Crime & Black Guilt/Shame

CRIME & Black Guilt/Shame

by

Bobbie L. Washington

If you are human, you harbor secrets. It may be an innocent little secret or it could be a huge secret or it could be the kind of open secret that nobody wants to talk about but it is as plain as the nose on your face. What I speak about is the guilt or shame that the black community feels when a horrific crime is committed by black men.

When news outlets reported that there was a Washington, D.C. Mansion that was on fire and subsequently the bodies of Savvas Savopoulos, 46; Amy Savopoulos, 47; their 10-year-old son, Philip; and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57 were found, you didn't think about who the suspect was. But as investigators looked closer into the crime and discovered DNA on a pizza crust, you may have had a remote clue as to who the suspects were. And as it was revealed that the primary suspect was Daron Dylon Wint, 34, of Maryland, you were disappointed that it was a black man who did the alleged crime. As then it hit you, that guilt, that shame, that's associated with crimes of this magnitude that was done at the hands of a black man. But why the guilt, why the shame?

As a collective, we did not commit the crime nor had a conspiracy in it either. However, as a whole, this crime, unfortunately, bears a reflection on an entire group of people and that is the primary perception. We are dealing with perceptions and how it reflects back on us when one person does something horrific.

Black guilt or black shame is nothing new. It came about during the Reconstruction Era after the civil war when W.E.B. DuBois describe in his writings, Souls of Black Folk, accounts of slavery, of ignorance, of being unattractive and with Frederick Douglas on his perception of how history would view American blacks and slavery. At it's core, black guilt by definition, is a commonly found in American blacks who follow the rule of assimilation. By giving up those common ties, they find themselves in a constant battle between their natural instincts and a need for self preservation. But that was over 100 years ago, we are dealing with a different set of rules.

Be it local or be it national, whenever a crime is committed and you're watching the news, the ever reaching credo is “please don't let it be a black man, please don't let it be a black man”, and when it is, it's as if you lost a bet and you curse the television for letting you down. The types of crime that are perpetuated by black men have changes over the years.

In Atlanta, Georgia between 1979 and 1981, Wayne Williams was put on trial and convicted of killing 29 children. The idea of somebody murdering children in this manner was unusual and the black community had no idea that someone of color would be committing these types of murders, after all, serial killers were always white man with sexual issues. But the culprit was unmasked as Wayne Williams, a sometimes music producer and manager.

And then there is the case of John Allen Muhammad and his young protege' Lee Boyd Malvo. Their crime consisted of crossing the country and acting as snipers from their car, killed 16 and wounded 9 people before getting captured. With their faces plastered across the country, once again the black community felt betrayed by the notion that black men would kill in this manner like any white men would, with cold, methodical callousness and indifference. The type of crime they were committing was suppose to be left to the crazy white men so they thought. By now, the rules were changed. Assimilation of the most heinous of crimes have ebbed into the American black communities.

Jesse Matthew, a former hospital worker and taxi driver, has been charged with killing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham and is a suspect in the disappearance of Morgan Harrington. When surveillance footage showed Matthew with Graham on the night she disappeared, the conclusion was drawn that this would end tragically. His alleged crime appears to be opportunistic in that his objective was to rape Hannah Graham. Once he was captured and his photo was graced across network television, the disgust from the black community was at a dull roar. Here is another black face.

And while young black men are being killed by cops and neighborhood watch patrols and protests are being held, one has to wonder if there is a cause and effect scenario underneath all of this? But what about other communities. When Ariel Castro was arrested for holding three young women captive for years, was there a sense of guilt or shame in the Hispanic community knowing that it was a Hispanic who committed the crime?

Boston bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnarv, doesn’t represents all Muslim but by default, the Muslim community feels like his actions, along with his brother, is not a representation or reflection on the Muslim community as a whole. As with many terrorists who have corrupted and hijacked the interpretations of the Koran, they continue to manipulate passages as a means to an end.

The Japanese community does have shame when it comes to one of their fellow countrymen commits a heinous criminal act. The atrocities of WWII has affected their country for years and in some cases, they refuse to acknowledge such acts when it comes to the Comfort Women of Japan, the documented systematic kidnapping and raping of women from Korea, China, the Philippines, Thailand, etc.

But black guilt or black shame is a pervasive annoying beast. We are not collectively responsible for these guys actions. There have been cases where black men have been heroes that not always get the attention that it deserves. Army Captain Steve Voglezon rescued two people from a burning vehicle in North Carolina. The time allotted to him was a few seconds of speaking, literally. But the networks would have allotted more airtime if he was a Kardashian who had nothing important to talk about.

Wesley Autrey, a construction worker and Navy veteran, saved one Cameron Hollopeter from uncertain death when Wesley jumped down from a subway platform in New York and covered Cameron, who had fallen in, with his body as a subway car roared over them. Fortunately for Mr. Autrey that he had a chance to say more because David Letterman had him on his show. David is known to give the everyday man/woman his chance to shine when others do not.

It's unfortunate that if the news bleed it leads in this current configuration. It seems like that's all we are suppose to know. Bad things happen to people. Not all black men are killers. It seems like the black community must apologize for these man bad acts. Maybe it's a knee jerk reaction for vestiges of a bygone era that refuses to die? If we are to have this “normal society”, we must not feel guilt or shame for the actions of others, we must look at people as if they are not criminals, we must accept that every human has inherent faults, that not all people think alike, that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do not speak for the entire black community because nobody made them the leader, that at the end of the day we can stand together in a singular voice while we work out our problems.