From The Root
”Despite overall crime numbers falling in recent years, black-on-black [emphasis added] violence remains a prevalent issue,” the newspaper reported.
You can expect to hear these key phrases on a local television news report near you as temperatures–and tempers–rise this summer. Black clergy like Al Sharpton, prominent black thinkers like Kevin Powell, and writers at black journals like the Urban Politico will shake their heads at this ”black” scourge, self-flagellating that ”we gotta do better.”
Of course, any loss of life is cause to scream from the mountaintops. But explaining the tragedies by using loaded phrases like ”black-on-black” violence is dangerously wrong. First, in a country that is essentially still segregated (and not necessarily by black people’s choice) what race do you expect for both victim and perpetrators to be? Language like ”black-on-black violence” effectively smacks a racial label on problems that are socioeconomic and thus the collective, moral responsibility of every American.
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