Why Violence Is So Prevalent in Poor Black Neighborhoods
And the Makings of the Hierarchy in the Hood
If you had grown up in violent neighborhoods as I did and had a transparent conversation as I am willing to have, one thing is clear. Violence is not just accepted in some poor, black neighborhoods; it is taught. An official phrase to describe these types of neighborhoods does not exist, although mass media has tried to call these neighborhoods the ghetto or the projects. These neighborhoods are frequently the backdrop of viral videos depicting shootings or people fighting in the street. Old residents typically call it “the hood” or “the streets,” which aptly describes where the violence is rooted. It’s not that a city is violent; it’s specific neighborhoods, blocks, or streets. Everyone who is from these environments understands the nuance and how to survive or thrive in them. Within violent neighborhoods, residents describe the history, folklore, long-timers, and significant events almost with a tinge of survivalist pride. The most common theme throughout these stories is respect or the pursuit of it. The lack of respect and the demand for respect can be traced back to the beginning of poor, black neighborhoods. Now, seeking respect from a system that no longer exists and from an anti-social hierarchy has resulted in non-stop antagonization and violence.
By Any Means Necessary
“We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.” – Malcolm X
Substantial gun ownership and the use of violence in black neighborhoods increased after the Great Migration and during the Civil Rights Movement. Prior to 1910, 90% of black people lived in the South. Between 1910 and 1940, 1.6 million black people moved from mostly rural, southern areas to northern industrial cities for the prospect of escaping Jim Crow and getting jobs. Many of the jobs were available because white men were fighting in World War I. The Army did not integrate black men until 1944. Prior to 1940, a substantial amount of racial tension and riots broke out between black and white people in large cities like St Louis and Chicago, specifically over discrimination in employment and wages. In the 1940s and within a few decades, 5 million black people moved from the south to major northern cities and to the west coast. In Los Angeles and Oakland, black migrators hoped to get jobs in industrial and munitions factories. While jobs did exist, black workers soon became frustrated with discrimination in all the major cities across the US. Riots and protests increased, and by the 1960s, the civil rights movement was in full swing. As more blacks moved into the city, white people were moving out. This “white flight” took many businesses and wages with them. Most remaining whites were either poor or in positions of authority like politicians and the police. There was also a great amount of tension in banking and housing. All these factors gave rise to “black neighborhoods” where legit businesses struggled, and illegal money-making operations increased. Poor neighborhoods, regardless of race, experienced increased competition in organized prostitution, gambling, liquors houses, and drug rings. Likewise, the increased police presence and politics resulted in a rise in mistrust, informants, protests, and conflict with authorities.
During this time, Malcolm X inspired militant groups to take up arms for respect and rights. The Black Panther Party made headlines with their gun ownership and crusades against the police. They acquired a variety of guns including machine guns, rifles and handguns. New recruits went through firearms training including how to communicate their gun rights to police. They inspired many men in neighborhoods to take up arms against anyone who threatened black people’s progress, whether that progress was legal or illegal. These threats included the police (who rightfully or wrongfully cracked down on or intimidated businesses); white organized crime, and eventually other rival black neighborhoods. Because of the Black Panthers’ open carry style and conflicts, stricter gun laws were enacted by the end of the 1960s. Both whites and blacks, raced to purchase more guns and the black market for guns increased. As the Black Panther Party and other militant civil rights groups were increasingly jailed, killed, or dissolving, new unions and leaders were forming in a younger more ruthless generation. Specifically, because the Black Panthers were founded in Oakland, this area had many copy-cats, derivations, and affiliations with the hierarchy found in militant movements. One of these groups was The Crips.
Turf Wars
“Silent life of crime. A man of odd circumstance. A victim of ghetto demands. Feed me money for style. And I'll let you trip for a while. Insecure from the past. How long can a good thing last?” - Curtis Mayfield, Pusherman, 1972
There were many groups like The Crips, that transitioned from extremist group to street gang, popping up in inner cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. The Black Mafia in Philadelphia began in the early 1970, from a militant group. But what made The Crips successful was their proximity to the Black Panther organization and leveraging their knowledge of weapons acquisition and networks. The Crips were formed in 1969 in Oakland with the primary goal of protecting their street or turf against rivals. Eventually, individual streets formed alliances to protect each other. The primary activities that the Crips protected were prostitution, marijuana, and other street drugs. By the 1980s, there were over 50 “sets” of Crips across Los Angeles and expanding operations in California. This large-scale operation became more commonplace in other inner cities as well and exploded with the introduction of crack cocaine.
Like any operation, illegal operations must be controlled. Legal corporations use laws and the police to protect a brand’s image, products, buildings, and employers. However, illegal operations use “street codes” and enforcers to protect the street’s drugs, neighborhood, and friends. Unlike corporations who may buy out another business, streets would rob other streets and intimidate them into taking over their operations largely because it was unlikely that anyone would report it to the police (who was everyone’s enemy). Often revenge or intimidation was directed toward family members or anyone living on that street. Subsequently, some groups and alliances were formed to prevent retaliation and victimization. To prove alliance, members had to be “jumped in” or commit a crime with witnesses to test their respect and loyalty.
Guns and violence were used to protect assets by any means necessary and were increasingly used to enforce money, power, and respect. Although slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation were improving, the disrespect from other black men and mothers was growing.
