Black Folks: I Know We Can’t be Shocked at Current Black-on-Black Male Violence and Homicides When it's Been Going on For Decades!

by Kenny Anderson

This Blog post addresses the current ‘recent’ rash of Black violence primarily Black-on-Black male homicides across this country. Let me start off by saying Black-on-Black male homicides is nothing new in most of my lifetime. For me coming of age in the 1970’s until now a period of 6 decades Black-on-Black male homicides have consistently been very high!

As a retired social worker (32 plus years) the overwhelming majority of my work was providing in-school behavioral prevention services to at-risk Black boys (K-12) and pre-release prison re-entry supportive education to adult Black males. I was one of the original Black male social workers providing fatherhood and male responsibility services in the late 1980's and early 1990's in Detroit.

I’ve examined and addressed Black-on-Black male violence and homicides with Black males ages 5 to 95. My father still living at 99 years of age told me that when he was growing-up in rural Mississippi Black men stabbed each other to death every weekend in “Juke Joints”.

Through my extensive engagement with Black males, the feedback from them, and my experience, observation, and thinking as a Black man I’ve identified from my perspective 2 major factors ‘forces’ driving Black-on-Black male violence and homicides.

First driving factor is ‘verbal induced psychic-devaluation’, as soon as Black boys leave the womb to the tomb they are saturated verbally hearing the words ‘a Nigga Aint Shit’!!! This means as a Black male you’re worthless; nobody cares if you live or die, you’re better off dead than alive so die Nigga die whether by suicide or homicide.

I’ve heard countless times Black grandmothers, mothers, aunties, female friends, and Black women in general constantly echo around little Black boys that Niggas Aint Shit not realizing the extreme verbal-psycho damage being done! Along with most rap music a Nigga Aint Shit is a 24/7 verbal assault theme and hook.

This daily verbal assault of a Nigga Aint Shit floods the brains of Black boys and young adult Black males with negative thinking of worthlessness ‘cognitive toxicity’ cascade that’s overwhelming which becomes too often a self-fulfilling prophecy of Black-on-Black male violence and homicides.

Indeed negative verbal-cognitive programming, socioeconomic deprivation, and chronic stress has a compounded ‘synergistic’ affect that drives Black-on-Black male violence and homicides that’s become normalcy in our communities desensitizing too many Black males.

Regarding negative verbal-cognitive self-worthlessness programming Stanley 'Tookie' Williams Crip gang co-founder referred to it as ‘dyseducation’ (disease education) a term he coined describing the abnormal, impaired, and diseased knowledge he received from life and from the public school system growing up in LA; Tookie stated:

“The more I was indoctrinated by lies about my Blackness, the more I grew to detest myself.” Tookie also reflected: “Throughout most of my life, I was psychologically scarred; I carried and inner loathing of self and my own culture. Since I wasn’t psychotic – Bobby Wright’s book “Psychopathic Racial Personality” confirms my analysis, self-hatred motivated me to seek a kind of accomplishment by hurting other Blacks.”

Second, there is the driving factor of socioeconomic deprivation chronic stress that causes high levels of Black male frustration and anger ‘misplaced, misdirected’. When Black male frustration anger caused by racist institutional neglect is directed toward the wrong person or source ‘other Black men; this misdirected anger - the actual cause goes unaddressed which causes anger to fester and explode violently every day.

What’s a trip, is, in a sick perverted way many violent eruptions by Black males allows them to ‘release’ pent up frustration and anger – provides them with ‘relief’ (catharsis). Yes, misdirected Black male anger will never solve the problem of racist institutional neglect, it’ll constantly keep things deadly worse’.

Until the Black community seriously with sincerity intervenes consistently making Black-on-Black male violence and homicides one of our own #1 public heath priorities ‘which we’ve never done’ that addresses verbal-cognitive self-worthlessness programming, racist socioeconomic deprivation, chronic stress, and misdirected anger the cycle of Black-on-Black male violence and homicides will continue ‘tick-tock and it won’t stop’!