Are Black Women Responsible for Black Crime?

This is posted from Toronto, Canada, where overall crime is down but where there has been an alarming string of black on black shootings, complete with television coverage of weeping mothers and fathers and repeated, though largely unheeded pleas for "those who know what happened to come forward and co-operate with the police."

This has been going on for several years now and the community as a whole wants to see an end of it. Which brings me to my question:

Are black women responsible for black crime?

Of course not. The person most responsible for crime is the criminal himself. Contributing factors are such things as personal economic status, racism, prevailing economic conditions, education, mental balance of the individual, and family backround.

One part of the family backround that has come up for comment from time to time over the years is the incidence of absentee fathers in black families. Several different prominent black community leaders in the US have made mention of this over the years as a serious issue that is undermining black society.

Recently Barack Obama made comments along those lines and was chastised for it by Rev. Jesse Jackson. Obama was characterized as having "talked down" to people in the black community. But even Rev. Jackson, I feel sure, would agree that Obama, though he might be singing off key, had the words of the hymn substantially right.

To boil it all down to the point of over simplification, many believe that black fathers are irresponsable absentees in a high enough percentage to make it a social issue that needs to be addressed for the good of the community as a whole.

(Reader warning: The N word is quoted in the following paragraph.)

Chris Rock, the hilarious black comedian, even made the issue a feature of his "How to tell the difference between a black man and a 'n-word'." comedy bit. In Rock's view, a "'n-word'" is the type of black man who boasts "I take care of my kids." In contrast, a "black man" in Rock's view, simply takes care of the kids without boasting, because he knows you're supposed to take care of your kids.

The unspoken part of the bit that one picks up on only later, after the laughter, is the implied ranking of the absentee black father. That's a sledgehammer of a commentary.

But despite the valid questions about the importance of black fathers, I am beginning to wonder if we as a society are overlooking black mothers as a key contributing factor in black on black crime and alienation among black youth generally.

The thought came to me after reading an account of an on-air spat between two black women that took place on the television program "The Wendy Williams Show". During the course of the spat, Wendy Williams called Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth a "typical angry black woman." I had no idea that there was a type, the typical angry black woman.

In contrast to absentee black fathers, single black mothers are often highly praised and thought of as pillars of the black community, but is this an accurate picture of the situation of black mothers? Are there significant numbers of angry single black mothers, resentful of their burden, angry at their absent partners and passing anger, resentment and a sense of entitlement along to their children?

Should single black mothers and not absentee fathers be the focus of society's concern about black crime? Maybe the issue of black crime could be more efficiently and effectively addressed by finding ways to ease the burden of single black mothers and make them aware that society regards their task in life as important to everyone.

Single parents generally, are important out of all proportion to the status accorded to them in society. (If they screw up, we all wind up paying for it down the line, sometimes with our lives.) This is particularly true of single black parents, who have all the single parent problems, plus the racism issue to contend with.

[edit on 23-7-2008 by ipsedixit]

Woof, talk about a thin line. Mothers are more likely to get custody of their kids than fathers. Generally, also, courts slant against fathers.
Not a bunch, but it's there, and sometimes if you look at it, you'd be surprised some of the women who are allowed to keep their kids.
But bad parents are bad parent, and a bad mom can be just as bad, maybe worse, as a bad or absent father.

reply to post by RuneSpider

I agree with you but I'm really focusing more on the situation of the abandoned black mother, whose relationship with the father in question didn't work out. No courts involved.

Of course they are, because they are the ones having black babies!