The Truth About Violent Flash Mobs

Our conversation about race is suffering from a terrible abuse of the English language. As a result, we are not addressing racial mob violence. {snip}

Everybody knows that not all black teens attack in flash mobs. There is no one in a position of prominence in society who would say or mean that. When someone says “Black teens have been attacking in flash mobs,” we should know what they mean–that the people who attack in flash mobs have been black.

Nonetheless, in articles and radio interviews, I’ve pointed out the simple fact that black teens have been attacking in flash mobs. A common response to my factual observation is that “Not all blacks are that way,” or “You can’t generalize.” But I’ve never stated or implied that all blacks are that way, or made any generalizations. Our conversation about race is stuck in this bizarre cycle where someone makes an observation about group behavior, and the only response from many people is a cliché like “Don’t judge entire groups.” It’s as if the plain meaning of words becomes clouded when we pass into the forbidden topic of race. Many are playing word games to evade the stark facts about racial mob violence.

While the shooting death of a young gay man named Lawrence King makes the cover of Newsweek magazine, an equally harmful type of hateful violence has been underreported. Anna Taylor, Emily Guendelsberger and Thomas Fitzgerald of Philadelphia all suffered in separate, violent “flash mob” attacks, committed by blacks. The details of their attacks are shocking; the trend is to pick a random pedestrian, punch them and then kick them brutally while they are down. Whether it’s the shooting death of Andrew Graham in Denver, or a young white lady named Shaina Perry being taunted and beaten in Milwaukee, or Carter Strange having his skull fractured in Columbia, S.C., or Dawid Strucinski beaten into a coma in Bayonne, the facts are clear: There is a trend of black teens in groups randomly attacking innocent people, usually non-black people. It’s not about robbery; sometimes these attacks are just vicious “games” like the “knock out game” that took the life of 72-year-old Hoang Nguyen in St. Louis. The victims of these attacks, nationwide, are generally non-black, and the attackers are invariably black. What we are seeing is a social problem with a racial element, and it needs to be addressed.

{snip}

{snip} Of course, black race is not the cause of the problem; the distinct culture of the black teen attackers is the cause of the problem. That culture in turn arises from the unique constellation of mores, habits, attitudes, family structure and government dependence found within a segment of the black community. Those factors have nothing to do with biology, or genetics, or “all black people.” These qualifications wouldn’t even be necessary in a society where people were prepared to face facts and be honest about social issues. Instead, our conversation about race breaks down, and the core social problem is lost in accusations about “broad brushes” and generalizations.

No one who matters is actually making remarks about entire groups. What people are doing is making observations about group behavior and race: that black teens have been attacking in flash mobs. Based on that factual observation, my interpretation is that there is an emerging social problem, made worse by double standards about race in our society. {snip}