That which it would be impolite to discuss, or even mention
Two important, but seemingly taboo, topics for discussion
1. Homicide rates in the U.S. as a function of race.
From Wikipedia, statistics from 2019:
The per-capita offending rate for African-Americans was roughly eight times higher than that of whites, and their victim rate was similar. About half of homicides are known to be single-offender/single-victim, and most of those were intraracial; in those where the perpetrator's and victim's races were known, 81% of white victims were killed by whites and 91% of black or African-American victims were killed by blacks or African-Americans.
In 2022, the racial difference in per capita rates were about the same as in 2019 (although absolute numbers were higher). In absolute numbers, in 2022, more than ten thousand African Americans were murdered in the Unites States, vs approximately 7700 whites (even though African Americans make up only about 12% of the population). In that same year, 225 African Americans were killed by police vs 389 whites (most of those of all races killed by the police – approximately 90% – were armed). In most cases (~ 90%), offenders of all races are males. Males are also more likely to be victims, but that difference is not as great as the difference for offenders (~ 2 - 3 times as likely).
The racial disparity in homicide rates, whatever its explanation, is astonishing, and in need of more attention so that the tragically high rate of homicides of, and by, African Americans, especially males, comes down.
[Update: One day after this posting, Inquisitive Bird posted an analysis of the phenomenon of racial differences in homicide rates on Bird’s Patterns in Humanity substack.]
2. The history of Arab enslavement of Blacks in Africa.
Did you know that there is a long history of the enslavement of black Africans by Arabs in Africa and that the slavery continues to this day! My guess is that the percentage of American high school students who learn about the Arab slave trade when learning about slavery is not significantly above zero. Everyone should read the article linked below (it’s not a long article):
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/arab-enslavement-black-africans
Some quotes from this article:
For those in the Christian world who know about the decades-long mass slaughter and enslavement of Black Christians in Sudan, which they call the “hidden Holocaust,” the scenes out of Israel were shockingly familiar. As part of a self-declared jihad which lasted from 1983 to 2005, northern Sudanese Arabs sought to subjugate and enslave the Black Sudanese of the mostly Christian south. The onslaught cost the lives of perhaps 2.5 million Black Sudanese, and the freedom of an estimated 200,000 more. The Arab Muslim government’s jihad utilized kidnapping as its terror weapon of choice, not to mention casual gang rape and mutilation.
Since Arabs first invaded Africa in the seventh century, murderous raids targeting innocent civilians have been a common feature of the spread of Islam in Africa. Today, in Mauritania, Black Mauritanians whose ancestors were taken into captivity centuries ago and whose status as chattel has been passed down through the generations, live in bondage, serving as slaves to their Arab Berber masters. Even though indigenous Africans in Mauritania were converted to Islam after the Arab conquest, race has trumped religion, and the Arab Berber rulers have treated the Black Mauritanians as they would infidels.
Modern-day Mauritania is essentially a racist caste system ruled by the 30% Arab Berber minority, called beydanes (“whites”). The Arab-controlled government has “banned” slavery five times since independence from France—in 1961, 1980, 1981, 2007, and 2015—yet today, absurdly, denies that it exists. According to the Global Slavery Index, approximately 149,000 Black Mauritanians still live there as slaves. These slaves remain in chains. They’re bred and are known to have been horrifically tortured in ways that rival and may even surpass Hamas’ torments. Yet these Black Muslim slaves who are passed down like the family furniture from the masters to their sons have no serious champions in the West.
Why are these horrors of real-world slavery, with women raped and men kept in chains, based on the color of their skin or their religion, not better understood and publicized in the West? Because the reigning progressive ideology taught in almost all American educational institutions divides the world into “oppressors” and “oppressed,” bestowing on the latter protected status. With the Arab and Muslim communities in America having been granted this new form of immunity, casting light on evil conduct committed by Arab colonial conquerers who enslave and murder Black Africans, is simply not allowed.
There is also an excellent podcast on the topic – an interview with Charles Jacobs, the author of the article above (look for the podcast titled Arab Slave Masters).
And related to this topic, I’m now really going to touch a third rail. Do you know where the history curriculum specifically mandates that students learn about slavery in Africa? In Florida, as part of the state’s much maligned African-American history curriculum. Specifically, the curriculum requirements include (and note, the curriculum includes much more about slavery in the United States than is copied below – a copy of the full course of study can be found here) :
Identify Afro-Eurasian trade routes and methods prior to the development of the Atlantic slave trade.
Benchmark Clarifications:
Clarification 1: Instruction includes how slavery was utilized in Asian, European and African cultures.
Clarification 2: Instruction includes the similarities and differences between serfdom and slavery. Clarification 3: Instruction includes the use of maps to identify trade routes.
SS.68.AA.1.2 Describe the contact of European explorers with systematic slave trading in Africa.
SS.68.AA.1.3 Examine the evolution of the labor force in the use of indentured servitude contracts.
SS.912.AA.1 Examine the causes, courses and consequences of the slave trade in the colonies from 1609-1776.
SS.912.AA.1.1 Examine the condition of slavery as it existed in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe prior to 1619.
Benchmark Clarifications:
Clarification 1: Instruction includes how trading in slaves developed in African lands (e.g., Benin, Dahomey).
Clarification 2: Instruction includes the practice of the Barbary Pirates in kidnapping Europeans and selling them into slavery in Muslim countries (i.e., Muslim slave markets in North Africa, West Africa, Swahili Coast, Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Indian Ocean slave trade). Clarification
3: Instruction includes how slavery was utilized in Asian cultures (e.g., Sumerian law code, Indian caste system).
Clarification 4: Instruction includes the similarities between serfdom and slavery and emergence of the term “slave” in the experience of Slavs.
Clarification 5: Instruction includes how slavery among indigenous peoples of the Americas was utilized prior to and after European colonization.
Students in Florida may not learn about all aspects of slavery within Africa, or America, and yes, I know that some have claimed that the curriculum will whitewash the horrors of slavery in the United States. Obviously, I don’t know what teachers will actually say; there is always room for teachers to put their own spin on any topic they teach, and under pressure from parents some may teach a distorted, somewhat sanitized version of the mandated curriculum. But – when looking over the entire slavery instruction curriculum that teachers in Florida are supposed to teach, it strikes me as a pretty comprehensive outline of topics, and I would wager that if Florida teachers actually do teach this curriculum, students will end up understanding much more about the history of slavery in America and the history of slavery worldwide than do the huge majority of American high schoolers today.
And yet a few American blacks have been attracted to Islam. Cassius Clay rejected his “slave name” for Muhammad Ali.