The World is a harsh place it seems and there are plenty of statistics to prove it. Death seems to follow us around any given corner. Whether through natural means, accidents or intentionally, it can strike at any moment. Even while you sit here reading this, someone is passing over to the other side.
Their passing is sometimes revealed to us only in the form of statistics. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) keeps statistics of all the known deaths which occur every year. From diseases like cancer or plain old heart failure, the top of the list is populated by ailments that kill in the hundreds of thousands per year. And that is not even the interesting thing. The interesting part is how these stats are used to guide and mislead people in society to think a certain way.
Specifically, let’s look at the homicide rate. People cringe at this number and moan about how dismal the murder-rate is in America, especially among so-called Blacks. People point to this as one of the biggest problems plaguing the inner-city. Yet upon deeper examination of the statistics, it’s quickly revealed that this problem has been largely overblown. The reasons for such deception are obvious on a common-sense level, but first let’s look at the statistical analysis.
In America, the U.S. Census Bureau found that there were about 42 million Americans that identified themselves as Black/African-American in some part of their racial identity. This is about 13.6% of the U.S. population, which is an increase of 15.4%. Of this population, the CDC recorded 7,679 homicides among men and women of African-American heritage. That is something like .0000182 % of the population, which hardly seems like an epidemic. Still this statistic is pushed to the forefront of the media, for what reason? News models report the information to showcase the differences between the so-called races. They say, “Blacks kill each other at a higher rate than Whites.” Really, and if so, so what? What does that mean? Does it mean so-called Blacks are more violent than so-called Whites? With the history of this country how could that notion even possibly sound logical? Beyond that, it’s still used to point out some sort of significant different in the two communities. Yet that statistic is not the only difference. It’s just the one the media chooses to emphasize. And it’s repetition has led others to follow suit, repeating the same misleading information.
First off the number of murders or homicides is not clearly examined with the conclusion that “Black people kill Black people more often than White people, kill White people.” …wrong again, Bob. The death by gun stat is very convoluted to begin with. Homicides by gun among Whites (W) and Blacks (B) are also separated among male(M) and female (F). There are 5,035 (W) homicides, 2,775 of which are by a firearm. Another 2,260 are by other means. Of the 7,679(B) homicides in 2010, 6,051 were with a gun while only 1,628 were by other means. Notice half of the homicides committed against (W) were by firearm (50%). Among (B) over 5x times the number of homicides were by gun. So it wouldn’t seem that among so-called Blacks, there is a homicide problem more than an unlawful use of firearms problem in this community.
Still, the stats for weapons use and death go deeper. There is a cause of death category in the CDC 2010 report that notes injury by firearm as a cause of death separately. This number is 7,330 (B) and 20,513 (W). Notice how the number of deaths due to injury by firearm took the number among (W) from 5,035 to 20,513. For (B) the number was almost the same for homicides and injury by firearm, 7,679 and 7,330. Why is there such a huge difference in the numbers among (W)? Are hunting accidents which cause subsequent death part of the stat?
Harry Whittington, the man Dick Cheney shot in the face.
Going deeper still, we also see that there are a number of deaths by firearm that are intentional but self-inflicted through suicide. For (W) this number is 16,928 which is 16x greater than 1,057 (B). As a measure of population it’s significant to note that the so-called White population is about 223,553,265 which the Census Bureau defines as, “having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who reported “White” or wrote in entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish.” In other words anyone who is not “Black”, “Hispanic” or “Asian/Pacific Islander”. That’s a lot of people, but it’s just over 5x the number of so-called Blacks. So, statistically speaking, any number on the cause of death chart which has a number 5x greater for the (W) population will show equilibrium among these two groups (B/W).
Motor vehicle accidents are just about 6x as high for (W) at 24,848 in 2010 as opposed to 4,398 (B). Although not exactly in equilibrium, the numbers are closer than the rate of suicide for instance which is 15x as high for (W) at 32,010 versus 2091 (B). For women the number is even greater, at 18x for (W) with 6,772 suicides versus 379 among “Black” women. Here there seems to be a significant problem among (W) with suicide even to the point that the number of suicides at just over 35,000 almost triples the number of homicides. When you add in the number of drug overdoses 33,145 (W) 3,502 (B) and alcohol-poisoning deaths, 18,806 (W) 2,296 (B) you see a striking discrepancy. Between suicides, and overdoses of drugs and alcohol so-called Whites are killing themselves at an alarming rate, 83,961 (W) people per year. For so-called Blacks that number was 7,889 in 2010 which is 10.6x less than the rate of so-called Whites. Is this the real epidemic the media should be concerned about? Is suicide among so-called Whites, “White on White” crime? And if so, isn’t it significant that the number of self-inflicted deaths among (W) is 10.6x the number of similar deaths for (B) something the media should warn us about?
Most interesting of all however, is a statistic which stood out at a 20x differential rate among the two main racial groups in America. Deaths by falling in some manner was 22,842 (W) compared to only 1,147 (B). Do some in our country have a fatal problem with balance or equilibrium that needs to be addressed? People dying at the rate of almost 23,ooo per year is significant. After all, that was almost 2x the number of homicides reported for the same year for so-called Black and Whites.
Kurt Nice
Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE’s National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
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Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE's National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
