Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

by Michael Eric Dyson

One truth should be clear: If you want interracial killing you have to have interracial communities. Wasn’t that one of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dreams? To live in a nation where black and white folk could be victims of crime in integrated neighborhoods? Didn’t he argue that thieves should pay more attention to the content of our Cadillacs than their color? Perhaps I am misremembering? White folk commit the bulk of the crimes in our nation. And, beloved, it might surprise you that white folk commit the most violent crimes too. According to FBI statistics, black folk committed 36 percent of violent crime in 2015, while white folk committed 42 percent of violent crimes in the same year. White folk consistently lead all other groups in aggravated assault, larceny, illegal weapons possession, arson, and vandalism. And white folk are far more likely to target the vulnerable too. White folk lead the way in forcible rape. You’re also more likely to kill children, the elderly, significant others, family members, and even yourselves. White folk commit a majority of gang-related murders too. A majority of the homicide victims in this country are white. White folk are six times as likely to be murdered by a white person as they are to be taken out by a black “thug.” The white-on-white mayhem is profound, yet no one speaks of it in racial terms.