Letter: Stop spreading the myth putting blame on Blacks | letters

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Theres an old wives tale used commonly by right-wing commentators in our culture wars that violence is the result of nonexistent parental guidance stemming from broken families. This ideation is often recycled by these pundits when describing the prevalent myth that single-parented minority families generates a breakdown of critical rearing leading to reckless and often violent behavior by their children. No one is keeping an eye on the chicken coop so to speak. Bigoted reasoning is quick to point the finger directly at minority households using it as a cudgel to scare white folks into blaming minorities for an increase in violent crime in this country. Its especially used ad nausea around election cycles.

The statistics (facts if you will) show otherwise. The number of mass shootings in the United States between 1982 and July 2022 listed by race or ethnicity show that out of 164 mass shootings occurrences (defined by three or more fatalities) 132 were carried-out by whites, 21 were attributed to Blacks and 11 to Latinos. These killers, apparently, are overwhelming white and almost all males.

So, if you buy into the idea that these disturbing acts of violence are the results of lousy parenting from broken families, connect the dots. Two of the more heinous mass shootings, one which happened to children who were executed in their elementary classrooms in Sandy Hook, was facilitated by a gun purchased for the young white killer buy his mother, who he also killed. The most recent school shooting in Uvalde was done by another young white male who was raised in a troubled home. Now, that’s some extremely lousy parenting. I think the time is long overdue to change this erroneous paradigm and realize its the white race that needs to get better at rearing their kids, and quickly.

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