Thread by @FrankDeScushin

The below @TIME article from 1958 about black crime shows that in the past 64 years nothing on the subject has changed. The figures, the excuses, and the blame all remain the same. It's Groundhog Day, but unlike the movie it's real and its consequences aren't funny.
A thread...

It's important to discuss black crime for two reasons. First, society's "conspiracy of concealment" discussed in the article. Second, also in the article, whites get blamed. That blame becomes a blood libel where revenge is sought and innocent people attacked.

Now the article...

People joked about the jump to 13-60 when the 2020 crime stats were released (13% of the population committing 60% of the homicides), but in 1956 it was 10-60 -- 10% of the population committing 60% of the violent crime.

Though the article's opening paragraph told us that the high black crime rate was something "many of the North's big city mayors groan" about the body article shows that the issue is universal.

The article then gets into the standard excuses we've all heard such as that the stats are distorted because the police are eager to arrest blacks over petty offenses. Even excuses that you thought were new Woke terms such as "subconscious bias" were already present in 1958.

It's next suggested that the problem isn't too much policing, it's too little policing -- the police don't care about black victims. It's the proverbial "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Either approach apparently suggests police racism, and by extension white racism.

The "conspiracy of concealment" about black crime was already present in 1958. It was driven by black interest organizations like the NAACP and supported by politicians courting the black vote. Sound familiar?

That "conspiracy of concealment" extended to whites feeling uncomfortable discussing the high black crime rate and admonishing those who do; and media excluded race when reporting on violent crime to limit public awareness. Absolutely nothing has changed.

Some black leaders in '58 blamed the black crime rate on needing to get adjusted to Northern cities, but the article notes that new European immigrants had lower crime rates than recently migrated blacks as do Hispanic and Asian immigrants today.

Next, we get the most common explanation: poverty. Yet poor whites had a drastically lower crime rate then blacks in '58 and continue to do so today, but now in 2022 we see that poor Hispanics and Asians also have a lower crime rate. The poverty excuse falls flat under scrutiny.

The author admits public housing won't help because "better housing does not automatically bring about the improvement in character and conduct that do-gooders used to predict." Cabrini Green in Chicago, Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, and other public housing proved the author right.

The author then suggests that black leaders, including the NAACP, could help address the high black crime rate if they stop concealing it, start admitting it, and accept responsibility. That hasn't happened. That will never happen.

But even in '58 a TIME article on black crime could only ask black leaders to take responsibility if the author demanded that whites take even greater responsibility because, didn't you know, it's them who is the true problem.

The author suggests blacks break the law because they're excluded from society. Since '58 we've seen Affirmative Action, hiring preferences, positive media portrayals, and numerous ways which blacks have been included in society. Many responded well -- yet the same crime rate.

Despite the author's excuses we see him being honest in ways you can't today. For instance, he notes "the standards of personal morality, discipline and responsibility [in black ghettos] are lower than those in the white world outside." Today that line would get him fired.

Society's doors have been opened to black Americans. Many have walked through and done well. Yet despite the doors being open and countless black Americans and immigrants taking advantage of it, we still see the same crime rate. The excuses are lies and lies have consequences.

One consequence is crime isn't properly addressed. That would draw attention to it. People die as a result. Another consequence is people raising the topic are called racist or a coon; their call for awareness seen as a greater sin than the crimes themselves.

As you see, little has changed on this topic over the past 64 years, and nothing will over the next 64 if let to the media, politicians, and the timid who comprise the "conspiracy of concealment". It's on you to speak truth and not wither to those who call truth "hate".