When people ask why Black Americans are disproportionately represented in some violent crime statistics, the answer cannot simply be, “because they are Black.” Race by itself does not explain violence. To understand these disparities, we have to look at poverty, neighborhood conditions, segregation, opportunity, family stability, exposure to violence, access to firearms, public policy, individual choices and history.
Most importantly, people do not begin life from the same starting position.
Most Crime Happens Close to Home
One reason people talk about “Black-on-Black crime” is that they misunderstand how crime generally works.
Violent crime is often committed against people who live near one another, socialize with one another, work near one another or otherwise interact regularly. Because many American neighborhoods and social networks remain divided by race and income, much violent crime occurs between people of the same race.
That is not unique to Black Americans.
White victims are also frequently victimized by White offenders. Black victims are frequently victimized by Black offenders. Geography, relationships and social proximity help explain these patterns.
The better question is not, “What is wrong with Black people?”
The better question is, “Why do some communities experience much higher levels of poverty, instability and violence than others?”
People Do Not Start at the Same Starting Line
Imagine two children born on the same day.
One is born into a family that owns a home in a safe neighborhood. The parents have reliable transportation, health insurance, savings and stable employment. The child attends a well-resourced school.
If the family’s car breaks down, they can afford the repair. If the child wants to attend college, the parents may be able to help. If the child needs an internship or job opportunity, family connections may open doors. When that child eventually wants to purchase a home, the family may even be able to help with a down payment.
Now consider another child born into a family living paycheck to paycheck in a high-poverty neighborhood.
The parents may work hourly jobs with little flexibility. Transportation may be unreliable. The family may rent instead of own a home and have little accumulated wealth. The local school may have fewer resources. One medical emergency, eviction, job loss or major car repair can become a financial crisis.
That child may also grow up with greater exposure to neighborhood violence simply because violence is more concentrated where the family can afford to live.
Those children can be equally intelligent, equally hardworking and equally moral while still having dramatically different opportunities.
Pretending they started from the same position does not create equality.
Those Different Starting Positions Have a History
The economic differences we see today did not appear overnight.
For generations, Black Americans were enslaved and legally prevented from accumulating wealth and property in the same way as White Americans.
After slavery came segregation, Jim Crow laws, racial discrimination, political disenfranchisement and racial violence.
Even after those laws were eliminated, their economic effects did not immediately disappear.
Black Wall Street Shows How Wealth Can Be Destroyed
One of the clearest examples is the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
The Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was home to a prosperous Black community sometimes called “Black Wall Street.”
A White mob attacked the community. Black residents were killed, homes and businesses were looted and burned, and approximately 35 city blocks were destroyed.
A modern review by the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that the attack was systematic and coordinated and involved thousands of White Tulsans. The review also documented participation and failures by local authorities.Read the U.S. Department of Justice review of the Tulsa Race Massacre
Think about the economic consequences.
A successful business or home can provide wealth that is passed from parents to children and grandchildren. Destroying that property does not only hurt the person who owned it in 1921. It can affect generations of descendants who never receive the wealth that property might have produced.
Housing Discrimination Also Limited Wealth
Housing has historically been one of the most important ways American families have built wealth.
For decades, however, Black families faced discriminatory housing practices, restrictive covenants, redlining and barriers to obtaining mortgages or purchasing homes in certain neighborhoods.
That mattered because a home is more than a place to live. It can appreciate in value, provide financial security, help finance education and eventually become an inheritance.
When one generation is prevented from accumulating property, the next generation often begins with fewer resources. Learn more from the National Archives about housing discrimination and the Great Migration
The GI Bill Did Not Benefit Everyone Equally
After World War II, federal programs helped millions of veterans attend college, purchase homes and enter the middle class.
Black veterans were legally eligible for many of these benefits, but discrimination in housing, banking and education often prevented them from receiving the same opportunities in practice.
While many White families were able to purchase homes and accumulate equity that could later be passed to their children, many Black veterans encountered barriers to doing the same thing. Read about the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, commonly known as the GI Bill, from the National Archives
How Capitalism Can Reinforce an Unequal Starting Point
Capitalism rewards ownership, investment and accumulated capital.
That means the system works very differently depending on what someone owns when they enter it.
A person whose parents own a home, have investments, carry little debt and can help pay for college has opportunities that someone beginning adulthood with debt and no family wealth may not have.
That does not mean success is impossible for someone who starts with less. Millions of people overcome enormous disadvantages.
It does mean that pretending everyone begins with identical opportunities ignores reality.
If one group of Americans was historically permitted to accumulate property and wealth while another group faced legal and social barriers to doing so, simply announcing that everyone is equal today cannot immediately erase generations of accumulated advantage and disadvantage.
