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I totally agree with the OP. Black Americans are not a monolithic people nor is there even a such thing as the "black community" being that black Americans are not all the same or have some inherent cultural and behavioral similarities.
It's a side effect of the history of racial division in America in addition to blacks being a minority group in this country. Probably the most unique and most polarizing minority group due to the circumstances under which blacks originally came here and their history here. With white being considered "normal" and black considered "different". Notice white Americans generally are described as "American" and black Americans are "African American", "black American" or just simply "black".
My opinion is that black Americans are too different from each other culturally and socioeconomically and have assimilated into American culture enough to the point where I think it's totally inaccurate to broad stroke them all as one black community or a group that can be "spoken for" en masse by the thoughts and actions of a few people.
It is hard to make this well-thought out because the answer is simple: IGNORANCE.
For America, it is easier to not give a poop about anyone than try to fix problems. We do this commonly to poor people. "Why take my time, energy, and tax dollars to help?" Americans have a hyper individualize culture that is projected onto scapegoats to prevent us from tackling issues. Conservative politics specifically has been using a divide and conquer battle plan over the last 30 years. Use race and class to separate folks, then you can choose to A) Give a rip or B) not give a rip.
Summary: black people are responsible for the black community only so that other (more privileged) racial groups don't have to care about helping.
I will say that there are certain things the black community can do to alleviate crime, but doesn't seem to happen because they don't trust the police or are afraid of retaliation (with good reasons for both). When someone in your area gets killed and you probably know who the killer is but won't tell the police, then what's to stop that guy or gang from continuing to terrorize the neighborhood? If some drug dealer is out on the street corner, make an anonymous call to the police. Or even get a group of people together to take back the neighborhood from the young thugs. I saw exactly that happen in the early '90s when a group of older residents of a neighborhood started filming drug deals and prostitutes getting in cars, making sure to get the faces on film of the drug dealers and buyers, prostitutes and johns. They would turn the films over to the police and eventually those thugs and prostitutes moved on to another area and left their area alone.
It's not easy, but it's not impossible either. You just have to start working with the police more to keep that element out of the neighborhoods.
I know people are going to think I'm being racist for assuming this stuff only goes on in black neighborhoods. I'm not, but I do know that I know a nice Hispanic kid who got shot and killed by two thugs coming to rob the house across the street from his dad's house while he was standing in the front yard talking to some old friends. All those people knew who did it, but not one person told the police who it was. I'm sure the kid's brothers got their retaliation anyway, but that's what causes a vicious cycle of violence. I can understand not wanting to paint a target on your back, but if the entire community is afraid to do something about these thugs in the neighborhood, how is it ever going to stop?
I also know a woman who complained about drug dealers and prostitutes hanging in an area of her neighborhood (the Fifth Ward in Houston), and it got me to thinking how I have never seen that happen in any white neighborhood, no matter how poor. Drug dealers, yes, but generally not blatantly selling drugs on the street corner. Prostitutes, never in a million years. White people would call the police if they saw that activity out in the open like that.
I understand that black people have a distrust of police, with good reason a lot of the time. But perhaps both the people in the community and the police would start to gain more trust of each other if they worked together more. I'm not trying to be racist here, just stating one thing that a community can do. By community I mean neighborhoods, no matter who lives in those neighborhoods.
I will say that there are certain things the black community can do to alleviate crime, but doesn't seem to happen because they don't trust the police or are afraid of retaliation (with good reasons for both). When someone in your area gets killed and you probably know who the killer is but won't tell the police, then what's to stop that guy or gang from continuing to terrorize the neighborhood? If some drug dealer is out on the street corner, make an anonymous call to the police. Or even get a group of people together to take back the neighborhood from the young thugs. I saw exactly that happen in the early '90s when a group of older residents of a neighborhood started filming drug deals and prostitutes getting in cars, making sure to get the faces on film of the drug dealers and buyers, prostitutes and johns. They would turn the films over to the police and eventually those thugs and prostitutes moved on to another area and left their area alone.
It's not easy, but it's not impossible either. You just have to start working with the police more to keep that element out of the neighborhoods.
I agree, but this doesn't really address the OP well. The point is... why aren't other "groups" committed to helping the black community. The discussion was "black people, that is YOUR people, so fix YOUR problem." If I am black.. why am I more responsible for the actions of other blacks than a non-black person?
We are all in this together. If we encounter a white person on drugs doing time is that a white-person only concern? Should all white people try to come to this person's aid?
I will say that there are certain things the black community can do to alleviate crime, but doesn't seem to happen because they don't trust the police or are afraid of retaliation (with good reasons for both). When someone in your area gets killed and you probably know who the killer is but won't tell the police, then what's to stop that guy or gang from continuing to terrorize the neighborhood? If some drug dealer is out on the street corner, make an anonymous call to the police. Or even get a group of people together to take back the neighborhood from the young thugs. I saw exactly that happen in the early '90s when a group of older residents of a neighborhood started filming drug deals and prostitutes getting in cars, making sure to get the faces on film of the drug dealers and buyers, prostitutes and johns. They would turn the films over to the police and eventually those thugs and prostitutes moved on to another area and left their area alone.
