With active social media and the rapid nature in which information spreads around today, the only people still aggressively claiming that African people kill each other as a genetic shortcoming are people firmly committed to white supremacist ideology. Those folks wouldn't accept truth if they were stuck on an island with truth being the only edible thing available. Everyone else has by now been exposed to information that confirms that since people generally function socially with people from their same cultural, economic, and social background, that of course means the bulk of people who kill other people are much more likely to kill people who look like them. Not because of some racial inferiority, but because people who are going to kill, are going to mostly have people who look like them around them when they go off. So, for as long as such phenomenon has been been tracked, we know that Africans kill Africans 91% of the time. Asians kill Asians 84% of the time. Indigenous people kill indigenous people 88% of the time. And, Europeans kill Europeans 86% of the time. In case you are not familiar, social science experimentation practices would say the differences in those stats is negligible, meaning not enough to make any type of scientific statement. So, besides the racist filth who thrive on fantasy to justify their intellectual laziness, you can now chill on that foolishness.
What we should be talking about instead is the degree in which white supremacy and oppression play in creating conditions of stress and turmoil in oppressed communities. This is important because there is certainly an argument to be made that these communities suffer from adverse conditions that make the possibilities of violence more obtainable. There are plenty of studies that can help us develop a comprehensive understanding of this. For example, you can look at Rwanda in Central Africa. That country is unfortunately most known for the neo-colonial issues which prompted violence between the Hutus and Tutsis in the last few decades, most notably, in 1994. The way the capitalist media has spun this issue, the problem is something inbred in the hatred between these two ethnic groups. This analysis, of course, completely ignores the fact that these two very same ethnic groups have lived together for thousands of documented years without the hostilities that have emerged in the last few decades. So what changed? The common denominator is the colonial system which created the social system of repression based on competition between the ethnic groups. That system created inequity between the two groups and systematized it. The same is true in Sudan where the Nubian and Arab ethnic groups have existed together in that region for hundreds of years without the violence and trauma which led to the separation of Sudan into two countries with the creation of South Sudan in 2011. Again, its easy to point to neo-colonialism as the common denominator because the intensification of conflict is tied directly to the time period in which high quality oil reserves were discovered in Sudan. This is critical because at this point, oil corporations from China, the U.S., and Europe began competing heavily for drilling opportunities which created far fewer settlement options for the nomadic and farming cultures in Sudan. This created a competition for space that had previously been non-existent in Sudan. Finally, lets take away the prized example the racists use to illustrate their backward point about African violence - the so-called African gang problem. Whether its Somalia or the U.S. - they work overtime to dehumanize the African masses by claiming our barbarism whenever a drive by weekend concludes in Mogadishu, Chicago, Kingston, Los Angeles, San Juan, or anywhere else where us Africans reside. Even many Africans parrot these racist narratives, but they have nothing besides ignorance and white supremacy to support their perspectives about us. My daughter, who last year took up residence in Memphis, Tennessee, to pursue her advanced education and life goals, excitedly conveyed a story to me earlier this week about her experience with inner city youth in Memphis while working in that community. Memphis is a city with a large African population and immense poverty, which means everything that comes with that poverty, e.g. crime, etc. My daughter, working for a community program, was running a booth at a community event designed to educate folks about the diseases that the capitalist system inflicts on oppressed communities - diabetes, hypertension, etc. She had a box of balls that she and the Memphis raised European young woman with her handed out to everyone who took the stress test. When my daughter left the booth and came back minutes later, the European colleague informed her with great fear that young terroristic African boys had stolen the entire box of balls. My daughter, indicating that her first thought was of my, her mother, and our organization's efforts to constantly expose her to being around her people growing up, told me that she could hear my voice in her head telling her - correctly - that we can never be afraid of our people. So, she ended up going over to the young men, who were playing with all the new balls in plain view of everyone, to explain to them why what they did wasn't cool and to collect her balls. Meanwhile, the European woman called the police on the young men. As the police pulled up, my daughter took time to explain to them that she had the situation under control and that they were not needed and not necessary on any level. Of course the youth listened to my daughter. Of course no harm came to her. In fact, her experience was that the youth drank up the attention she gave them, in spite of some of it being harsh. They knew she was coming at them from a place of love. This story of inner city life is complimented with the same analysis provided in regards to Rwanda and Sudan e.g. we can easily track the time in which relatively peaceful communities became more violent and that time again is when social conditions became more intolerable. When the number of people who descended into South Chicago or Los Angeles, far exceeded logical levels. Where no opportunities for stability existed which fed into the frustrations and anger. Where the institutions, instead of providing solutions to these problems, inflamed them. I'm talking about social service agencies and of course the police and injustice system.
The main thread through all of these examples is social conditions. Social development, dysfunctional, and oppressive social organization and institutions. Not racial inferiority. Actually, a lot of the same social problems you see in African communities you can easily find in working class European communities and every other community. And don't think we are making any type of special critique of working people besides pointing out that these communities are the exploited communities. Someone told me once that rich people make more mistakes than anybody, they just have the resources to cover them up. A rich kid gets busted with drugs, that kid doesn't get caught up in the system. They get boarding school.