Public Policy Matters
Government policy can either reduce these disadvantages or make them harder to overcome.
This is one reason I criticize many Republican policies that reduce or restrict programs such as Medicaid, food assistance, affordable housing programs, education funding and other forms of assistance intended to help low-income families become more stable.
That does not mean every Republican is racist. It does not mean every Democratic program works. It means policies have consequences, and those consequences should be evaluated.
Programs that improve education, health care, housing stability, employment and access to food can provide people with tools to escape poverty. Policies that remove those supports can have a greater impact on communities that already have fewer resources.
We should debate whether individual programs work, how much they cost and how they can be improved. But dismissing every form of assistance as dependency ignores the role that economic stability can play in reducing desperation and creating opportunity.
Poverty and Violence Are Closely Connected
Research consistently shows a strong relationship between concentrated poverty and violence.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that firearm homicide rates are substantially higher in communities experiencing the greatest levels of poverty.
The CDC also identifies economic conditions, housing, education, community environments and other social factors as important parts of understanding violence. Learn more about firearm violence prevention from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
That does not mean poverty automatically turns someone into a criminal.
The overwhelming majority of poor Americans do not commit violent crimes.
It means that concentrated poverty can create conditions that increase the risk of violence across a community.
Personal Responsibility Still Matters
None of this eliminates personal responsibility.
People make choices, and people should be held responsible for those choices.
Some people will be offered opportunities and reject them. Some people repeatedly make destructive decisions. Some people will not accept help regardless of how many programs, counselors, teachers, jobs or second chances are offered.
There is no government program capable of saving every person.
But those people should not be treated as representative of everyone living in poverty.
Most people want many of the same basic things: a safe place to live, enough money to pay their bills, reliable employment, good schools for their children, access to health care and an opportunity for the next generation to have a better life.
When millions of people struggle economically, saying they simply do not want to succeed is not a serious explanation.
History Also Shows Why Race Cannot Be the Cause
If race itself caused violence, racial patterns of violence should remain essentially the same across different places and throughout history.
They do not.
American history contains countless examples of White violence against Black Americans.
Slavery was maintained through violence and the threat of violence. Racial terrorism and lynching were used to intimidate Black communities. The Tulsa Race Massacre involved White attackers destroying a prosperous Black community.
Apartheid South Africa provides another historical example of a political and social system in which a White minority controlled institutions that systematically oppressed and used violence against the Black majority.
None of these examples mean White people are inherently violent.
They demonstrate the opposite.
Patterns of violence change with political power, economics, segregation, conflict, geography, opportunity and social conditions.
Privilege Does Not Mean Someone Has Never Struggled
Privilege is also frequently misunderstood.
A White person can grow up extremely poor. That person can experience abuse, lose parents, struggle with addiction in the family, work several jobs and overcome enormous hardship.
Acknowledging racial privilege does not erase any of those experiences.
It simply means that being White was not an additional obstacle that person had to overcome.
People can experience advantages in one part of life and serious disadvantages in another.
A Better Way to Think About the Starting Line
Imagine life as a race.
Some people begin ahead because their families have accumulated wealth, property, education and connections.
Some begin at the starting line.
Others begin behind because they inherit poverty, debt, unstable housing, underfunded schools or other disadvantages they had no role in creating.
Then society watches who reaches the finish line first and sometimes assumes the winner must simply have worked harder.
Hard work matters.
So does where someone started.
Watch: Understanding Privilege and Opportunity
The following video provides a visual example of how people can begin life with very different advantages and disadvantages. Watch the video about privilege, opportunity and different starting points on YouTube
For accessibility, videos should include accurate captions. A written transcript should also be provided when one is available.
Race Is Not the Explanation
If we genuinely want to understand racial disparities in crime and gun violence, we have to look deeper than someone’s skin color.
Poverty matters. Neighborhood conditions matter. Education matters. Housing matters. Employment matters. Family stability matters. Trauma matters. Exposure to violence matters. Access to firearms matters. Generational wealth matters. Public policy matters. History matters. Personal choices matter.
Several of those things can be true at the same time.
The goal should not be to excuse criminal behavior. People who hurt others should be held accountable.
The goal should be to understand what contributes to violence so we can prevent more of it.
If an explanation for racial disparities begins and ends with “Black people are more violent,” it has not actually explained anything. It has taken a statistic, ignored the conditions surrounding it and turned it into a racial stereotype.
Understanding how people arrived at different starting positions does not eliminate personal responsibility.
It gives us a better chance of creating policies that allow more people to succeed.
