Black men being murdered at an alarming rate

Race is once again headlining the news.This time it is over the an allegation of racial profiling and bias in the arrest of a prominent black professor by a white police officer. Much time will be spent arguing the merits the respective cases with the subsequent result of a hardening of distrust among whites and blacks.

While the open sore that is race relations is being clumsily probed once again, a far more serious issue concerning African Americans goes largely ignored--the alarmingly high homicide rate among black men.

The FBI statistics from 2007 paint an disturbing picture:(2007 are the most recent statistics available)

• 14, 831 persons were killed in 2007. Of that, 11, 618 were males and 3,177 were females.36 were registered as "unknown".
• Of the 11, 618 male victims, 6, 223 were black.

• Black men accounted for 54 percent of the total of male victims and a staggering 41 percent of the total amount of homicide victims.

According the the Center for Disease Control(CDC) homicide is the the leading cause of death for black men between the ages of 15 and 34 .It is astounding to me that this receives such little attention in the media.

Why is so much attention focused on racial profiling when young black men are being cut down at an alarming rate? Why isn't Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson doing all they can to bring this issue to light?

Homicide certainly isn't the only health issue that confront black men. As this link shows black men have quite a few issues pertaining to health. But of all, homicide is perhaps the most preventable. Diseases, injuries,etc, afflict all no matter what class or race a person belongs to. There is only so much one can do to avoid cancer or heart disease.

But homicide is 100 percent preventable.There is no reason why people who make up roughly 6 percent of the population should be the victims of 40 percent of the nation's murders.There is no good reason why we cannot reduce this.

This country would be better off discussing the exorbitantly high homicide rate among black men than racial profiling. One can only change through time, the other demands immediate action.

Obama and Race in America

My tongue within my lips I rein: For who talks much must talk in vain.

-John Gay

Those are words President Barack Obama would have been wise to heed when he said Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Sgt. James Crowley's had acted "stupidly" in arresting professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

"The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home ... what I think we know - separate and apart from this incident - is that there is a long history in their country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."President Barack Obama about the arrest of his friend professor Henry Louis Gates.


Obama's admitting that he did not "have all the facts" before commenting is a damning statement. As an lawyer he should know better than to be making public statements about an event he does not have the requisite knowledge of. He has now made himself vulnerable to attacks from Republicans and they have taken that chance by running an web ads and criticizing him in the press.

In remarks to CNN, National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesmen Brian Walsh questioned how wise it was for Obama to be offering a statement on the case: "This isn't taking sides between the police officers and Mr. Gates. It is the issue of whether it is appropriate for the President of United States to be weighing in and taking sides before, by his own admission, all the facts are known."

Obama found support from prominent African American Congresswoman Barbara Lee(D-Cal) said that Obama was "right on target". Lee continued by saying "We all know, we come from communities where some of us actually understand, and know, and have been racially profiled. It's an example of the unfinished business of America that inequalities and racism continues to exist."

The disparate reactions from two different police unions show the quagmire Obama has gotton himself stuck in.

The Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury criticized Obama's comments by saying that they "do little to narrow the void of distrust that too often separates the community from the men and women who work to keep it safe." adding that Obama's remarks were "made without the facts".

In contrast , Ronald Hampton executive director of the National Black Police Association supported Obama "He was right on point. A post-racial society doesn't exist. We're still in a civil rights era. What happened to Gates happens to poor black and brown people every day."

As these comments show, even police organizations are divided along racial lines on this.

This then begs the question of why? Why inject yourself into a controversy that was already going to be divisive racially. The different perceptions between blacks and whites in the US towards issues of race guaranteed that this incident would generate dramatically different reactions.Obama in past speeches has displayed a knowledge of this. So why would he burn political capital on an incident that would have faded quickly? Why give your opponents fodder to use against you?

Race is an issue that has become an intractable problem for this country. The disparate histories of black and white have created layer upon layer of intense distrust helped along by ignorance of each other's experience.Both sides refuse to challenge their respective perceptions. Both whites and blacks are in willing thrall to stereotypes and prejudices that have developed over the centuries through limited intermingling and warped images projected to the respective communities.

We still live in a deeply segregated country.Anyone who thinks that this has or will change in the immediate future is either naive or intent on practicing self deception. There is too much animosity and distrust between the races for our society to be truly integrated in the forseeable future. So long as both insist on adhering to old stereotypes and a monoploy on the truth, nothing will change.

President Obama is an intelligent man. He is well aware of the bitter racial divide of what I just wrote about. Obama has to know that he made a significant tactical mistake. He is no longer a Community Activist or Senator from Illinois. He could make such comments and get away relatively unscathed. But now he is President. He has to represent ALL of the people. He cannot be perceived as "taking sides" in the nation's ethnic disputes. Whether he approves or not of the police officer's actions(and whether his judgment was correct) is immaterial. He is President. He has to be above such things.

Obama is going to need all the help he can get to ensure the success of his Presidency. He cannot afford to antagonize allies. He should never forget that a significant amount of Democratic voters were Hillary Clinton supporters. Many of whom were white, blue collar, and conservative socially It would not take much for these voters to vote Republican in the next election if they perceive the Obama Administration as a threat to their "values".

He is fortunate that this is occurring early in his administration. He can easily recover from it. But he should heed the lesson of this incident and keep silent the next time a racial controversy erupts.