The Condemnation of Blackness

I recently read a book called The Condemnation of Blackness. It recounts the media, laws and literature concerning black Americans roughly from the year 1890 to 1920. This time period starts when the post civil war period had shifted from blacks being seen as freed slaves to members of society. The book ends around the end of World War I as the Great Migration increased in earnest. This time period is chosen because it was a crucial time in determining the cultural status of blacks in this country, particularly in the northern states.

The sordid record of discrimination, violence and hatred inflicted on black individuals is known to most people in the United States. What the book does is to examine not only the effects of these scourges on the health and livlihood of people but also how attitudes shaped at that period have persisted to this day. The author asserts that in addition to cultural bias as a mode for carrying racism forward the criminal justice system is the realm where injustice continues to be promulgated.

The author has pointed out what he calls the violence card as a reflection of the bias inherent in our criminal justice system. He says when a person relies on the connection between crime and race instead of crime and condition that is a reflection of flawed thinking. Another way to put it is to express that black-on-black crime is more pernicious than other crime, and somehow points to flawed character. That this may be hard to understand or too subtle a point is not surprising given the societal bias that was prevalent in the recent past and the continuing segregation that exists today.

One point made is that during the time covered by the book blacks were blamed for America's fundamental need to have winners and losers or haves and have nots. And this is accepted as common wisdom today, that our society has a group of people who are at the bottom and somehow are destined to be there. So it is a startling thought to realize how this may be a reflection of bias.

And it is for the most part seen as a very natural thing for there to be large sections of Chicago and other cities where blacks live. And to have the expectation that the people living there should be doing something on their own to clean up the place where they live. And a big part of what is perceived that needs to be improved is the amount of violence and crime.