STORY OF BRAVE AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN BY AN OUTSIDER OVER 1ST YEAR DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF GEORGE FLOYD WITH US PRESIDENT NOTING SYSTEMIC RACISM AS A STAIN ON NATION’S SOUL
The brutal killing of George Floyd by a police officer is still fresh in my memory. There was a rage in my heart against this police officer when I saw the video footage and wondered where any civility was? At the same time, riots, looting & arson that followed the killing for several days was troubling. Did the successive US governments fail black community that they had to resort to “violence”? Few weeks back, first death anniversary of Floyd made global headlines. American president spoke on few occasions about systemic racism during his short presidency so far. I decided to deep dive to refresh meaning of systemic racism and study history of oppression of blacks in America to be mindful of black wounds while weighing the scales in the light of racial, social & economic development over the last 120 years — as an outsider and out of conflicting curiosity.
Black population maintained its share with good additions in these hundred years whereas White population continued to slide. 75.1% of White population of 2000 is less than 65% in 2020 with Hispanics largely and Asian Americans filling this decline.
White population is also dealing with ballooning aged (+65 years) population on one hand while children of less than 15 years age bucket is receding on the other hand. Black population is showing similar trend but they are better off relatively.
Interestingly, “Never Married” and “Married” populations were similar in 1900 for both races but look at the divergence in these hundred years. Institution of marriage is literally being threatened among Black community with increased “Never Married” population while “Married” population has been under assault. Whites seem to have held ground.
People under 18 years of age below poverty level show a dismal general trend while White race continues to hover around 10% over a long period, Black race shows improvement but still at an unacceptable level. Black female householders still constitute a large portion of its population although a lot of ground was covered.
If you look closely at people by median income corrected to USD in 2019, Black females attributed to largest increase of 5.8 times (from USD 4,659 to 27,020) in this 69 years period. They are almost standing shoulder to shoulder with white females (USD 28,979) & even black males (USD 31,261) in 2019.
Black population with abolition of slavery following passage of 13th amendment continued to suffer under black codes, convict leasing, judgement of “an incarcerated person being a slave to the state”, industrial prison, chain gangs and great migration through the 1970s. This period also saw systemic reforms like desegregation of armed forces, passage of civil rights act, equal employment opportunity commission, enactment of voting rights act, wide ranging school reforms and many others that paved way for rapid integration of black population. Graph shows prison data based on population of both races — eg in 1930 there were 45 white persons & 124 black persons admitted into prison for each 100,000 of respective population. Black to White prisoner ratio was 2.7 (124.2/44.9) in 1930 while this ratio is 5.2 in 2018. This is a disturbing trend reflecting Black men in poor light considering that female population constitutes only around 9% of prison population.
Black population has worked hard to educate5 themselves aided by broad based public education infrastructure. 2020 numbers for both races hover around 0.3%. Black population has covered a lot of ground during first 20 years of 21st century in terms of educating themselves for higher education from bachelor’s to doctoral degrees.
In the year 2019, 79% of white victims were offended by white folks and 17% by black folks while 89% of black victims were offended by black folks and 9% by whites. No sooner you factor these offenses with respect to their populations, black victims & offenders are 6 times over the Whites. Imprisonment rate for number of sentenced Black prisoners for drug offenses were 4.6 times that of White prisoners in 2018. If you synthesize hate crimes6, number of anti-white and anti-black offenses in 2019 were 755 & 2,314 respectively with one black person killed with majority cases being classified as “intimidation” & “simple assault”. Anti-Black hate crimes were three times more than anti-White and factoring the population, anti-Black hate crimes are 17 times likely to occur considering all races. However, if you see these numbers and actual loss of life, they do not add up to indicate any pattern. Interestingly, I found emergence of newer minority groups of race or ethnicity in US with impressive socio economic achievements in relatively shorter periods. America is becoming more racially diverse and social taboos against inter-racial marriage is fading. Multiracial Americans are growing at a rate three times as fast as the population as a whole. I want to bust a myth that poverty breeds crime. They have not seen real poverty that exists today. Look at this table of gross national income per capita of few countries and compare this with US poverty level threshold. If this was true, most of Africa, bulk of Asia & South America would be reeling in crime.
Black American women clearly have been the driving force in transformation of black population over the century despite lack of resources, lack of equal opportunity & lack of a family support for most part of the 20th century and many Black successes are a result of their resilience. This is something that needs to be cherished. Many begin motherhood at an early age compared to other races often compromising their education thus seriously affecting their future income. Black single mothers constitute largest block relative to its population compared to other races with largest chunk at or below poverty level. Barack Obama said in 2008 with respect to African American community “Children who grew up without father are 5 times more likely to live in poverty / commit crime, 9 times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison”. Could African American men look within themselves this time that change has to first occur inside rather than finding fault with system? It is time now for the African American men to bring down black incarceration rate as one actionable agenda. Defunding the police is not the answer but drawing courage to testify as a witness is the solution. Big Government, universal social grants & redistribution of income through higher tax are not the answer (in fact they are antithetical to the very foundation of American success) but participating in money markets by keeping good credit score is the solution through non-violent conduct. Taking down confederation statues is not the solution but to be free of racial hatred while being mindful of black history and free of a victim / oppressed mindset with head held high are the answers. Demand for reparations soaked in division of this Union is to be replaced with a gratitude for American goodness rejecting poison of hatred. It is time that bulk of peaceful black men decisively resist acts of few ignorant black men — this violent behaviour has been going on for far too long wrecking families and inflicting poverty. It is time that Black masses take control of their lives from self-serving representatives who stoke fear while staying in safe White neighbourhoods manipulated by elite.
Data do not show hint of white supremacy. Data also do not show evidence of systemic racism at all. Nothing suggests that successive US governments failed Blacks. Racism is lurking in many hearts and it does affect Black community adversely even today but it is also true that millions of Whites love millions of Blacks & vice versa including all shades in between towards a continually more tolerant society. This is despite lies of racism being perpetrated in so many forms by politicians, media outlets and elite. Such lies for power grab by this united threesome alliance have reached a point of inflection with people identified based on who they voted for in the last election and a cost can be inflicted with brazen impunity. Has democracy come to become this farcical? US President is looking like a White elite when he repeatedly scratches black wounds. It reminds me of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” folklore. Killer of George Floyd was a police man and not a White police man. I am not invested in US as an outsider and therefore my piece is based on facts without bias.
Hemant Pincha / 12 June 2021
