Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (2014)

I don’t know what kind of issues black people in the UK face because I do not live there. But as someone who has lived in Brooklyn, NY for decades, I know about the biggest problems that black people in the US face because I see it all around me.

Out of any demographic group here in the US, African-Americans have by far the highest teen pregnancy rate, the highest high school dropout rate, and the highest homicide rate. On the last point, according the CDC the leading cause of death amongst African-American males is homicide. (Black men killing other black men.) Almost none of the black youth here have any kind of relationship with their fathers. This is especially dangerous for males. A male who grows up poor without a father is much more likely to end up becoming a criminal.

The thing is, lecturing white people about their privilege won’t fix any of this because these are not things that are done TO the black community by whites. This is what the black community does to itself.

I’m not denying that racism exists or that terrible things have been done to black people historically. But that doesn’t account for all or even most of the top issues facing African-Americans today. When it comes to racism and the sins of the past (slavery, Jim Crow, etc.) some of us white people have more sympathy than others. (And to be sure, some of us very little). But it’s hard to listen to the same grievances over and over when there is no accountability for the mistakes that are constantly made by the community itself.