats and Black leaders blamed it on institutionalized racism, lack of money and resources, drugs planted by CIA, Reagan, whatever they could come up with that deflected away from their failed policies.

I was born in Compton. It was a middle to low class neighborhood. It had it's problems, but zillions of dollars in failed programs has not solved anything. It's worse. Almost every big city is governed by Liberal Democrats and all they do is whine about we don't have enough money.

The answers are easy but no one has the courage to address the REAL issues like accountability and responsibility. This is going to continue to get worse, especially if you want to keep people enslaved to this victimhood mentality.

Answer 5

Many people blame the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson. All these liberal programs/welfare has created a culture where drugs can dominate. If people have jobs rather than a small check, they would not have time to sit around at home or on the corner.
The liberal programs "encourage" unmarried women to have more children. They get an increase for every one. Where does that leave young males?

Answer 6

Poverty escalates violence.

Look at Iraq.

Look at Africa....all of it, not just Darfur.

Look at Afghanistan.

Look at Lybia. Look at Mogadishu.

Look at Haiti.


People who are living a comfortable life do not resort to violence in the same proliferation people in povery do.

This is a socio-economic fact and is a very accepted principal in sociology.


When you're brought over on ships, treated as slaves for hundreds of years, bred for intellectual deprivation, not been allowed to read, had no rights until the 1960's, are forced into ghettos where education is piss poor, and are still constantly discriminated against, you end up a violent people fighting for everyday survival.

I grew up on the South side of Chicago. I went to Chicago public schools until 5th grade.

Then we moved to an upscale suburb of Dallas called Plano.

Although I had scored very high on IQ tests in my youth, when I arrived to the Plano public school district, I was put into all remedial classes because I was horribly behind in my education.

I'm sure you understand what I'm driving at.

Answer 7

the object would not say a word with reference to the sufferers' political affiliations. perchance some inferences could nicely be drawn from the education given, yet inference would not equivalent fact. What bothers me is people who force on our highways and vote in our elections who're so no longer able to accomplish serious theory, who proceed to coach racial bias at any hazard and picture opinion and fact are an analogous component.

Answer 8

This is consistent with the "higher than population" of prison inmates. The people in prison are not there because they are black, it's because they are guilty (Alan Keyes). It's a tragedy that continues on and on.

What is unfair, black people have race baiters like Jackson and Sharpton shoved down their throat; the liberal meida appointed those 2 criminals as leaders. Many, many, many black people don't agree with Jackson and Sharpton but their views will never be heard via the liberal media.

A black leader who followed Dr King's message to unite people, to forgive the past and work hard to bring people together instead of polarize people and exploit them, that voice would be ignored by the liberal media and not heard.

We all know what happened to Bill Cosby; he spoke from his heart and chastised the race baiters; Cosby had a different view but it was in conflict with the liberal/socialist clan. Someone dug up dirt on Cosby to discredit him and send a message to any black leader who follows Dr King's message, the same will happen to you. I wonder if it was George Soros people OR moveontosocialism.org? No doubt it was a liberal assasination.

Answer 9

Errrrr, remnants of SLAVERY and JIM CROW laws I'd presume.

In the the 1920s or so, this great nation committed a massacre in Tulsa OK. This was the location of what was called the Black Wall Street. Then their was the Tuskegee Experiment where the US Health Dep allowed blacks to infect each other with syphilis and tracked the progression as it passed down to their unborn children.

Is it possible that some people have been traumatized by 300+ years of brutal mistreatment by the so-called Christian right? Then again, you are the one who wanted to see a Rebel flag planted on the moon versus a US flag. No surprise there.

Answer 10

My brother was murdered at the age of 19 along with his 16 year old friend. He was NOT in a gang or a bad seed nor was he raised in the ghetto. People kill each other for silly reasons. It's sad because the police didn't (are not) treat my brothers death as priority. One detective went on vacation within three days after he was murdered and the other detective didn't have a clue what was going on. Sadly, some people stated that the police shouldn't waste tax payers money on investigating my brothers murder. It makes me sad because my brothers murderers are still on the loose and the police aren't doing anything to solve it.
Young black kids are killing each other for silly reasons. They don't realize that once you are dead there is no coming back. When I see a black kid die on the news I just cry. It's soooo sad.

Answer 11

the ap version of the story talks about one person's idea...

"National Urban League President Marc Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans, said the data reflect a trend that cannot be reversed by law enforcement alone. It will require changes in public education and a revival of federal summer jobs programs for economically disadvantaged young people, he said.
'The mixture of illegal drugs, easy access to handguns, and young men who feel locked out of economic opportunity is what these statistics reflect,' Morial said."

sounds like as good of a reason as any?