From the time Christopher Columbus landed with his starved and weather-beaten crew on an island in the Caribbean, the lands we know as America have been racked by incredible violence and drenched in insatiable bloodshed.

The terrible legacy of American bloodletting stretches long and deep, reaching back thousands of years before the United States of America was founded and borrowing flames from the conflagration Greek draconian codes while drawing inspiration from the terrors of ancient Roman.

Although violence in America has touched the lives of most who dwell there, it is usually associated with Black people who are not only its most vulnerable and traditional recipient, but are also those most stigmatized, stereotyped and projected as the very embodiment of crime, deviance, and mayhem.

When we review the structural legacy of America, it seems strange that Blacks would be projected as the initiators and provokers of violence and crime strange, until one realizes that there is a method to the incongruity.

There is some truth to the image of violent Blacks roaming the streets of America, venting their anger and frustration and committing senseless acts of violence. According to statistics by the US Department of Justice, Black teenagers are three to five times more likely than White youth to be a murder victim.

They are also more likely to be victims of robbery and assault. But those government agencies that compile the statistics do not factor in the historical and psychosocial fall-out, which prompt Blacks to commit acts of destruction against themselves and against others. Anthony King writes in his essay, "Understanding Violence Among Young Males":

"Chattel slavery, institutional racism, and poverty are the three most salient and pervasive features of the African experience in the United States. Thus, to fully understand the nature and etiology of contemporary violence among African American males, one has to examine the relationship between these unique social, economic, and historical features of the African American male experience and the violence that currently permeates the neighborhoods of so many African American communities." [1]

Moreover, statistics are usually compiled by organizations that are controlled by Whites, in the interest of Whites, and it would be naive not to believe that there is often an ulterior motive for making them available to be broadcast by news agencies, which are white-dominated and controlled. It is actually a tactic of repression that has been used with huge success over the years. Malcolm X explains:

"The racists that are usually very influential in the society, don't make their move without first trying to get public opinion on their side. So, use the press to get public opinion on their side. When they want to suppress and oppress the Black community, what do they do? They take these statistics, and through the press, they feed them to the public. They make it appear that the rate of crime in the Black community is higher than it is anywhere else. What does this do?

This is a very skillful message used by racists to make the Whites who aren't racists think that since the rate of crime in the Black community is so high, this paints the community in the image of a criminal. It makes it appear that everyone in the Black community is a criminal.

And as soon as this impression is given, then it makes it possible or paves the way to set up a police-type state in the Black community." [2]

Although racism became the mainstay of the Euro/ American type slavery perpetuated against Blacks, and although vicious and preposterous lies were fabricated to justify this most fiendish institution of human bondage: this had not always been so. For even within the mind-set of ancient Greek scholars and philosophers, who were the predecessors of Euro/American culture, there was adulation for Black people. Scholar Dmesh D Souza writes:

"For Homer, Blacks were the blameless of the gods. Diordorus mentioned their widespread reputation for religious piety. Seneca found them notable for their courage and freedom. Lucian noted that in astrological knowledge they were the wisest of men.

Herodotus, the first European to comment on the physical appearance of Ethiopians, described them as the most handsome of men. Martial noted that, while he was pursued by a woman whiter than a swan, he sought the affections of one blacker than Pitch. Snowden quotes a Greek epigrammatist, Asclepiades, 'Gazing At her beauty I melt like wax before the fire. If she is Black, what is that to me? So are coals, but when we burn them they shine like rosebuds.'

While Aristotle, perhaps the foremost Greek intellectual and philosopher of all times, reserved his lowest estimation (not for Africans or Blacks) but Northern Europeans, especially the English whom he described as 'incapable of ruling over others' and also 'wanting in intelligence and skill.' [3]

Yet these sentiments aside, it was necessary in order to compel millions of Blacks to the state of chattel and to control every aspect of their movements, to work them like mules from early morning to darkest night, to rape the women, to emasculate the men and to instill a fear of the White master along with a hatred of self that would last for centuries, it was crucial to first assault the African mind, to obliterate and denigrate his culture and to destroy as much as possible every remnant of him that could be construed as human. Wayne B Chandler provides an overview:

"With the approach of the fifteenth century and the overthrow of the Moorish empire in Spain, European slavers turned their covetous eyes to the "Dark Continent." Though the Arabs and the Portuguese had begun the exploitation of men and women in Africa centuries earlier, northern Europeans would bring the rapacious industry of slavery to an all time low.

