First point suggests that the black population disproportionately commits crimes in relation to other populations (i.e. white etc), thence they are clearly not the product of racial discrimination, however instead the problem is rooted in black culture.
Obviously Kate has already locked this thread, so there'll be no more discussion from this point.
But, as a community, ATAR Notes is deeply opposed to racism and statements such as that I've clipped, which provide a quasi-intellectual yet misleading argument to underline racist views deserve to be challenged. The assertion that black people commit more crimes and are therefore culturally typed to commit crime is deeply flawed, for a number of reasons:
-black people are over represented in crime figures, notwithstanding some of the methodological limitations of studies that have shown this (
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782848/)
-there are many potential explanations. The one you have given is that committing crime is inherent to "black culture". To date, there is no convincing evidence that this is true.
-black people are disproportionately likely to experience socioeconomic disadvantage, which has been linked to crime. (Tonry, M. (1997). Ethnicity, crime, and immigration. Crime and justice, 21, 1-29.)
-black people are also more likely to be younger, which has been linked to crime. Both of the above have particular relevance to the "problem" of Sudanese gang crime in Victoria (
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-05/fact-check-sudanese-gangs-victoria/10187550)
-black people are more likely to receive harsher penalties for crimes than white people, artificially inflating the perceived severity of black crimes (
https://theconversation.com/race-may-affect-sentencing-in-juvenile-crime-7301, Walker, S., Spohn, C., & DeLone, M. (2012). The color of justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America. Cengage Learning.)
-police engage in racial profiling, which also artificially inflates the crime rate among black people (Gabbidon, S. L., & Greene, H. T. (2018). Race and crime. Sage Publications.)
-media over report on black crime and under report on white crime, leading to a warped perception of crime among black people (Chiricos, T., & Eschholz, S. (2002). The racial and ethnic typification of crime and the criminal typification of race and ethnicity in local television news. Journal of research in crime and delinquency, 39(4), 400-420.)
At times I feel frustrated, as I suspect TheBigC does, about the way that "debate" is conducted in 2018. There is a tendency in modern discourse to immediately punish anyone who doesn't subscribe to an increasingly narrow set of views. It could be argued that this is the case on both the Left and the Right. I make this point because I want it to be very clear that my contribution is not motivated by a desire to see anyone who does not subscribe to the set of left-leaning views that dominate our age group cast aside as a heathen he just "doesn't get it". AN is a good place for debate and we should be more mindful of engaging thoughtfully with others' views here and welcome this as a good test of our own ideas too. Indeed, we're lucky here to have people willing to engage with each other from very different political perspectives. Testing your own views in an echo chamber is really a hopeless way to develop a thoughtful and intelligent viewpoint, so I'm glad that we have these debates.
The reason, however, that this contribution is important is because by couching clearly racist views in fancy prose and the promise of non-existent evidence helps to reinforce racist tropes about black people. If there really were a link between crime and ethnicity, this would be useful information and I would enthusiastically agree that our approach to crime should emphasise trying to shift those cultural attitudes, much in the way that we have done with the African community and limiting female genital mutilation, for example. However, in the absence of any evidence that there is a link between ethnicity and crime, when other factors are weighted for, such an assertion not only wastes people's time but helps to reinforce the idea that black people are, by nature, somehow defective and that white people are not. In a community such as ours that is based on giving everyone access to the forums so that everyone can enjoy equal access to education, such clearly flawed and discriminatory views cannot be allowed to stand untested.
I would encourage anyone thinking of making a contribution to the debate to consider the extent to which your views are motivated by your own personal prejudice and, if you believe there is evidence to support your view, produce it. Otherwise expect to get called out for publishing crap.