Crime around the Pittsburgh area (McKeesport, Duquesne: violent crime, new home, buying)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Heit

Nothing racist about your original statement, simply an observation.

An observation that was false as stated, because it was a ridiculous overgeneralization designed to reinforce a negative stereotype of people based on their race.

You sure there is nothing racist about that?

"The white people" are ripped on all the time and yet THAT seems to be o.k. in society.

Not here: we will push back against pretty much any offensive stereotyping you try to offer. Heck, in another thread a poster is getting a lot of pushback for calling everyone in the suburbs "hicks". Do you think it would be different if somone said, "Everyone in the suburbs is white trash"?

Which is pretty much the equivalent of what the poster you are defending did.

[Heit]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

An observation that was false as stated, because it was a ridiculous overgeneralization designed to reinforce a negative stereotype of people based on their race.

You sure there is nothing racist about that?



Not here: we will push back against pretty much any offensive stereotyping you try to offer. Heck, in another thread a poster is getting a lot of pushback for calling everyone in the suburbs "hicks". Do you think it would be different if somone said, "Everyone in the suburbs is white trash"?

Which is pretty much the equivalent of what the poster you are defending did.

I am not going to volley back & forth about "racist this & racist that" as I am sick of the word in our society. The fact is that the word itself seems to be reserved for "white's only"(over-generalization? I think not) and that is not accurate. We as a country are WAY TOO sensitive about this topic. A person of ANY color can be and are racist toward others.

My view is this, if you're a a-hole, you're an a-hole NO matter what race you are.

I am NOT defending the poster, I am giving MY opinion on what was written.

See ya. Next topic please.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Facts and statistics don't have the ability to be racist. If black people are committing the most crime statistically then you shouldn't be shouted down if you point that out. Still not sure why that's such a hard concept for some people.

[BrianTH]

I agree that racism can be found among any ethnic group. I don't think that is an excuse for tolerating it, however.

As for opinions--people are entitled to state their opinions, but other people are entitled to state their criticisms of those statements. Of course that makes no sense if the opinion in question is on a matter of taste, but if it is on a matter of description or matter of policy, it is rightly subject to criticism and debate.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

If black people are committing the most crime statistically then you shouldn't be shouted down if you point that out. Still not sure why that's such a hard concept for some people.

Because that isn't what the original statement did.

Let's do a quick quiz. Two of these statements, taken literally, are true, and one is false:

(A) Statistically, violent crime rates in the U.S. are higher among black people than among white people;

(B) In the autumn, Canadian Geese migrate south;

(C) Once summer hits the black people start shooting each other for some reason.

Can you identify the statement which, taken literally, is false?

Some people are basically arguing as if the poster had said (A). But that poster didn't say (A), he or she said (C). And that can't be defended as a simple, true, factual observation, because it isn't that.

[wpipkins]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Facts and statistics don't have the ability to be racist. If black people are committing the most crime statistically then you shouldn't be shouted down if you point that out. Still not sure why that's such a hard concept for some people.

Do black people commit more crime or is black crime reported on the news more often?

Selling guns on the black market and selling and shipping drugs throughout the US is a crime. I do not believe that these young, disadvantaged, under educated innercity young men are the root cause to this problem. The gun and drug trade in the US is a multi billion dollar business. Young black males in the inner city are at the bottom of this food chain and benefit the least from these illicit activies. Do black people engage in these activities more so than whites? I dont think so.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by wpipkins

Do black people commit more crime or is black crime reported on the news more often?

Do black people engage in these activities more so than whites? I dont think so.

Black people make up 12% of the population of the United States, but account for 44% of the prison population. Sorry man, I wish I was wrong.

[MissShona]

Originally Posted by Heit

Nothing racist about your original statement, simply an observation. "The white people" are ripped on all the time and yet THAT seems to be o.k. in society. FYI............racism goes BOTH WAYS, it's NOT just a "white-thing".

How are White people ripped on all of the time? Earlier it was stated that you can talk about 'white trash' and no one bats an eye. Well that is because 'white trash' is a whole heck of a lot more specific than 'black people'. White people get the courtesty of some further specifications (trashy, poor, redneck, etc.) while we Black people get the blanket statements.

Please....

Also since White Americans are the majority, then they do in fact bear more of the responsiblity in regards to racist behavior in that they are the downtrodders and have historically reaped the benefits of racism in this country.

Back to the crime thing, they arrested someone in McKeesport this morning over these shootings.

[fleetiebelle]

Unfortunately, when a white person commits a crime, people say "that guy's awful!" A black person does the same thing, and people say, "black people are awful!" Somehow it becomes up to respectable, law-abiding black people to prove that they're not "like that".

Most of the time these crimes are specific, in that it's related to drugs or money, and the shooting victim wasn't random. If you're not a criminal, you're not going to get in the middle of anything.

[ferraris]

So about 3/4 of 1% of the total US Population is incarcerated.

44% of that means that 0.33% of the total population of the US are incarcerated black people.

12/0.33 = 36.36 (Proportion of black people in the US/proportion of incarcerated black people in the US). So roughly 1 in 36 black people in the US are incarcerated. And how many of those for violent crimes? Even Less. Do you see how it is exaggeration to say that "the black people start shooting each other?" Even if 100% of blacks in prison are there for violent gun crimes, that's still only 1/36th of the black population, hardly enough to make that sort of generalization.

I can accept that the original statement was inspired from a statistical fact; but it was twisted to the point that it is no longer supported by that statistic.