Racial Violence in Philadelphia: The Hate that Dare Not Speak Its Name

Another week in Philadelphia, another violent episode where people dare not speak its name: Race Riot.

The latest is Port Richmond, where a mob of black people stormed a house, broke in, and beat up the occupants–all because of something that may or may not have happened to a black teenager on a bike.

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This is just one of dozens of race riots in the Philadelphia over the last two years.

Though press and public officials do everything they can to ignore the racial component, even giving them a harmless name, like flash mob.

Thank God for YouTube: For every official denial about what really happened during this epidemic of racial violence, someone posted a video, called a talk show, or posted a comment on a news story that allowed us to see what many hoped we never would: Racial violence is busting out not just in Philadelphia, but all over the country.

A few week ago, Mayor Nutter was forced to admit what most in Philadelphia already knew: The violence was racial. And the rioters were damaging their “own race.”

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Philadelphia may be Ground Zero for race riots–apologists love calling them teenage flash mobs–but it is far from alone.

In hundreds of episodes in more than 50 cities since 2010, groups of black people are roaming the streets of America–assaulting, intimidating, stalking, threatening, vandalizing, stealing, shooting, stabbing, even raping and killing.

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But local media and public officials are silent. Crime is color blind, says a Milwaukee police chief. Anyone who notices it has problems, says a Chicago newspaper editor.

That just denies the obvious: America is the most race conscious society in the world.

We learn that every day from black caucuses, black teachers, black unions, black ministers, black colleges, black high schools, black music, black moguls, black hair business owners, black public employees, black art, black names, black poets, black inventors, black soldiers.

Everything except black violent crime. That is taboo.

In Chicago, after weeks of racial violence where the newspapers refused to mention the crime was almost exclusively black gangs on individual whites, especially women and gays, the superintendent of police said he know what was causing the violence: Sarah Palin.

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Colin Flaherty, Wilmington, Del., was a speech writer for the former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and is author of “White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America.” (https://www.WhiteGirlBleedaLot.com) {snip}