I'm writing this because I just came across this tired article that talked about how African people killing ourselves is somehow acceptable to our community while Europeans and/or police killing us causes an uproar every time it happens. As I read the article, which was full of partial truths and out and out lies, I thought that surely, more and more people are realizing the tactical purpose of those types of misinformation articles (to inflame Europeans). Then, I read the comments section and I was immediately reminded of just how ignorant many people actually are, especially many of our European breth/sisteren. Oh don't panic, there will always be a number of trained parrot sell out Africans who love to chime in with the white supremacist confusion so we are definitely not going to leave them out. There is also the sprinkling of other foolish people of color who desire so hard to prove to white supremacy that they deserve a seat at the master's table that they slobber all over themselves to prove to the boss how loyal they are to him. The best way for them to prove that loyalty is to join capitalism's continued denigration of the African. So, with all these highly confused people, we are still hearing this already fully discredited analysis of African on African violence as if no counter position disproving this foolishness exists. Of course, the tools that promote this trash have to act as if there is no counter argument and the people who follow their message wouldn't know how to find a credible source of information if it walked right up to them and slapped them directly in the face.
So, just in case you are a thinking person reading this who still has a confused position on this question, we will state the obvious again (and we'll do it slowly so that we don't lose some folks). The continued effort to separate African on African violence out as a distinct phenomenon that demonstrates social dysfunction among African people is a racist lie. The people who still believe this lie are either incapable of unlearning this embedded misinformation, or they are just too lazy to correct their ignorance. In case you didn't know, even the reactionary so-called Department of (In)Justice publishes statistics on violent crime every year and they've been doing this for decades, approximately 60 years. Since there is well established data on this subject that goes back more than enough years to maintain reliable trends, we can state confidently that there is absolutely no evidence to prove that African people are any more prone to kill our people than any other community is prone to kill their people. In fact, the averages over the last 10 years show that African people kill other African people at a rate of 91%. By comparison, Europeans (whites) kill each other at a rate of 84%. Indigenous (so-called Latinos) at 86% and Asians at 83%. Sociologists, people who are qualified to study the behavior of people (some people believe that riding on a bus each day observing people of different backgrounds qualifies them to make pronouncements about different communities) have universally agreed that what these statistics tell us is that people typically live with/around, date, socialize with, and yes - kill - people from their same ethnic background. The six (6) percent difference between African and European rates can easily be explained when you factor in the much higher possibility of poverty and other forms of institutionalized racism that Africans are subjected too on a daily basis. Now, none of this means that we as African people don't have work to do to confront the impacts of 500+ years of colonialism/slavery, and white supremacist ideology which trains and encourages us to hate ourselves and strike out against one another, but there is nothing that can scientifically suggest that our community is so much more out of control than anyone else. Actually, if you factor in all of the struggles we have to deal with, for example, our lives are clearly devalued compared to others, in spite of our difficulties, it's really incredible that the percentage gap isn't higher. Now, a much more plausible discussion would be the impact of our inner community violence on our people because of the fragile state of our people and our so-called communities. But, the purveyors of the misinformation have no interest in this discussion because they are not the least bit concerned about our people. This is a conversation we must initiate, but we have to be clear on the issue in order for this to happen.
Truthfully, you can take all of the African on African violence occurring in the world today. The massacre in Rwanda in 1994. The killings in the Congo over the last decade. The 30 year Ethiopia/Eritrea war. The violence in Darfur, Sudan, Port a Prince, Haiti, Los Angeles in the 80s, "Chiraq" today, etc. Then compare all of that to the European capitalist violence unleashed against the Palestinian people in occupied Palestine, the people of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, the U.S. supported terrorism against Cuba for the last 50 years, and all the gun violence carried out by European people in the U.S., and there is clearly nothing for white people to be smug about when talking about African on African violence. In fact, looking at that side by side comparison, any violence carried out by Africans is simply a blip on the map compared to the millions of people murdered by the European controlled capitalist/imperialist network; the greeting card for white supremacy. As for why European on African violence gets so much attention? Because our people know that when one of us kills another of us, the prisons are overpopulated with our young people. Young people who often receive disparate sentencing because of racist legislation like three strikes. On the other hand, Europeans, especially police, kill our people with impunity. In fact, if you look at thugs like Zimmerman in Florida and Wilson in Ferguson, apparently, the quickest way for a cowardly slime to get rich is to kill an African. Now, that's some sick dysfunction. Europeans kill unarmed African children and the European community's response is to raise money for the killers. Lots of money. Don't you fools realize the entire world is watching you?
For African people, its far past time for you to stop parroting this racist nonsense about us being the violence prone people. The violence prone people are the supporters and maintainers of the capitalist system. Smith and Wesson, Glock, Remington, Ruger, Winchester, Colt, Magnum Industries, etc., are all huge European weapons manufacturing companies. African people everywhere in the world don't even own a slingshot producing company. Chemical weapons manufacturers like Dow Chemical are European corporations while African people barely own chemistry sets. All of the major bombs and weapons manufacturing companies like McDonnell Douglass are European capitalist corporations while the closest African people get to building bombs (besides those we receive from the imperialists) is mixing and matching the fireworks some of us buy for the fourth of the lie each year. So, Africans, stop doing their dirty work for them. We aren't dysfunctional violent people. Some of us are just doing the slave master's work for them. For Europeans who read this far (and who still perpetuate this idiocy), we know that you know what you are saying doesn't make an ounce of sense. You are on the wrong side of history. You always have been. Its just that recently, for the first time in your life, it's starting to catch up to you. The days are numbered where you can depend upon fear and intimidation to influence us against one another. Social media has diminished your ability to control the message. Even an independent organizer in an independent organization like me can attract 10,000 people per month to get educated about these issues.
