Twitter conversation about the some of the history behind some crime statistics

Do you hear versions of this question a lot?

@TorontoMyWay @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Tell me why blacks only 7% population but involved in >50% homicides? #TOpoli #Toronto

— Brian Connolly (@bconnolly00) April 17, 2016

It drives me nuts. So, I began to answer the question.

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Here's an article demonstrating how these numbers are created https://t.co/oaoJuD8bfi

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Just bear in mind that this would be just one article in a bibliography of works.

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Another should be Michelle Alexander's book The New Jim Crow.

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Watch Eddie Murphy's movie Life and then read my review https://t.co/vlinxBJ4Ei

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

Then this was volleyed at me:

@TorontoMyWay @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO to solve problem everyone must take a hard look of themselves including BMLTO.#TOpoli

— Brian Connolly (@bconnolly00) April 17, 2016

To which I replied:

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Brian, did you know there used to be signs saying "No blacks, no Irish"?

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO How did the Irish "become white"? https://t.co/r83u28luxQ

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Here's a quote: "They kept the blacks out." Read the whole paper for context.

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Here's another https://t.co/clK9NBtJux. Irish attacked black institutions.

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Those are just two well-documented articles showing the concerted effort against blacks.

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016 

For good measure, here's a third:  http://www.shmoop.com/early-american-immigration/race.html

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Done specifically by Irish. Now YOU want to ask why the numbers are as they are?

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Pull the legs out from under a group of people and then ask "why can't they stand up"?

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO Yes, let's all take a hard look at ourselves, including you.

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO "Connolly" is Irish, isn't it?

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO "Irish Catholics... quickly learned that to succeed they had to... oppress ...blacks."

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO "...Irish immigrants in America, are greater enemies to the Negro population...."

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

@bconnolly00 @AndrayDomise @joe_warmington @BLM_TO 2/2 "...and greater advocates for the continuance of Negro slavery, than any [one else]".

— Toronto My Way (@TorontoMyWay) April 17, 2016

The extension of slavery through the prison complex has disproportionately targeted black communities. And, as each wave of non-English white people came to North America, they experienced exclusion (similar circumstances that the Irish faced were also experienced by Germans, Italians and others). These groups had to "earn their whiteness" and then formed, whether directly or incidentally, a bulwark against black mobility and uplift.

So, yes the statistics may be disproportionate, but there is a well-documented history of systemic oppression that targeted black communities and disconnected them from progress and mobility, and this history is part of why black communities are where they are, and aren't, today. 

Any discussion of the modern state of the black community that fails, or refuses, to recognize the degree to which this history not only limited black progress but continues to limit black progress, is disingenuous and likely to be dismissed altogether.

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List of Works

McDonald, Art. PhD. How the Irish Became White. University of Pittsburgh.
McKenna, Patrick. (Februray 12, 2013).  "When the Irish Became White." The Irish Times.
Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). Race in Early American Immigration.
Williams, Paige. (November 17, 2014).  "Double Jeopardy." The New Yorker.