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African-American males in Detroit between the ages of 15 and 24 are dying at a rate that is roughly seven times higher than the rest of the Detroit population. If they were dying at the same rate as everyone else, there would be one death every three weeks. Instead, there are two black men dying every single week.
This has set off alarm bells within the Detroit Police Department, which has taken heavy criticism for its policing of the black community. Their most recent embarrassment was the shooting of 7-year old Aiyana Jones during a police raid. But the Chief of Police, Ralph Godbee Jr., is concerned about black men killing one another.
A 2009 report by the FBI chronicles the growing national trend of black male homicide. According to the report, a black male was about six times more likely than a white man to be a victim of homicide. Although black males account for only 7 percent of the Detroit population, they constitute 25 percent of the homicides.
Recently, I wrote about how prominent black scholars, such as Dr. Julianne Malveaux, are speaking up on behalf of the suffering of Detroit residents. The point here is that the suffering will not end until we allocate resources to stop the devastation. As of this moment, genocide of black men is contributing to the erosion of the black family. When a black boy is left uneducated by a decaying inner city school system, he is then unemployed and ultimately either the victim of murder or incarceration. Nearly half of all the black men in my family have either been to jail or come close to death.
Both our society and the black family have engaged in a creative partnership for the destruction and death of black boys, and it's time for that partnership to end. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama, both of whom happen to be black males, have the power to stop this.
Sure, it won't be easy, and it's difficult to care about black males without getting resistance from politicians who've been trained to hate them, but I am hopeful that black elected officials in Washington will gain the moral courage to take a stand on this important issue.
The black boys who choose to kill one another do not start off in the world as demons. The world demonizes us, and we respond accordingly. It makes us angry, bitter, marginalized and violent. When growing up in a world that doesn't accept you, you find yourself doing things you wouldn't normally do and caught up in situations you'd never envisioned for yourself. Believe me, I've been in this theater of life, with a front row seat.
Fix the schools, create youth programs, invest in mentorship. That is how the black male is going to survive.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
Comments: (326)
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By: Ron on 9/08/2010 3:32AM
You must be non black Bill a so called Jew I will persume? That is the word of a coward.If we could swith skin color tommorrow you would not survive a week in my dark brown skin.
Yes we as a culture do perpetrate the sterotypes and the negative images. And few have the courage and inner resolve to turn their backs and sell out from the ghetto and venture outside of it, pick up a book and a pen and paper and learn about who they are in the eyes or the Most High and see all things are they really are.
They want to 'keep it real' and 'stay hood.' Then they attack those blacks who have chosen to learn how to read, write, speak and spell so they can be empowered to fend for themselves!
It starts at home, and it starts with the lack of Fathers in the submission of the "Most High" who will Love their families and care for them like he did the world.
But Bill we are all to blame! Now it is up to those who want to listen to the true message of hope, faith, and salvation.
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By: Frugalosity on 9/12/2010 9:51PM
It is too bad this young men are handling their poor economic situation by attacking one another. However, it is the opposite of white men. When poor economic situations come into the lives of white men they either kill themselves or they take their whole family down with them. We have two different racial groups of men who handle poor economic situations in very different ways.
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By: BIG T. on 9/16/2010 1:18PM
LET ME SHARE MY OBSERVATION: In the more prominent neighborhoods I've noticed that young Black and White males have more opportunities for recreation and entertainment which allows them to focus less on killing each other robbing people and making babies, they also have more positive parents and friends to encourage them as far as preparing for a positive future, whereas in the less prominent communities and neighborhoods it is painted with negativity, non-encouragement, and lacks recreational entertainment which leads to boredom which leads to drugs and sex and negative "I aint got nothing to lose" attitudes and the feeling that you gotta get money "by any means necessary" (killing and robbing and drug dealing) to get any kind of future and respect from the streets, (if you can't play sports really really good...) what are they supposed to do when NOBODY cares about them, why should they give a Damn about YOU! If you have an answer "don't tell me..." Go down their and tell, and help THEM, their future is gone from the moment they are born, because the Media wants to focus on the problem instead of the SOLUTIONS.
Big T.
PS: Watch ya back, because the real money is in your neighborhoods and they have already started branching out. (Stolen cars/Home invasions...)
