I haven't read any of the other threads in a few hours but I'll try to give you the perspective I've grown up with and have been taught over the years on some of your observations.
^Interesting pieces to be sure. What I am trying to come to balance with is what is happening beyond the rhetoric. In Jacksonville at least some of the crimes being committed that place Blacks as the victims also have Blacks as the perp. The stats I have seen in the past when working with those working on the issue of crime and prevention have pointed to a great deal of crime between Blacks that statistically is higher than other races when population is factored in. Like the 09 area code. I do believe that there is a great influence when it comes to poverty and environment as Ennis mentioned and look forward to more input about that.
The 09 area code is one with high poverty levels and a higher population density than most of Jacksonville. It also has more limited access to many things we take for granted in other areas of town, such as retail, medical services, grocery stores, good schools, libraries, maintained parks, etc. Historically, it's an area that has also been redlined, leading to lower property values and a lower chance in the growth of family wealth over an extended period of time.
The stats you suggest on black-on-black crime are going to stand out here because it's a majority black area of town that is also an environment of economic distress. For comparison's sake, find another dense population living in a certain section of a community (say any border town in Texas), and you can find similar statistics for different race. The point I'm trying to make here is this is the "effect" of an economic/environmental situation. Not racial.
Race plays a larger role in American numbers because we have public subsidized policies, real estate practices, and laws that have helped create (on average) a large gulf in wealth based along skin color. Many here will probably disagree, but I'm prepared to go into detail with certain laws and examples for anyone who's up to the challenge.
But there is something else going on as well. During ride alongs with the JSO I have have witnessed many incidents where citizens call each other the "n" word with venom and they are all of the Black race.
Right or wrong, I grew up in an economically distressed black neighborhood. For us, the "n" word was tossed around back and forth with no proplem. It could be used to show respect, it could also be used to show disrespect. I don't know exactly, why, that's just how it's always been since I was a little kid. However, if someone white said it, it would always be taken as an insult and result in some type of confrontation. I don't know if something similar takes place with other racial slurs in other communities, all I can share with you is my own experience within the community I know.
I have also seen flareups over the shade of Black one happens to be and value associated with one another based on degree of color. That is something that tells me at least that this may go beyond economics and toward something unspoken and painful in the Black psyche.
This dates back to slavery. Blacks were pitted against each other by slave owners to keep them divided. The lighter you were, the better you were. This plays into the idea of setting a long pattern of an economic hierarchy system based on skin color. This wasn't really an issue in my community. If you were black, you were black. Didn't matter if you were dark or "red-boned". I wasn't really introduced to this on a large level until going away to college.
Please know and accept me at my word that I am not laying down judgments but rather sharing ideas and experiences that have mostly come through my deep associations with members of the Black community. I simply want to understand so that there can be healing and clarity of thought where needed in our community and society in general.
No judgment taken. I have no problem explaining things I may have insight into via my own life experiences. Also, recognize, we're not too far past the Jim Crow era. For me, it's only one generation. My parents grew up during segregation and were young adults during the Civil Rights era. My grandparent's young years fell between the 1920s and 1940s. Until my granddad made his kids finish school, it was the norm for all boys to quit school in the third grade and become family income producers by sharecropping. You can't create family wealth that way!
Nevertheless, my whole life, they've drilled me on their experiences and what to look out for myself. I remember, the most embarrassed I've ever been in my life was in high school when my mom forbid me from going to the movies with two girls waiting for me outside (they were white and hispanic). Moms is barely 5' but she struck fear in my heart that day. She's not racist but her life experiences with the KKK, civil rights era, etc. had shaped her mind that she could protect her almost grown baby by keeping him away from a potential situation that she felt was dangerous (and that actually was during most of her lifetime at that point).
With that in mind, me and my brothers grew being told, life isn't fair, we're starting behind the eight-ball, family member "x" was arrested or killed for being black, etc. and we'll have to work twice as hard to achieve success.
For me, in my younger years, it led to me not even voting in elections because my hood had always been the hood regardless of what party was in office. Not believing in the concept of trickle down economics, based on personal life experience, is one of the primary reasons I'm an independent today. However, all that childhood preaching, combined with seeing others in the hood turn out working labor jobs for little cash, living check to check or in prison has turned into drive for me now.
