I see that the petitions to secede are still making the news, and some are still saying 'good riddance' to states with the most signatories. While secessionist tendencies do likely have root in fear, hate and bigotry, there is enough of such things to go around. In fact I would speculate that many people who say "let them go" are working off such fear, perhaps for the same reason so many Conservatives were more confortable keeping their basic bigoted beliefs than winning an election. Beliefs form a blanket of comfort, allowing many to simplify a complex world.
Indeed, changing one's belief not only requires that one accepts facts over childhood fantasy, but also that one accepts personal situations as less than ideal, riddled with things we fear. Such acceptance can lead to real change, but often change that is beneficial to the state, the country, the world, but not always the individual, at least in the short them.
We see this in the old belief that humans could be property, that some humans were created to make other human's life better and easier, and if they were trouble they could be eliminated. Sound familiar? Yes, this is slavery, but also the world described in The Jungle. This was the world in which Emmit Till was brutally savaged and murdered, but also a world in which homosexuals were brutally treated culminating in a the 1969 riots in New York. This is a world in which police are recorded on tape arbitrarily killing black men or trying to protect other police who push sticks up suspects assholes yet are exonerated. We live in world where women are told they were raped because of the weather, not because the rapist is a criminal.
The truth is that Emmet no longer needs to travel Mississippi to be murdered. He can stay in Chicago, one of the many ghetto cities of the North, where the minority population is herded and allowed to live their short lives without the benefit of proper education of police protection. Facts suggest that Tthe issue is no longer whose long dead ancestors did and did not own slaves, but who, today, is doing something to relieve the ills from legacy.
So here is my concern, and it has been my concern since I notice that on many weekend, mostly in predominately black cities in the north, multiple person would be shot. This really came to head when a single person was shot in Florida by a clearly crazy person on citizen patrol. One person, really, what about the three that were shot just going about their business up north? Of course in Florida, in the south, we shot black people because we are racist. Up north, there are other reasons.
Some say that these ghettos are created by the invisible hand, not by government as it is in the South. Economic forces put these people in these places, where they can afford to live. It is not the government, but their unwillingness to become educated, to work hard, to pull themselves up. The crime is high because they are criminals, because crime is easier than a job.
Some say that ghettos are only part of cities, but in the modern world we see increasingly that the ghetto is the city. Everyone who can goes to the suburbs or exburbs or a better city. I think the government has power, and the people have power, and when we allow such ghettos, we are making a decision.
I believe that some northern states are making this decision. Crime paralyzes a city, and a high murder rate can not only paralyze, but can steal a future of a potentially highly productive people. It steals the future of even those that survive. If I know someone who has been murdered, does that make me feel like the future is bright? I would think not. I have been fortunate in that everyone I know has died of natural causes, and I believe I have a future. I wonder how many people do not.
I went though the 2010 data in the FBI Uniform Crime report looking for the cities with the top murder rates and a population over 250,000. Of course such data is unreliable, self reported, and complex. But that is the point. I chose the top 20. I then went to the US Census website and pulled out data for, as the government calls it, 'Black Persons'. I then looked at the percentage of Black Persons in these cities as compared to the state, to come up with Black Population Factor, i.e. how over represented the city was compared to the state. I then looked at the state murder rate and compared it to the cities murder rate, and again created a factor of how overrepresented murder was in the city. Unlike some people who may comment on this, I did not go to wikipedia.
For comparison I added four southern cities that did not make the list either because of low population or low murder rate. Below are the results.
City |
%Population |
Black Population Factor |
Murder Factor |
New Orleans, LOUISIANA, South |
8 |
2 |
5 |
Detroit, MICHIGAN, Midwet |
7 |
6 |
8 |
St. Louis, MISSOURI, Midwest |
5 |
4 |
5 |
Newark, NEW JERSEY, Northeast |
3 |
3 |
8 |
Baltimore, MARYLAND, South |
11 |
2 |
4 |
Oakland, CALIFORNIA, West |
1 |
4 |
5 |
Kansas City, MISSOURI, Midwest |
8 |
3 |
3 |
Philadelphia, PENNSYLVANIA, Northeast |
12 |
4 |
4 |
Atlanta, GEORGIA, South |
4 |
2 |
4 |
Cincinnati, OHIO, Midwest |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Stockton, CALIFORNIA, West |
1 |
2 |
4 |
Cleveland, OHIO, Midwest |
3 |
4 |
4 |
Memphis, TENNESSEE, South |
10 |
4 |
3 |
Miami, FLORIDA, South |
2 |
1 |
3 |
Chicago, ILLINOIS , Midwest |
21 |
2 |
3 |
Pittsburgh, PENNSYLVANIA, Northeast |
2 |
2 |
3 |
Milwaukee, WISCONSIN, Midwest |
10 |
6 |
5 |
Buffalo, NEW YORK, Northeast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Tulsa, OKLAHOMA, South |
11 |
2 |
2 |
Dallas, TEXAS,South |
5 |
2 |
2 |
Mobile, ALABAMA, South |
5 |
2 |
2 |
Little Rock, ARKANSAS, South |
7 |
3 |
4 |
Jackson, MISSISSIPPI, South |
6 |
2 |
4 |
Looking at this data we see that four of the five top cities are not in the deep south(Maryland is classified as South by the FBI). In three of these cities the black population is over represented by a factor of at 3, in Detroit by a factor of 6, and the one has 8 time the chance to be murdered in Detroit or Newark as one does in the states of Michigan and New Jersey, respectively?
Why is this the case in the enlightened North that takes such delight in pointing out the racist past of the South? It is because urban areas are more violent simply because they have more minorities? Or is it because resources like education, nutrition, proper policing, and public infrastructure maintenance are kept away from these cities? Do we spend so much money on building roads and trains for those that want to live far away that there are no resources for those who need a hand up? I don't know. I am not qualified to answer these questions. I just know what I found when I looked at the data.
What I do see with my own eyes is that a diverse population does not a high crime hub make. In Houston, for example, the population is 26% white, 24% Black, and 44% Hispanic. Overall the state of Texas is 45% white non hispanic, far below the national average of 63%. The black population in Houston is comparable, though lower, to that of the cities on the list. Houston does not have a crime rate that made the top twenty. The FBI reports 198 murders in a population of 2.1 million, or 9 per hundred thousand. On the other hand the nice Midwestern town of Cincinnati, had 20 murders per hundred thousand. Both Texas and Ohio, overall, have comparable murder rates. In Texas, however, when you enter a majority minority urban center, that rate does not quadruples.