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By: robert on 10/19/2010 2:36AM
This is a racist comment as he is referring to this opinion as if all blacks felt this way. Anyone who agrees with this comment is a racist as well. Don't say "blacks" as if every black person feels the same way.
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By: Eric on 9/03/2010 12:53PM
This is just another in a continuing series of negative events that are ongoing in the black community! Where are as usual...the parents? The community leaders, the so-called black church leaders, and the community as a whole? Nobody is on the radar as per usual! These killings also nothing more than the usual "negative behavior" that black people continue to embrace, and at the same time talk about all that 'fake" love that we're supposed to have for one another! We're too busy talking all that nonsense abut it"being all good", but in reality it only continues to make us look childish, immature, irresponsible, and just like animals to everybody! It's easy to see why people of other races don't care to live around us! Where's the likes of Al Sharpton, and that Civil Rights crowd? They too are nothing but self serving buffoons, and they also could care less about blacks continuing to kill one another! If, a white man kills a black then they'd all be there, and again "marching" which is the same tired BS,that accomplishes absolutely nothing! Nothing will change in the black communities...until black people themselves want to change their behavior, and exercise some personal responsibility for a change! But, we know all to well that's not going to ever happen any time soon! So, I suggest that you keep killing one another, then perhaps the problems will eventually go away! Sad, but true!
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By: Charles on 9/04/2010 6:53AM
you're right about if anyone else was doing the killing , I can hear the crying now . Where is the Black leadership oh thats right he's down in Arizona stomping for the illegal mexicans. Obama has shown himself to be a coward when it cames to black issues . has he even muttered the word black since taking office ? where are the detroit civic leaders ? are there any? what is causing the self hatred? who is still living there ? I have a 6 yr old son and I can't see myself so attach to a city as to put him harms way .
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By: Michael on 9/07/2010 10:00AM
Eric - we black people are not looking at our situation properly. We don't seem to have perspective to realize how early we are in our freedom/redemption struggle.
The USA is a system which operates a particular way (capitalist, representative govt). Blacks have always had a special designation in this system because our slave-status created it. Because this status persisted 2 centuries in a row - a literal tradition was created (that all the people practiced). It's been slightly tweaked since then, but black's voting/civil rights were customarily denied as late as 1960s. Because of white backlash over CR/VR acts and so-called affirmative action, Reagan's election began the process of re-oppressing black people. Cointelpro, the war on drugs, (all genocidal attacks on the black man - get him out the picture and the women will give up and abandon him), distracted/snakeoil so-called black representatives - and you have 2010 black America. Just about exterminated with all qual life stats in the toilet.
Black people - now is not the time to turn on each other (here me black woman). You folks (HORRORS!) are evidently blind to the genocidal, sytemic attacks and therefore can't fight em properly. I understand and I'm gonna share my information with you because, make no mistake, this is life and death.
Black people - be strong and gentle and loving and caring and supportive to each other. Stop the battle of the sexes cause it's just old slavery tactics expressed in 2010. Just shows that, really, very little has changed.
Now to you brainwashed, coldhearted, so-called successful blacks - stop kidding yourself. Have you read all the quality of life stats? Oh, that has nothing to do with you, huh? Trust me - your ice-coldness is part of the problem.
I'm a black man (with some knowledge and understanding) so let's talk.
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By: Angel M on 9/03/2010 1:21PM
Its so sad, Detroit is so off the chains, my cousing was shot 22 times because he had money on him. I pray for the health and restoration of Detroit Michigan
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By: big jojo on 9/05/2010 2:16PM
Angel M, I am so sorry to hear about the death of your loved one, I have lost a loved one to violence as well. However, Detroit did not murder him, he was killed because of drug money. Like my loved one's killing, most of the murders are done by people who know each other, and are not random crimes. Of course store robberies and carjackings are exceptions to the rule. We all know that these things happen everywhere. Just look at what happened to Bill Cosby's son was murdered trying to help a "friend" in trouble.It was probably a set-up, but nobody blames L.A.
Again, I am very sorry for your loss.
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By: BillSchrier on 9/03/2010 2:54PM
Okay, here's a hilarious story that just hit the wires: Jesse Jackson's Escalade stolen in Detroit and stripped!!! lol! But how is he going to blame this one on "racism", it was black thugs who did it!!
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100903/MIVIEW/100903001/1467/opinion01/Payne--The-irony-of-Jesse-Jackson-s-stripped-SUV
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