So, keep lying about African on African violence because less and less people are listening to you each day because they can come to the vastly growing number of sources like this site and get concrete information. As a result, we know we are winning and we know your days are numbered. And, you know your days are numbered. And you know that we know your days are numbered. So take that bit of information, grab your gun, and cuddle up, trying to convince yourself that you have what you need to save you. Meanwhile, we'll keep marching straight ahead with a weapon that will trounce any gun that you can get your hands on, the truth.
So, just in case you are a thinking person reading this who still has a confused position on this question, we will state the obvious again (and we'll do it slowly so that we don't lose some folks). The continued effort to separate African on African violence out as a distinct phenomenon that demonstrates social dysfunction among African people is a racist lie. The people who still believe this lie are either incapable of unlearning this embedded misinformation, or they are just too lazy to correct their ignorance. In case you didn't know, even the reactionary so-called Department of (In)Justice publishes statistics on violent crime every year and they've been doing this for decades, approximately 60 years. Since there is well established data on this subject that goes back more than enough years to maintain reliable trends, we can state confidently that there is absolutely no evidence to prove that African people are any more prone to kill our people than any other community is prone to kill their people. In fact, the averages over the last 10 years show that African people kill other African people at a rate of 91%. By comparison, Europeans (whites) kill each other at a rate of 84%. Indigenous (so-called Latinos) at 86% and Asians at 83%. Sociologists, people who are qualified to study the behavior of people (some people believe that riding on a bus each day observing people of different backgrounds qualifies them to make pronouncements about different communities) have universally agreed that what these statistics tell us is that people typically live with/around, date, socialize with, and yes - kill - people from their same ethnic background. The six (6) percent difference between African and European rates can easily be explained when you factor in the much higher possibility of poverty and other forms of institutionalized racism that Africans are subjected too on a daily basis. Now, none of this means that we as African people don't have work to do to confront the impacts of 500+ years of colonialism/slavery, and white supremacist ideology which trains and encourages us to hate ourselves and strike out against one another, but there is nothing that can scientifically suggest that our community is so much more out of control than anyone else. Actually, if you factor in all of the struggles we have to deal with, for example, our lives are clearly devalued compared to others, in spite of our difficulties, it's really incredible that the percentage gap isn't higher. Now, a much more plausible discussion would be the impact of our inner community violence on our people because of the fragile state of our people and our so-called communities. But, the purveyors of the misinformation have no interest in this discussion because they are not the least bit concerned about our people. This is a conversation we must initiate, but we have to be clear on the issue in order for this to happen.
Truthfully, you can take all of the African on African violence occurring in the world today. The massacre in Rwanda in 1994. The killings in the Congo over the last decade. The 30 year Ethiopia/Eritrea war. The violence in Darfur, Sudan, Port a Prince, Haiti, Los Angeles in the 80s, "Chiraq" today, etc. Then compare all of that to the European capitalist violence unleashed against the Palestinian people in occupied Palestine, the people of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, the U.S. supported terrorism against Cuba for the last 50 years, and all the gun violence carried out by European people in the U.S., and there is clearly nothing for white people to be smug about when talking about African on African violence. In fact, looking at that side by side comparison, any violence carried out by Africans is simply a blip on the map compared to the millions of people murdered by the European controlled capitalist/imperialist network; the greeting card for white supremacy. As for why European on African violence gets so much attention? Because our people know that when one of us kills another of us, the prisons are overpopulated with our young people. Young people who often receive disparate sentencing because of racist legislation like three strikes. On the other hand, Europeans, especially police, kill our people with impunity. In fact, if you look at thugs like Zimmerman in Florida and Wilson in Ferguson, apparently, the quickest way for a cowardly slime to get rich is to kill an African. Now, that's some sick dysfunction. Europeans kill unarmed African children and the European community's response is to raise money for the killers. Lots of money. Don't you fools realize the entire world is watching you?
For African people, its far past time for you to stop parroting this racist nonsense about us being the violence prone people. The violence prone people are the supporters and maintainers of the capitalist system. Smith and Wesson, Glock, Remington, Ruger, Winchester, Colt, Magnum Industries, etc., are all huge European weapons manufacturing companies. African people everywhere in the world don't even own a slingshot producing company. Chemical weapons manufacturers like Dow Chemical are European corporations while African people barely own chemistry sets. All of the major bombs and weapons manufacturing companies like McDonnell Douglass are European capitalist corporations while the closest African people get to building bombs (besides those we receive from the imperialists) is mixing and matching the fireworks some of us buy for the fourth of the lie each year. So, Africans, stop doing their dirty work for them. We aren't dysfunctional violent people. Some of us are just doing the slave master's work for them. For Europeans who read this far (and who still perpetuate this idiocy), we know that you know what you are saying doesn't make an ounce of sense. You are on the wrong side of history. You always have been. Its just that recently, for the first time in your life, it's starting to catch up to you. The days are numbered where you can depend upon fear and intimidation to influence us against one another. Social media has diminished your ability to control the message. Even an independent organizer in an independent organization like me can attract 10,000 people per month to get educated about these issues.
So, keep lying about African on African violence because less and less people are listening to you each day because they can come to the vastly growing number of sources like this site and get concrete information. As a result, we know we are winning and we know your days are numbered. And, you know your days are numbered. And you know that we know your days are numbered. So take that bit of information, grab your gun, and cuddle up, trying to convince yourself that you have what you need to save you. Meanwhile, we'll keep marching straight ahead with a weapon that will trounce any gun that you can get your hands on, the truth.
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