It's not easy, but it's not impossible either. You just have to start working with the police more to keep that element out of the neighborhoods.
I stopped reading right about there. I don't know ANYONE that actually enjoys interacting with the police. No matter their cultural/ethnic background. Everyone seems to have trust issues with the police.
It doesn't take long to find a thread in politics or current events or somewhere else on this forum for someone to ask a question like "Why does the black community do XYZ?" or "what is wrong with the black community in relationship to XYZ?"
This implies all black people are the same (behave the same way), and all black people should atone and repent for the behaviors of other black people.
Why don't we hold other groups to the same standard? What is with this obsession with defining the "black community," that is monolithic community with a single set of experiences, behaviors, values and actions? Why doesn't American individualism apply to black people?
*I posted this here hoping we can have a civilized scours on this without devolving to stereotyping and the like!
The basis of a 'We Can't Blame White People' essay.
"It makes no sense to claim that these are things that belong quietly in the black community. We have to figure out how do you get parenting back into the home. This is a problem of epic proportion."
It is amazing how half of the posts here illustrate exactly what I am talking about. How the "community" doesn't cooperate with police, allows drug dealers in their neighborhoods etc?
In order to talk about why this happens we are stereotyping the "community" again.
*just to respond to this concept of white people supposedly calling the police. What you are failing to realize is that the police do not respond to all calls equally. We had decades of when police didn't bother responding to calls in black neighborhoods, so what's the point of calling the police if they aren't going to show up? We have problems in poor black areas because the residents have been trained to know that municipal services will be limited. From the basics like trash pickup, ambulance response time and police response time. And in the other side economic development as well. We decided poor black neighborhoods were the perfect places for trash dumps, freeways, industrial office park, mail processing plants and focused on providing those neighborhood amenities and not schools, parks, sidewalks and bike lanes.
It is amazing how half of the posts here illustrate exactly what I am talking about. How the "community" doesn't cooperate with police, allows drug dealers in their neighborhoods etc?
In order to talk about why this happens we are stereotyping the "community" again.
*just to respond to this concept of white people supposedly calling the police. What you are failing to realize is that the police do not respond to all calls equally. We had decades of when police didn't bother responding to calls in black neighborhoods, so what's the point of calling the police if they aren't going to show up? We have problems in poor black areas because the residents have been trained to know that municipal services will be limited. From the basics like trash pickup, ambulance response time and police response time. And in the other side economic development as well. We decided poor black neighborhoods were the perfect places for trash dumps, freeways, industrial office park, mail processing plants and focused on providing those neighborhood amenities and not schools, parks, sidewalks and bike lanes.
This.
People also don't seem to realize the fact that NOT ALL BLACK PEOPLE LIVE IN ONE AREA. For example, I live in a mostly white suburb. So....if there is a bad area full of black people....I'm supposed to go there and fight the crime? Should I go to bad parts of ATL or Philly in my freetime?
Yet these SAME people keep talking about ''personal responsibility''. If it's every man for himself and I become well off..why should I start caring for others 'below' me? Makes no friggin' sense at all.
Location: Prince Georges County, MD (formerly Long Island, NY)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408
It doesn't take long to find a thread in politics or current events or somewhere else on this forum for someone to ask a question like "Why does the black community do XYZ?" or "what is wrong with the black community in relationship to XYZ?"
This implies all black people are the same (behave the same way), and all black people should atone and repent for the behaviors of other black people.
Why don't we hold other groups to the same standard? What is with this obsession with defining the "black community," that is monolithic community with a single set of experiences, behaviors, values and actions? Why doesn't American individualism apply to black people?
*I posted this here hoping we can have a civilized scours on this without devolving to stereotyping and the like!
Note, I'm assuming the discussion is framed around the US.
This is a pet peeve of mine-- that black people are a monolithic group with a singular experience.
Part of the issue is that there's a distortion of race and class. If a white person does something trashy, it's an issue of class ("white trash"). If a black person does something trashy, it's an issue of race. Black poverty is a complex issue, but for those black people who didn't grow up in such conditions, it can be annoying to constantly be pegged into that group. That's when the annoying comments come in, such as, "you're so well spoken-- you're not like those people," as if that's my predisposition, being black and all.
Another part is that people oftentimes perceive Black America to be somehow delineated from American culture. When the high school student from Long Island got accepted to all the Ive League schools this past spring, a lot of the media included his being African American in the headline, as if that made a huge difference. Granted, some of this is perpetuated by a sizeable number of black people, but it contributes to this idea that "black" issues aren't American issues.
The reality is that the circumstances surrounding Black Americans over the past 300 years have been tumultuous, with ugly legacies of these experiences serving as a persistent scar in contemporary society. Let me be clear that I'm talking about both sides of the aisle. There's definitely an unwarranted amount of bitterness among some black people towards white people, but let's not act like we live in this mystical post-racial society we often hear about.
But, yes, it's annoying when people ask me my opinion and assume that I'm espousing the collective, monolithic "black opinion" on something.
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