Race, Crime, and History by Somebody35 (Edison State College)

26. October 2009 by student.

Next year my friends and I will be moving together, therefore we went to take a look at some places we found online. By the end of the day we just had to decide between two places. So, we decided to go back to our second option and take a look around, it was like that that we got into the computer lab that this place offers. As we walked inside the room I noticed that three guys were using the computers and that as soon as they saw us, they started making comments about us and checking us out. After we left the place a really interesting conversation started (to make it a little easier I will write the conversation in dialogues)

Friend: “I won’t move to that place. I don’t like it”

I: “But you were the one who said that that place was a little bit cheaper and nice”

Friend: “I just changed of opinion; I don’t like the place…”

I noticed something was wrong so I insisted and insisted to her to tell me what the real problem was. My friend finally said: “Did you see the guys who where there? Did you hear what they were saying about us and how they looked at us? How they were checking us out? I didn’t like it.” “Hmm” I thought to myself and said: “Did you mean the three black guys who were at the computer?” She said: “Yes, them.” So I couldn’t help but ask: “What exactly annoyed you? The fact that they were checking us out? or the fact that they were black and were checking us out?” So she answered: “I don’t mind them being black, what annoyed me was that they were checking us out, they almost break their neck” I answered: “what if those guys were white? would it still annoy you?” She replied:” Do you know that black people are more likely to commit crimes than white people?” With this I didn’t know what to answer; so, I decided to make some research about race and crime and how they go along.

This is what I found:

Bureau of Statistics: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/race.htm

Federal Burea of Investigation: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/adducr/age_race_specific.pdf

Indeed, apparently race and crime go along. But why is that so? It may because of the historical background?  Ever since their freedom was taken from them, and they were forced to come here to serve others, they were treated violently. They were just used as object, were thought not to have a soul, maybe this grew hate on them, resentment and violence; violence that was thought to them through their “masters” when things didn’t go the way they wanted to. Finally, they were set free but had already been thought how to solve things that were not going the way they wanted, thru the same violence they experienced.

Now, you would ask: What about the other races? What about them? How do you explain their crime? Think of this: Do we really welcome or at least try to be nice to those who come from a different country? Do we tread them kindly? Or the only thing we think when we see in an immigrant is: “Would she/he be legal? Because if not I won’t waste my time, they should all be deported”. Sure thing is that there are many more other things that just historical background for the crimes that occur but is it also how we treat others and how we teach them how to treat us back.

“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them. ” - Thomas More.

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