Whew! Where to begin.

I quote from the article, "So part of the reason domestic violence murder is down is the modern tendency for short-term, fleeting relationships that don't have time to settle into lethal patterns. The much-lamented rise of black single motherhood may be, in part, a triumphant declaration of independence by black women determined to escape abuse".

This sounds so wrong and so over the top on so many levels.

Do black men really beat their wives/girlfriends such an inordinate amount as a racial characteristic? I doubt it. Or could it be instead that since the welfare system created a problem by paying more to single mothers than to a married man and woman living together, that this misguided government policy encouraged the trend of single black motherhood more than any tendency toward wife beating?

As far as the drop in the murder rate goes compared to earlier days.

Hello! Modern medicine has progressed so very, very much that people don't die as nearly as easily from gun shot wounds as back in the day. Look at the amazing survival rate of soldiers returning from Iraq missing huge parts of their brains who would have been DOA even a couple of years ago.

I wish the author had addressed the stats for overall gunshot wounds or violent assults increasing or decreasing over time on black males and maybe a valid point could have been made. But being so selective with the stats makes me question the motives or methodology of the author.

The attempt may have some methodological flaws (black male on black male violence has always outstripped cross gender violence for lethality, and the impact of technololgy lowering the cost of guns must be included in any such analysis), the article makes a serious attempt to discuss the inner city and violence. For that alone, I thank you. I really want more of this and less of the "stream of consciousness" stuff.

The data does show one stark reality that persists in urban areas (not rural): black men are more likely to die at the hands of other black men than any other cause from ages 12-30. The risk of murder lowers as men "age out" of the high risk group. Some of that is gang related. Some of it is due to the concentration of crime. Breaking up segregated areas probably has given the thugs fewer and fewer places to "swim in the population".

I also agree that the policing issue, and the changing relationship, hae an impact. The use of cameras in areas where gangs congregate is being shown to help solve gang crimes and deter crimes. Removing guns from predators also has been shown to lower the murder rate. It's the intersection of a number of small things. One of the biggest has to be the return of jobs to the urban centers. The lack of jobs fuels a nihilism that in turn makes life cheap in some quarters.

I pray to see this murder rate lower. I have a son, I am black, and I have in-laws in South Central. I pray nothing happens whenever we visit. I pray for my husbands friends, and my brothers. Let this pass.

Was this article originally printed in The Onion?

PS As more black males die from homicide, of course, the homicide rate will appear to decrease...simply because there will be fewer black males.

This article didn't provide the proper data to back up its assertations. Where's the data? The actual numbers and some information on who collected them and how they were collected? Statistics can be read any old kind of way if the reader isn't given enough information.

I hope it's true that there's hope for improvement. A friend of mine who is black went back to the neighborhood where he grew up recently, and discovered that of eleven young men he had played with as children, he was the only one left alive and not in prison. Those are wicked cruel odds. He escaped the same fate mainly by leaving the city at about the time his friends were being pressured to join gangs.

I don't personally have the information to know whether gang-related activity is dropping on a large scale - all I can say is, it doesn't feel that way on a small scale. I live in Memphis, TN. A few years ago, my teacher was carjacked and murdered by Crips. Not long ago my mother's friend was robbed in broad daylight in a good part of town by gang members with machine guns. This past summer 6 children were accidentally shot and killed in gang-related crossfire in a single week. Monday's paper said we've already passed the number of murders we had last year. If this is "better" all I can say is, it's still a long way from good.

As others have mentioned, there does not seem to be much rigor when presenting the statistics that back this article.

I oppose the use of the term “black men” in the article. It is too all-encompassing. If I was to believe the article, and I looked at all the black men who are enrolled in colleges and universities across this country, then I would see a homicide rate within that group as described in the article. I doubt this is the case. Would I see this same homicide rate if I looked at the population of black men living in Canada? The term “black man” has to be further qualified. Who falls into this category of black men? Are you a member if your skin color is darker, that say George Bush’s? Or Beyonce’s? Or Denzel Washington’s? Is Tiger Woods a black man even though he is biologically only ¼ of African heritage and ½ half Asian?

This article is an illustration of the subtle racism that exists in this country. There is an acknowledgement that certain characteristics of a person are based on the tint of one’s skin alone.

Yes southern cops are less Jim Crow than they used to be. Here are the reasons:

There are lots more Mexicans to arrest than before, and they don't speak English so you can charge them with practically anything.

9-11 was the single greatest thing to ever happen to southern police force budgets. Everything is terrorism related - it costs a lot and it's risk free. Shaved heads and ballistic armor for everyone

'Gangs' is the second greatest thing to ever happen to southern police force budgets soccermoms love this one because they can imagine that roughly 15,000% of everone under the age of 30 is a gang member who wants to kill their little prince.

See what you miss is that police forces and the criminal justice system generall is a profit center for southern cities and counties.

There's actually less low level police presence in poor black neighborhoods because it's ot profitable for the cops to operate there.