Black History Month in Delaware began with all the usual suspects – including a U.S. Senator -- presenting all the usual indictments of racism. All at a Lutheran church
If there was any mention of black mob violence or black on white crime in this city that is regularly listed as one of the most dangerous in America, it was only in passing. And only to represent the perpetrators as the real victims.
Black teenagers, for example, who were kicked out of high school for violence and truancy were said to be victims of uncaring counselors who threw them into a life of crime by suggesting they go to night school. There was a lot of that: More than 60 percent of black students in Wilmington, Delaware drop out of high school.
As for the real victims, black and white, of the school violence and behavior that disrupted their learning, there was not a word. That includes teachers and even school bus drivers.
Nor did anyone mention how two of the panel members voted for a local city council resolution a few weeks before that declared Wilmington’s black criminals were the real victims: They were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by slavery.
And the city councilmember who proposed the ordinance knew that because she had just seen the movie 12 Years a Slave.
Nor did anyone talk about how, just a few days before, a member of the Nation of Islam bearing a message from Louis Farrakhan, told a roomful of the top elected and political officials in the area, that anyone who talked about crime in Wilmington was doing the work of “the enemy.” And they were trying to discredit the re-election efforts of the city’s black mayor.
Don’t look for a footnote, I was in the audience. (And yes, I was waiting for the men in white coats to rush the room.)
Meanwhile black mob violence and black on white crime and black racial resentment grows and grows and grows. All around the country.
All during Black History Month.
Especially during Black History Month. So let’s take a look at even more black mob violence from Black History Month 2014.
Starting in Chickasaw, Alabama.
Carroll Jordan might be dead by the time you read this -- a victim of black mob violence.
Jordan is an 86-year old white man who kept his door unlocked so that his neighbors could check in on him. One of his neighbors -- a black woman -- was doing just that. But when she knocked, an unfamiliar face answered the door. She pushed her way in.
“I walked in and saw Mr. Jordan laying on the other side of his chair,” said the neighbor her.” He was bloody in his face and he was gasping for air. I turned around to the young man and asked him “What have you done?”878
They did not stick around to answer. And now police are looking for “three teenage suspects -- all black men around the ages of 18 and 19 years old,” said the WKRG TV news.
Black suspects are often not identified by race in local news reports -- although race is almost always listed in police reports. Many news directors say just naming the race of the suspects does not add much to the description. So using it can only inflame racial tensions.
But in this case, the TV reporter identified the race of the suspects. And today, three of the alleged assailants are in custody. Turns out, race was the only part of the description that was completely accurate: They were not all teenagers. And not all guys. But they were all back.
Police say Jordan was stabbed five or six times in the back. His face was swollen and cut as well from an extensive beating about the head. He is on and off a ventilator and WKRG says his family and friends are “hoping for the best but prepared for the worst.”
He died.
In a story about black crime in Tuskegee, Alabama during Black History Month, the former mayor, Omar Neal, says black crime and violence will exist as long as leaders ignore the real cause: “The displaced anger" of black males who have been relegated to the margins of society. That is what he told the Ledger-Inquirer, anyway.879
I’m not sure, but I think that means a long time.
We already met, in San Antonio, Cory Robinson who woke up with fractured skull after a black mob beat him and yelled, “get the white boy” and “knockout.”880
He will live. Police are still looking for the 6 to 10 black people responsible. Actually the crowd was much larger. All during Black History Month 2014.
Indianapolis started Black History Month with large-scale black mob violence downtown during the first two weekends of the month. In the latest episode, police and hundreds of people were fighting, and three officers were injured.881
Indianapolis – especially downtown – is the scene of frequent and intense black mob violence, including dozens of episodes from the annual Black Expo, the largest gathering of its kind in America.882
There are examples from Austin, Norfolk, College Park (Pennsylvania), and other spots. But let’s get to the one area that many people still say is causing this violence and mayhem: Jobs.
If there is one thing that solves crime -- everyone at the Black History Forum agreed -- it is jobs.
So you might think that many people in Wilmington would welcome a new company that wanted to spend $250 million to rebuild the Port of Wilmington.
Not so. Black city officials and black labor union leaders killed the deal last year after convincing people that the plans for a new port would somehow jeopardize jobs. There was not a word about that from the podium.
But they were in unanimous agreement that the government did need to offer more programs and more free stuff.
The featured speaker at this forum was U.S. Senator Chris Coons. He concluded his remarks by asking the mixed race audience to pray for Republicans because they are trying to take away the right to vote from black people.
All the earnest white people nodded their heads in agreement.
Amen.