What’s scary is that this is the reality in the U.S. and it all but erases the narrative so many have around white-on-black murders. Since 1980, every year, at last twice as many whites have been killed by black than vice versa.
I’ve written extensively about this from a perspective of a stats-focused writer and investigator, a Democratic voter concerned with improving outcomes for African Americans, and as a citizen worried empirical evidence is dismissed over narrative, feelings, and anecdote.
If twice as many black folks kill white folks than the other way around, how come you almost never see a headline or story that mentions the offender is “black” and the victim is “white”? Yet in the rare occurrence an interracial killing does occur, and the offender is “white” and the victim is “black,” that’s pretty much all you hear.
It’s no surprise that Shaun King was among the first highlighting this tragedy in Georgia, and playing up the racial angle. He and others keep on trying until they can find that story that fits their limited worldview.
By trying to draw attention to Barnes’ death only because he thought the killer was white, King and everyone who followed his lead missed a larger story: We have a gun and violence problem that is unquestionably many orders of magnitude higher than any white-on-black racialized violence problem. Or even a widespread racist police problem, as Harvard economist Roland Fryer and at least seven other studies have debunked in regard to racial disparities in lethal use of force.
Yet the Twitter and hashtag crowd, bolstered by the media, blows up killings of blacks when the perceived perpetrator is white or a racist cop — even when we find out “hands up, don’t shoot” in Ferguson was a lie. Nothing on the Black Lives Matter website addresses gun violence, despite the fact it takes 85 percent of of black lives in the category of homicide — and police only take 4 percent. Misguided social justice breeds societal division — why else would Russia troll as Black Lives Matter activists to help elect Trump?
Additionally, research has indicated even greater bloodshed in poor minority communities occurs, such as after widespread protests or when onerous ACLU mandates are placed on law enforcement and de-policing occurs. Or simply ask anyone in Baltimore, Chicago, or St. Louis the year after Freddie Gray, Laquan McDonald, or Michael Brown.
If we want to stop the hate, we need to marginalize not only the small subset of Americans perpetrating bigoted violence, but also the people calling out racism as if it’s their lifeblood and religion. We do this by tuning them out.
At the top of that list is Shaun King.