WASHINGTON, D.C.—The targeting of Blacks in hate crimes across the county has become commonplace and the numbers continue to rise.
Three Blacks went to a Florida Dollar General and left in body bags. The 21-year-old White male shooter, according to the writings he left behind, hated Black people. In 2022 at a Buffalo, New York Tops Friendly Market, a White, 19-year-old male shooter opened fire, killing 10 Black people. The shooter was sentenced to life in prison on several charges, including several counts of murder, and federal hate crimes.
Hate continues to rise in America, according to recently released 2022 FBI data on over 11 million criminal offenses reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and an earlier report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino. The number one target for race/ethnicity/ancestry attacks is Blacks.
“Blacks remain the most frequent target not only for these extremist killers but have been the most frequent target for overall hate crime for every year since data has been collected, right up through our partial 2023 totals,” explained Brian Levin, retired director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and the lead author of the report.
›“We expect this killing cycle to continue, especially as we enter a volatile election season,” he said. “These atrocities are often carried out by angry young adult males who make recent weapon acquisitions, act within their home state, and who reference the ‘replacement’ doctrine statements of previous killers.”
The replacement theory, according to Brittanica, explains that Whites are being replaced by non-Whites (i.e., Blacks, Latinos, Asians, or Arabs). According to the writings of the Florida shooter, he was inspired by this replacement theory.
The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism surveyed 42 cities, and more than half showed an increase in anti-Black hate crimes, some reached historic highs. New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, and Sacramento, California, all set new records.
Five states—Colorado, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and Utah—also broke their records for anti-Black hate crimes, while incidents in California and New York state—both with large Black populations—surged by more than 20 percent, according to the report.
“The myth of Black inferiority was debunked by President Barack Obama. This affected the psychological dissonance White people have about Black people. They think we don’t take care of our children. Barack had his children in the White House. They think we are dumb, he excelled at Columbia and Harvard. It goes on and on. He went against everything they think about Black people,” Dr. Kevin Washington, former president of the National Association of Black Psychologists, told The Final Call.
“President Obama was the antithesis of Black life as they know it which is why they are doing everything to eradicate what he did. They see us as a lesser people. He was so stark a contrast from what they have been socialized to believe that they have to have a strong response and now they feel comfortable coming out to show how they really feel.”
The government’s report, “Hate Crime Statistics, 2022,” provides information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes. In 2022, law enforcement agency participation significantly increased, resulting in 14,631 law enforcement agencies, with a population coverage of 91.7 percent submitting incident reports.
There were over 11,000 single-bias hate crime incidents involving 13,278 victims and 346 multiple-bias hate crime incidents that involved 433 victims. In 2022, the top three bias categories in single-bias incidents were race, religion, and sexual orientation.
“A leopard doesn’t change their spots,” Dr. Matthew Fogg, retired U.S. Marshal, told The Final Call. “America started things on the wrong track. The fact that we had slavery, the fact that Africans were stolen and brought to this country. It’s almost like Moses. We are in bondage and we’re in a hostile environment. The system has never seen us on the same level as them. Look at the way America continues to deal with Africans,” he said.
“They don’t see us as being on the same level as them. Black folks are still, whether people want to come out and say it, are still seen as second-class citizens. Congress is indicative of that. Look at one or two Blacks in the United States Senate that runs this country and a handful of Blacks in the House.
That’s why we have to have our own organizations: the National Black Police Officer Association, National Black Doctors, Black journalists, and more. The American system is still so hostile towards us. It’s been that way from the beginning and a leopard does not change its spots.”
—Nisa Islam Muhammad, Staff Writer
›