BLACK CULTURE THROUGH NUMBERS: A STATISTICAL APPROACH TO RACISM
BY STUDENT
Imagine living life under constant scrutiny, harassment, and judgment. Imagine being constricted to certain city sidewalks, schools, bathrooms, and houses; ponder the idea of being part of a social and science experiment daily. Imagine life as an assumed criminal, a Black citizen in the United States during the Progressive Era. At the turn of the century, many experts performed studies and research on this “assumed criminality” of blacks. Of course, statistics don’t exactly lie. Although to say that Blacks didn’t make up the majority of prisoners would be a deception, does that mean that African Americans committed the most crimes? Does it mean that they were lethal and as William Hannibal Thomas said in his book The American Negro: What He Was, What He Is, and What He May Become, that they were “unable practically to discern between right and wrong” (Muhammad 1972, 79)? Not necessarily.
The main problem with the statistics and studies during this era was that they were simply a measure of the effect and not the cause. Most studies tried to create an understanding as to why Blacks were such criminals, while few tried to comprehend the political economic reasons why these blacks were criminals. Of the few that dared to explore these reasons, few valid conclusions were drawn. In her preface to Southern Horrors, black scholar Ida B. Wells writes, “… the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning...” (Muhammad 1972, 59), emphasizing the main argument throughout her writing- blacks were extremely discriminated against. This wasn’t quite uncommon knowledge. Through her writing she conjured and created brutal images of lynching and racial discrimination, yet many white race-relations writers did not take her seriously. Many of these experts relied on the supposed certainty of statistics and biology to determine the humanity of this race, when in reality these facts and cultural studies were just used to explain the why. Writers Boas and Kellor showed us that the only thing that can really be measured by biological and factual statistics is the prejudicial actions performed by society. These writers “turned to culture rather than biology” so they believed that “most blacks were… culturally inferior to most whites” (Muhammad 1972, 122).
In my opinion, this race was extremely culturally inferior; they were completely segregated and the upbringings in which they were “accustomed” to were so different from that of whites. Many questioned: if blacks were brought up the same way as their white counterparts would their “criminality” rates be as high? Blacks lacked basic white luxuries; whites were “welcomed into settlements, YMCA’s, YWCA’s, gymnasiums and every other movement for uplift if only their skins are white” and meanwhile “Only one social center welcomes the Negro and that is the saloon.” (Muhammad 1972, 131) If the only public places a colored person is accepted to are saloons, how are they socially degraded because they can’t act like whites that are welcomed anywhere they’d like? Society had placed these blacks at the bottom of the “social hierarchy” because they acted so inferior, yet blacks actions were just a reaction to the conditions society placed them under. Therefore, knowing the discrimination and hardships that blacks were forced to face, why did most people from this time period try to create an understanding using statistics and studies instead of looking deeper into the realities that blacks were culturally facing? The only simplified answer is that discrimination has ways of working that our minds cannot comprehend. Experts measured the number of blacks in jail; they measured their literacy; but did they gather information on the minds of the white society, the parents, and the children that are raised to discriminate? Who’s to say that there is something wrong with the black race when whites are the ones judging? Being a minority in a society like that of the Progressive Era was a challenge; blacks were treated as science experiments rather than human beings. So where were the studies on racism itself? Where were the studies on discrimination? Why weren’t there many (if any) studies on whites and why they degraded these humans? Sure it may just be different ends of the spectrum but what made it so difficult to meet in the middle?-statistics and experiments. They can be used to measure crime rates, and facts, but they cannot measure the humanity and morals of a race.
Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern
Urban America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2010. Print.
This was a very interesting post, in my opinion. It is true that statistics, while they cannot technically lie, can be extremely deceitful. Many people back then did not realize that African-Americans' criminality was a product of their society and not the other way around. Black were discriminated against and racially profiled for many, many years and these statistics about their criminality do not explain their whole side of the story. You brought up interesting points when you asked why weren't there any studies on whites and how they degraded the African-Americans. I have not heard of any studies on discrimination either. Why do you think that is?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post. It was inquisitive and I praise curiosity. It made me wonder why we have been so trained to believe statistics, even in the modern world. These collections can be so flawed and so full of confounding variables that any drawn correlation is contestable. However, when the majority goes against the minority with facts and figures they do come off as the bigger and better man. Could access to education be the central cause of the separation of races at the time? What about today?
ReplyDeleteThis post grabbed my attention as soon as I read the first sentence. I think that people tend to rely too much on statistics to prove their point, and yet statistics can only go so far. I liked when you said that statistics measured the effects and not the cause, thus showing that they cannot be the only source one uses to prove a point. This post was great to read and I really appreciated the topics that you explored. It really leaves you thinking when you've finished reading it.
ReplyDeleteThere aren't any studies on what made/makes whites discriminate, I feel like it's because whites have and always will have this feeling of superiority over any minority that even enters the space that we have created for ourselves. Maybe that's why the whites discriminated against these blacks so much; it all goes back to a struggle for space. It may not be viewed as how we have been studying it in class, but whites during this time had claimed this space; they made it their own, and just as they felt threatened when the Chinese came to San Francisco, they felt threatened by this growing minority. Branching off of my main topic, but to answer Matthew's question, maybe these whites discriminated out of fear. Blacks were condemned to blackness through the structural forces society faced them with, and they were sent to prisons and sentenced to constant scrutiny because maybe these whites were trying to hold some sort of social superior power over them.
ReplyDeleteThroughout history whites have considered themselves to be superior to all other races for as long as I remember. I like how much you questioned this and I personally do not believe there is much of an answer besides the fact that history has shaped this ideology for a very long time. Across the atlantic ocean throughout history the whites of Europe have colonized the blacks of Africa in the south. Yet, is this enough evidence to prove that whites are the superior race? Certainly one cannot be viewed as superior due to the color of their skin because blacks have been able to prove to be just as capable as any intelligent white such as W.E.B Du Bois. Although more whites are upwardly-mobile compared to blacks in the United States this is due to cultural expectations forced upon them, as was mentioned in the article.
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