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Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin
Exactly. And this also invalidates the "blame the black people" argument. The high crime rates starting in the 60s were a result of societal breakdown in the cities coupled with easy access to increasingly deadly firearms (no Bushmaster assault rifles among the general public 50 years ago).
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The facts: 50 years ago white and black people had similar crime rates. Then, societal breakdown happened across all ethnic groups. Firearms became more generally available to all ethnic groups. Aggregate homicide rates in the US are now higher than Canada or Europe, which articles like this purport to try to explain. Yet African american and hispanic men have vastly higher propensities for homicide than other american men. Reducing the American homicide rate should be most focused on addressing the higher homicide rate in the african american community.
The higher black homicide rate could be due to:
* the monopolization of drug distribution in the US by african americans
* economic racism in the 1970s eliminating blue collar jobs where african americans live, with the process completed by globalization in the 2000s; destruction of black family structures as a result of economic upheaval
* greater innate propensity for african american men to settle disputes violently than other groups (not saying this is the case, but social scientists should not shy away from any potential cause when analyzing an issue)
* failure of most of black population to diversify out of largely blue collar employment
* failure of government to adequately police black neighborhoods
* rioting and de-segregation leading to destruction of segregated black business class and their wealth and income
* community leadership with strong hostility to working within the capitalist system
* Vicious cycles of the above
Lead, more abortions, or the other kooky explanations that ppl have come up with for crime are not convincing. Usually, the originator of these ideas is some hip, young, lefty (and usually white) economist or other social scientist...you know the type.
Potential solutions that come to mind include drug legalization, de-globalization and manufacturing re-shoring, increased government police presence in troublesome neighborhood, more extensive early day care, affirmative action, etc.