The Crime of Blackness

The black male suffers from a common disorder, his blackness. The crime of blackness is one that is unavoidable, by virtue of the fact that no one asks to be born black. However, the actual crime is often committed due to the fact that the complexities of being black are often so overwhelming that a great number of the many people who are born black, particularly in North America, are driven to criminal lifestyles. These complexities include “driving while black”, “shopping while black” and other forms of racial profiling. Although much of black America has resorted to living as white America has hoped for, there is a small minority who are fortunate to achieve “success”. Nevertheless, whether or not the crime is actually committed does not separate those who decide to commit a crime from those who do not. The connection between the “successful” black man and the incarcerated one cannot be severed, neither by the will of white America or by the will of the black c...