March 2, 2012 | 9:19 AM | By

Bullying and Black-On-Black Crime

Anti-bullying campaigns have gained more and more attention, with much of the current conversation focused on the LGBT community. The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates writes that it’s also worth looking at the racial component of how we talk about bullying. “If you are a black kid growing up in urban America, as I was,” Coates writes, “you can expect to have a consistent and enduring relationship with violence.”


I want to focus on how we talk about the young people who daily endure this reality. We don’t see them as victims of bullying so much as victims of the latest dance craze. Consider “black on black crime” a phrase which assumes a kind monolithic unity which has never existed among any known carbon-based organism. For matters as slender as a failed party invitation, we invoke “bullying” and thus invoke a kind of failure of society. But for matters as crucial as murder we offer “black on black crime” and thus strictly invoke the failure of black people.

Read more at: www.theatlantic.com