Interesting Article....

[Detroit Stylin]

What does the forum think about this?

http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/09/0...larming-rates/

[bailey]

from the article:

Although black males account for only 7 percent of the Detroit population, they constitute 25 percent of the homicides.

How is it possible in a city with 80% "black" population only 7 % is identified as "black" and "male"?

[menckensghost]

from the article:

How is it possible in a city with 80% "black" population there are only 7 % identified as "black" and "male"?

Sloppy writing, I expect. I would assume that "black males between 15 and 24" are only 7% of the population. But one shouldn't have to make these sort of assumptions.

[JJD]

from the article:How is it possible in a city with 80% "black" population only 7 % is identified as "black" and "male"?

I am guessing they meant in the age range specified in the article, otherwise 7% is way off. Either way when you look at the demographics, this can't really be shocking to anyone can it? Young males in a suffering city, most living below the povertly line are a lot more likely to turn to crime as a means of survival / income. This lifestyle more often than not results in a much higher risk of being shot / killed. Until we can manage to provide guided healthy life plans i.e good educationa nd career path, this is not likely to change.

[swingline]

Thanks for the article, Stylin’. Dr. Watkins is a well-known commentator on issues of race, money and finance. And he’s never been shy about waving his various diplomas in the face of commentators who disagree with him because that apparently gives his opinions a necessary persuasive weight. But, even without the unscholarly statistical inaccuracies, Dr. Watkins’ article qualifies as nothing but a fluffy, facile drive-by journalism/opinion piece that most anyone could have composed in the shower.

The biggest problem with the article is that the use of rhetoric like “politicians who have been trained to hate” and “The world demonizes us, and we respond accordingly. It makes us angry, bitter, marginalized and violent . . .” as a premise or starting point for discussions about race makes such discussions far more difficult than necessary. But then again, Dr. Watkins wants no part of being the moderate collaborator in solving problems of social justice. Heaven forbid that someone with all important street cred call him out as a “happy negro” as he famously branded Juan Williams a few years ago.

Regardless of the article’s shortcomings, there shouldn’t be any disagreement with Dr. Watkins’ conclusion: “Fix the schools, create youth programs, invest in mentorship. That is how the black male is going to survive.” Indeed, Detroit needs these kinds of solutions so badly.

[Detroit Stylin]

Yeah that sample percentage they put out there did throw me off for a minute. But otherwise....wow.....

[Ravine]

I think a person with a PhD can be expected to not use words such as "genocide" so loosely as to be flatly incorrect, and to not draw simple-minded conclusions about who does, or does not, have "the power to stop this."
It's a subject that absolutely needs real, and serious, attention. I mean, it's the truth: Black guys in Detroit are blasting away at each other with a frequency that now seems as though a couple of such incidents, of the fatal kind, occur every single day, even though that is not quite the case.
The problem with the essay is that the sloppy delivery and ill-formed conclusions tend to neutralize the impact that the entire issue, and commentaries on it, should have.
On the other hand: The more folks who get up and say, or write, something about it, the better. Sometimes, silence is better than a poorly-stated delivery, but I don't think that is the case, here.
Just like here, inside DY: Sometimes, the way in which our own Danny delivers his thoughts is kind of, well, lumpy, but if you make the effort to follow where he's going, sometimes he has a valid, worthwhile point that deserves consideration.

[fryar]

Sorry, DS, I think the article itself basically sucks in that it does not treat the subject matter with an appropriate amount of sobriety. Basically what Ravine said.

Politicians trained to hate blacks? Aiyana Jones?

The whole second half reads like he had a 500-word minimum to which he applied an impromptu rant in which one sentence may or may not relate to the next.

When a black boy is left uneducated by a decaying inner city school system, he is then unemployed and ultimately either the victim of murder or incarceration. Nearly half of all the black men in my family have either been to jail or come close to death.

Both our society and the black family have engaged in a creative partnership for the destruction and death of black boys, and it's time for that partnership to end. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama, both of whom happen to be black males, have the power to stop this.

Sure, it won't be easy, and it's difficult to care about black males without getting resistance from politicians who've been trained to hate them, but I am hopeful that black elected officials in Washington will gain the moral courage to take a stand on this important issue.

The black boys who choose to kill one another do not start off in the world as demons. The world demonizes us, and we respond accordingly. It makes us angry, bitter, marginalized and violent. When growing up in a world that doesn't accept you, you find yourself doing things you wouldn't normally do and caught up in situations you'd never envisioned for yourself. Believe me, I've been in this theater of life, with a front row seat.

Jeez, wouldja just make an appropriate statement about despondent, alienated young men? You could even compare that to Al-Qaeda recruitment overseas.

[English]

I think a person with a PhD can be expected to not use words such as "genocide" so loosely as to be flatly incorrect, and to not draw simple-minded conclusions about who does, or does not, have "the power to stop this."

The PhD stands for "Piled Higher and Deeper." You read every book written in one very narrow subfield, then write your diss, and all of a sudden, you become an expert on your entire field. Not so.

Dr. Watkins does have some interesting columns, though. Even when I disagree with him completely, I read what he has to say.

[Ravine]

"The PhD stands for 'Piled Higher and Deeper.'"

Nice work, English. I think maybe my faith in you is validated, goddamit.

To run a little further with your caustic point, I will say that even when the PhD has become something like an expert in their entire field, sometimes the flip-side is that their focus has narrowed to the point where they know a whole lot about the one thing and, when it comes to anything outside of that field, they can't find their ass with both hands. [[Thanks, Dad, for that one.)

You, English, have advertised-- maybe a wee bit more frequently than necessary-- that you are *ahem* pursuing Higher Learning. I admire that, despite the odious characteristics of so many "career academics," and I implore you to dis-allow yourself from winding up like the gurgling bozo who wrote that piece.

[mwilbert]

I find it somewhat surprising that the percentage of homicides committed by young black men isn't higher. The reporting of homicide statistics for perpetrators isn't so reliable, but the data on victims is quite good, so we do know that nationally young black males are victims of homicide at a rate maybe ten times higher than the general population. We also know that killers and victims are usually demographically similar [[excepting gender of course), so I would expect a bigger discrepancy. Possibly the age 24 cutoff is causing some of my confusion--homicide rates stay pretty high until people reach their late 30's--and also the general population of Detroit isn't the same as the general population of the country.

The idea that President Obama and Eric Holder have some magic way of reducing homicides among young black men strikes me as unlikely, although I certainly wish it were true.

[English]

You, English, have advertised-- maybe a wee bit more frequently than necessary-- that you are *ahem* pursuing Higher Learning. I admire that, despite the odious characteristics of so many "career academics," and I implore you to dis-allow yourself from winding up like the gurgling bozo who wrote that piece.

If you think I advertise it, you would really, really hate my family and friends. They won't shut up about it.

By the way, there's no danger of me ending up like that Watkins guy. All black people don't think alike, not even all black Piled Higher and Deepers.

[Ravine]

Jeez, English, you have slightly wounded my tender-- OK, not so tender, but somewhat marinated-- feelings. Why would you throw in this comment?....

"All black people don't think alike"

I feel kinda insulted. Who the hell was going there, with any of this? I know I wasn't. Unless you threw that in as a reference to something somebody else posted.
*haarumphh*
Go stand in the corner 'til Uncle Ravine says you can come out.