These are the types of questions which intelligent people should be discussing as it relates to community violence. How the social situation with that community plays a distinct role in what happens in that community. A genuine socialist approach to solving problems would immediately take that into account because that type of system is designed to plan around solving problems. So, the social analysis is endemic within that whereas the capitalist system only plans around profit for the super rich. So, some food for thought whenever your uncle, father, mother, (no matter their color) etc. makes the next ignorant statement about Africans killing one another.
What we should be talking about instead is the degree in which white supremacy and oppression play in creating conditions of stress and turmoil in oppressed communities. This is important because there is certainly an argument to be made that these communities suffer from adverse conditions that make the possibilities of violence more obtainable. There are plenty of studies that can help us develop a comprehensive understanding of this. For example, you can look at Rwanda in Central Africa. That country is unfortunately most known for the neo-colonial issues which prompted violence between the Hutus and Tutsis in the last few decades, most notably, in 1994. The way the capitalist media has spun this issue, the problem is something inbred in the hatred between these two ethnic groups. This analysis, of course, completely ignores the fact that these two very same ethnic groups have lived together for thousands of documented years without the hostilities that have emerged in the last few decades. So what changed? The common denominator is the colonial system which created the social system of repression based on competition between the ethnic groups. That system created inequity between the two groups and systematized it. The same is true in Sudan where the Nubian and Arab ethnic groups have existed together in that region for hundreds of years without the violence and trauma which led to the separation of Sudan into two countries with the creation of South Sudan in 2011. Again, its easy to point to neo-colonialism as the common denominator because the intensification of conflict is tied directly to the time period in which high quality oil reserves were discovered in Sudan. This is critical because at this point, oil corporations from China, the U.S., and Europe began competing heavily for drilling opportunities which created far fewer settlement options for the nomadic and farming cultures in Sudan. This created a competition for space that had previously been non-existent in Sudan. Finally, lets take away the prized example the racists use to illustrate their backward point about African violence - the so-called African gang problem. Whether its Somalia or the U.S. - they work overtime to dehumanize the African masses by claiming our barbarism whenever a drive by weekend concludes in Mogadishu, Chicago, Kingston, Los Angeles, San Juan, or anywhere else where us Africans reside. Even many Africans parrot these racist narratives, but they have nothing besides ignorance and white supremacy to support their perspectives about us. My daughter, who last year took up residence in Memphis, Tennessee, to pursue her advanced education and life goals, excitedly conveyed a story to me earlier this week about her experience with inner city youth in Memphis while working in that community. Memphis is a city with a large African population and immense poverty, which means everything that comes with that poverty, e.g. crime, etc. My daughter, working for a community program, was running a booth at a community event designed to educate folks about the diseases that the capitalist system inflicts on oppressed communities - diabetes, hypertension, etc. She had a box of balls that she and the Memphis raised European young woman with her handed out to everyone who took the stress test. When my daughter left the booth and came back minutes later, the European colleague informed her with great fear that young terroristic African boys had stolen the entire box of balls. My daughter, indicating that her first thought was of my, her mother, and our organization's efforts to constantly expose her to being around her people growing up, told me that she could hear my voice in her head telling her - correctly - that we can never be afraid of our people. So, she ended up going over to the young men, who were playing with all the new balls in plain view of everyone, to explain to them why what they did wasn't cool and to collect her balls. Meanwhile, the European woman called the police on the young men. As the police pulled up, my daughter took time to explain to them that she had the situation under control and that they were not needed and not necessary on any level. Of course the youth listened to my daughter. Of course no harm came to her. In fact, her experience was that the youth drank up the attention she gave them, in spite of some of it being harsh. They knew she was coming at them from a place of love. This story of inner city life is complimented with the same analysis provided in regards to Rwanda and Sudan e.g. we can easily track the time in which relatively peaceful communities became more violent and that time again is when social conditions became more intolerable. When the number of people who descended into South Chicago or Los Angeles, far exceeded logical levels. Where no opportunities for stability existed which fed into the frustrations and anger. Where the institutions, instead of providing solutions to these problems, inflamed them. I'm talking about social service agencies and of course the police and injustice system.
The main thread through all of these examples is social conditions. Social development, dysfunctional, and oppressive social organization and institutions. Not racial inferiority. Actually, a lot of the same social problems you see in African communities you can easily find in working class European communities and every other community. And don't think we are making any type of special critique of working people besides pointing out that these communities are the exploited communities. Someone told me once that rich people make more mistakes than anybody, they just have the resources to cover them up. A rich kid gets busted with drugs, that kid doesn't get caught up in the system. They get boarding school.
These are the types of questions which intelligent people should be discussing as it relates to community violence. How the social situation with that community plays a distinct role in what happens in that community. A genuine socialist approach to solving problems would immediately take that into account because that type of system is designed to plan around solving problems. So, the social analysis is endemic within that whereas the capitalist system only plans around profit for the super rich. So, some food for thought whenever your uncle, father, mother, (no matter their color) etc. makes the next ignorant statement about Africans killing one another.
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