In its 3,5000 year history, slavery had become an institution based on an applied science. In antiquity, the practice of enslavement was largely expressed through war, the conqueror over the conquered, transcending racial barriers. In the European slave trade in Africa, unlike previous institutions of slavery, Africans were regarded as bestial, or less human. This perception, as well as the accompanying propaganda, allowed unspeakable and inhumane practices to become commonplace." [4]

It was this incredibly vicious process of dehumanization of African people that set the stage for Black explosions and implosions of violence in American society, and although the depictions of Blacks as untrustworthy, ignorant, and wild who are prone to attack innocent, unsuspecting Whites.

With the advent of contemporary American society and its inherent propensity toward violence, with its shoot'em up and knock'em down video games, with its penchant for bloody movies, with its glamorization of criminals and glorification of serial and mass murderers, with its pronounced and exhibited tendencies toward aggression and exploitation, and with its vile legacy of over 350 years subjugation and violent reprisal against Black people along with its theft and pollution of the earth's resources; it is easy to see that it is Whites who are the real instigators of violence and destroyers of domestic and international peace.

It is easy to see the real culprits once we carefully examine the modern American technological and desire driven society. A society that induces and caters to every vile desire and provides a perch for every dirty bird, a society that excites the worst passions and shamelessly parades them out into the full light of day, and a society that manifests the worst human poisons, and like a spark kindled into a raging flame, erupts them into a conflagration full blown.

There is a heightened sense of frustration for the multitudes of Black Americans who are, regulated, hobbled and straight-jacketed into boring, dead end jobs. Their lives seemingly useless, predictable and arranged like subjects trapped in a huge and ghastly laboratory. They suffer under the weight of pent up anger and with every slight or insult, with every instance of being overlooked, condescended or ignored, a smoldering rage begins to build within them.

Under these conditions, violence becomes the swiftest method and the surest tool to obtain recognition. Violence is used as leverage to attain the notice and the respect that can propel them from the mundane and the mediocre into the fabulous arena of importance, significance and validity. Even if they are apprehended and made to endure the penalty for their transgressions and non-conformity, they still are (finally!) acknowledged and even the worst kind of recognition is better than none at all.

The regulation of Black people to non-person status coupled with the pervasive climate of racism in America engenders a self-destructive mentality in many Blacks. They feel that America is not their country. That it is not treating them with the honor and dignity that their humanity demands. Thus, they descend into a fatalistic perspective and into destructive lifestyles. These perspectives are shared by some of America's brightest minds. Feagin and Vera explain in their book, "White Racism":

"Today a pessimistic view is common among some of the most insightful analysts of US racial relations. In 'Faces at the Bottom of the Well,' the prominent constitutional scholar Derick Bell argues that racism is so fundamental to this nation that African Americans will never gain equality with White Americans.

In Bell's view, neither time nor individual generosity will solve the problem. Whites have written a few freedom checks, such as passing unenforced laws, setting up the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, and allowing a few Blacks into high professional and managerial positions, but these measures are insufficient and evanescent. Even civil rights laws have collided with the real world of racial inequality and White power and have produced, at best, modest results." [5]

Thus Black men and women feel the need to qualify and to redeem themselves (not only from an oppressive past) but also from genocidal contemporary forces, and sometimes the frustration and anger over their condition pushes them to strike out blindly. Very often, the targets of their frustration and their rage are those who are closest to them.

Moreover, the ramifications of the self-hatred instilled in Blacks as a consequence of over three centuries of chattel slavery, Jim Crowism, economic exploitation and physical/mental torment, sparks episodes of Black violence. A violence that is carried out not only against adults but also in the last ten years is increasingly meted out on our most precious and vulnerable human treasures, our children. It is a frightening reality that in today's Black America, not even our children are safe from our most brutal and violent assaults.

Not too long ago, it was virtually unheard of for a Black man or woman to murder a child; sadly, we can no longer claim that distinction. Almost weekly in the national press, we are shocked with yet another incident of a Black person murdering a Black child. Often in (an up close and personal manner) with a knife or pummeling to death with some blunt force object such as a metal bar or club. Then there are the regular horror stories of Black babies being abandoned or the reports of children being perforated with bullets by some Black self-styled gangster in the cowardly act of a "drive by' shooting.

Today, increasing groups of Black men carry the infamous title of serial killer. A title that had for decades been the exclusive label to indicate a particular White male. It seems that through a process of corruption and exposure to Euro- American culture, values, passions, perversions, etc. Black serial killers are developed who are acting out the murderous designs of their White spiritual fathers.

CONTINUE >>>

© 2005 By Afromerica

Brother Steven Malik Shelton will be keeping the Black community updated on the most current Black experiences effecting our lives. Visit regularly for new information that could help you overcome and make the best of your everyday experiences.

To subscribe to Malik's column join the Afromerica email list to receive new information as it is updated. Or E-mail Shelton at: stevmalikshelton@comcast.net

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