“Black-on-Black crime" is a term that’s been used by media, politicians and everyday people, to describe crimes committed by Black people against Black people. It's usually portrayed as the biggest threat to the livelihoods of Black people.
A listener who's curious about the topic submitted a question to Beats Me about the root causes of “Black-on-Black crime," and ways to stop it.
The concept of “Black-on-Black crime” pops up time and time again, including in this Fox News interview from 2016 with former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. He was commenting about a Black woman who shared her fears of violence at the hands of police.
"Well, her fear isn't real. It's based on emotion and it's not based on anything of factual that she would be able to articulate. It's just out of control behavior," Clarke said. He added, "I'll tell you where she faces danger — it’s being out in the street in any American ghetto where Black-on-Black crime is a bigger threat and a bigger problem in the Black community than the police use of force."
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani made a similar comment in 2014 on Meet the Press when he was asked about police who had killed Black men.
"I find it very disappointing that you’re not discussing the fact that 93% of Blacks in America are killed by other Blacks," Giuliani said.
And in Chattanooga, Tenn., this is how a WDEF-TV news anchor introduced a segment in 2013:
"Black-on-Black crime. You can find it in almost every major city like Chicago, New York, or LA, but Chattanooga is nowhere near the size nor has the population of those cities, yet violent crimes by African Americans against each other in Chattanooga is just as bad..."
Black news publications also have spread the use of the term. In 1973, EBONY Magazine published an editorial with a call to action for citizens concerned about “this most serious problem” of Black-on-Black crime. And six years later, EBONY dedicated an entire issue to the subject.
While the term is widely used, it's problematic for a few reasons. That’s according to David Pate, an associate professor in the School of Human Ecology at UW-Madison. Pate says the term has a lot to do with the overrepresentation of Black people in entertainment and in news coverage about crime.
"If the powers that be, which is the media -- which is movies, which is talking heads, which is printed word -- is reinforcing this type of violent person by what is printed, what is reported, and what sells, that’s perpetuating some of the issues about whom is more likely to be dangerous," Pate says.
Pate says earlier this year, a study from the National Academy of Sciences found disparities in how gun violence incidents are covered and framed in the news. The report shows the disparities echo certain racial stereotypes around crime. "They have looked at 36,000 news stories, and they tend to find the ones that you tend to report on more are those who are Black," Pate says.
Milwaukee resident Bernard Rahming says he considers "Black-on-Black crime" to be a misdirection and a myth. "Black-on-Black crime is the only one we hear about, right? As if it's something different or special, or exceptional or something to be monitored, or trafficked, or it needs to be stopped. 'Cause there is white-on-white crime, Asian-on-Asian crime, Hispanic-on-Hispanic crime. You know, studies show that you commit crime with people you’re in proximity with. There are Black people committing crimes against other Black people — but that’s 'cause we all commit crimes with those we live with. That’s more due to segregation than anything else," Rahming says.
Rahming’s comment echoes the work of the late sociologist Dr. Bernard D. Headley. He wrote an article in 1983 called "'Black on Black' Crime: The Myth and the Reality." It was featured in the Crime & Social Justice Journal.
Headley said: “Crime is not the result of Blackness, which is what the notion of Black-on-Black crime implies, but rather of a complex of social and economic conditions brought on by the capitalist mode of production in which both the Black victim and the Black victimizer are inextricably locked in a deadly game of survival.”
UW-Madison associate professor David Pate expands on Headley’s point. "Decades of racist housing, school policies, concentrated poverty and lack of opportunities, higher policing, mass incarceration — if you are living in an environment where you are under surveillance, you’re hypersensitive to a lot of things. But also, if you’re struggling, that trauma within itself is gonna cause a different way of feeling about who you are and what you’re about," Pate says.
For Nicole B. who works at a Milwaukee restaurant, the notion of "Black-on-Black crime" makes her feel uneasy. She's noticed the term used frequently in the media. "It just makes me feel uncomfortable. I feel like the media could show more uplifting stories, you know? Like like bring the community together instead if just talking about negative things."
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