Interracial violence in America, by the numbers

Heather Mac Donald writes about the pandemic of violence that spread across America after the killing of George Floyd. Her excellent article includes this statistic:

Between 2012 and 2015, blacks committed 85.5 percent of all black-white interracial violent victimizations (excluding interracial homicide, which is also disproportionately black-on-white). That works out to 540,360 felonious assaults on whites. Whites committed 14.4 percent of all interracial violent victimization, or 91,470 felonious assaults on blacks.

Blacks commit around 70 percent of black-white interracial homicides. I take it that, as a statistical matter, the “expected” number is 50 percent for all forms of black-white interracial violent crime.

Is the vastly disproportionate number of violent crimes by blacks against whites explained by black racism? Not necessarily. It might be the product of the disproportionate propensity of blacks to commit violent crimes against anyone. But the explanation must be racism, criminality, or both.

In all events, these numbers render absurd the claim that racist America is waging war against “black bodies.” When whites encounter blacks, it’s “white bodies” that are in greater jeopardy. (As a statistical matter, neither set of bodies is normally in danger.)

We almost never see the statistics on interracial violence presented above. It’s politically incorrect, and probably impolite, to bring them up.

I’m fine with that — until our cities are trashed and burned by mobs on the pretext that white racism makes blacks, as a group, unsafe in America.

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