On the same evening that Americans voted to give now-President-elect Trump a second chance to lead the nation, five criminals robbed and shot a popular chef, business owner and former football star, Tobias Dorzon, and his girlfriend as they were leaving a local restaurant.
Fortunately, their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening – which, from video captured during the attack, is nothing short of a miracle. Because of his longtime support to the community with jobs and philanthropic initiatives, the attack on Dorzon has evoked widespread support with some saying he’s “too good of a person to deserve” what occurred.
But does anyone deserve to be robbed, shot and left for dead? And to what should we attribute the rise in
Black-on-Black crime?
According to the Office of Justice Programs, Black homicide rates are seven to eight times higher than those of white Americans. In 2023, there were 9,284 Black murder victims in the U.S. while in nearly 90% of cases, the Black victim was killed by another Black. Meanwhile, 52% of the murder victims were acquainted with their assailant.
There are many reasons that officials count as factors that contribute to neighborhood violence –from systemic barriers like poverty and limited access to quality education to good jobs, affordable housing and high rates of illegal gun possession among young men in urban areas. But these reasons can no longer be used as excuses.
As a known racist, sexist, 34-time convicted felon and twice impeached man is about to take over the Oval Office, and has made promises that could have detrimental effects on Black communities in the DMV region and nation, it’s important to work to stop violence and unite toward progress.
With statistics showing that 90% of Black murder victims are killed by another African American person and more than half of those who have died knowing their murderer, it’s critical to combat community violence. Killing one another destroys the future of Black families, while uniting paves a way for a better tomorrow.
Instead of hostility and violence, it’s important to come together as many people brace for what could be a challenging time for Black Americans.
As a professor at Purdue University, I have researched this issue for several years and have found one of the main reasons for black crime rates being so high can be found in American black culture itself. Black students in school are taught that they have been mistreated and abused by white people throughout history, which has generated resentment and a desire to get even with those who black people believe have been their oppressors. An honest look into what has happened in American history reveals something quite different.
One of the main issues continues to be the history of slavery in the western hemisphere. How this actually happened began with the Jewish owned ships whose owners bought millions of Africans from African merchants for many years and brought them to the Americas, with about 4% arriving in North America (about 470,000). South and Central America received the vast majority, numbering in the millions.
In 1860, the United States had about 27 million people. 1.4 percent of them owned slaves. 4.5 million of that 27 million were black people, and fewer than four million of them lived in the South. That means there were many black people who owned land and lived free in America, and some of them owned slaves. For example, of the blacks residing in the South, 261,988 were not slaves, and 10,689 lived in New Orleans. The country’s leading African American historian, Duke University professor John Hope Franklin, records that in New Orleans alone, over 3,000 free black people owned slaves, or 28 percent of the free black people in that city.
Another never mentioned concept is that while slavery has existed for every race since the dawn of time, the first time any nation attempted to put a stop to it was when England and the United States made their efforts to do so. It still goes on in other parts of the world today.
There are many who want to encourage fighting between the races and many of them are the elite billionaires. There is no shortage of race hustlers making money off the lies they tell. It is everywhere in our culture today, you see it in countless movies and television shows, people should realize these are tools to manipulate them into focusing on the wrong issues.
Dr. Thomas Rickert
Purdue University