Desperate for Respect
“Boys in the hood are always hard.” – Eazy E, 1987
In the 1980s, many black men turned to the streets to gain money, belonging, and respect that they felt was overdue and deserved. The sentiment in poor neighborhoods was that guns and drugs were being funneled into poor neighborhoods by the rich and powerful. Cocaine was already being shipped primarily thru Miami from the Caribbean but most wide scale conversion of it to crack was in (you guessed it) Los Angeles. Many drug dealers desperately sought to gain more of the “Tony Montana” level of success as crack spread like wildfire across the US.
Meanwhile, young, black, and single mothers increasingly chose not to marry black men. Welfare rapidly increased as single mothers increased from 23% in 1960 to 60% in 1980, and 68% by 1990. Today, 77% of black children are born out of wedlock. One of the earliest contributions to this phenomenon was Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s research in 1965 titled “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action”, commonly known as The Moynihan Report. Moynihan’s report fueled a debate about what the government should do about low-income families, especially blacks. He pointed out that black children were increasingly born out of wedlock. Ultimately, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program included rules for payments only if “no man [was] in the house.” Critics, including Moynihan, pointed out that women were being paid to throw out their husbands. By the 1980s, it was commonplace for cities to enforce the “no man in the house rule,” requiring welfare workers to make unannounced visits to determine if any men, including fathers, were living in the home. If evidence of a male presence was found, welfare checks were discontinued. As more women chose welfare checks over marriage, young black adult males increasingly lived with their own mothers. A study using data from 1988, showed that at the time, almost a third of young, adult black men lived with their mothers. Due to this dynamic many older mothers knew what their sons’ illegal activities were, kept things quiet and expected some monetary contribution to their own household.
Older black, inner-city parents in the 80s were dealing with a multitude of hardships as well, left over from migrating to the cities, unemployment, housing issues, returning from war, and substance use. The horrors of slavery in the 19th century and discrimination faced in the 20th century were retold by parents and grandparents, replayed in schools, and re-enacted in movies. Black parents still did not believe they were respected, protected, or represented well in media. Many blacks felt stereotyped and disrespected in public discourse, especially men who are supposed to be protectors and providers. Although several labor laws were enacted, inner-city black parents still felt there were racial barriers in several systems in which they lacked representation and power, such as law enforcement, housing, banking, academics, employment, and entertainment. Much of what was shown on television was black people in hardship, either fictionally or on the late-night news. The War on Drugs was well televised. Black parents warned their children about “the man”, “the system,” just how hard life is, and the lack of respect from American society.
While a lot of blacks were advancing, many poor inner-city blacks abandoned the systems that they felt never intended to include them anyway. In lieu of aspirations to integrate into mainstream society, poor inner-city blacks routinely sought respect within their own neighborhood’s social groups, such as in church, on the streets, on a sports team, and in the arts. For exmple, we saw the birth of BET and subsequent programming specifically for black people. While mothers and older men often maintained work via low-paying jobs and church, many young inner-city men chose street life for a continuous flow of money and respect specifically from their own neighborhood. Much like the mafia and mobs, black neighborhoods organized criminal activities with hierarchies in which there were drug dealers, enforcers, runners, workers, and lookouts. Drug rings like the Crips’ hierarchy have their own slang but the structures are similar. Drugs were and are still called “work.” Runners and workers helped distribute work and recovered lost work by robbing others or diluting the drugs. Enforcers committed intimidation, retaliation, and violence not only against rivals but against informants, runners, and workers who were disrespectful or caused lost profits. Drug dealers owned the neighborhood and were generally considered good, hood-rich, and untouchable. Most men were able to provide some role in operations; specifically, almost everyone in the neighborhood was a lookout, people who kept an eye out for the police or who recognized when someone did not belong in the neighborhood. Street code subsequently applied to not only illegal activities but everyday life. Adolescents adopted loyalty, respect, and power around many aspects of ordinary life, such as speaking, style of dress, hairstyle, music, graffiti, or dance as a type of product or commodity. If one really upheld the rules, they were much safer and could avoid bullying or violence. Anyone who violated these unwritten rules was demoted in the hood hierarchy or beat up because they demonstrated that they were not respecting the way of life. Thus, just speaking to someone in the wrong manner could be a “violation of respect” and immediately met with violence. It should be considered that white people, police, and people in positions of power (such as teachers) were at the bottom of the hierarchy, and almost anything they said could be deemed disrespectful and met with immediate aggression or violence. Even a small child could gain status by being an enforcer in training who bullied or beat up other children who were lowest on the hierarchy. Many of these youth gained accolades for the potential to be “bad”, “hard” and an enforcer in street crime. This violent cycle began in the ’70s, was established in the 80s, and increased significantly into the 90s.
By the 1990s, these hierarchies and rules for respect were well accepted, understood, glorified, and increasingly imposed on other social groups. Many rap songs were created telling stories of personal conflicts with police, single mothers, absent fathers, and constant violence that warranted respect. The culture illustrated the abandonment of fitting into society, whether it was how to speak, dress, dance, or behave. Men and women became more emboldened with antisocial behavior that was acceptable viewing on television, on the radio, and in pop culture. Mainstream not only accepted the entertainment but grew to accept the inner-city street code that many poor blacks upheld. For example, everyone knows who can say the n-word and what happens if they do.
Black women were no exception to abandoning mainstream society and desiring to maintain respect. Black women maintained separate ideals for attraction and child-rearing so much so that the stereotypes and memes became accepted and almost adored by society. In the inner city, beauty businesses, products, and campaigns enforced rules around the hair, nails, and products that corporations eventually glamorized and monetized. In the name of respect, black women protected the narrative for street life to the detriment of their own progression. As the US got tougher on crime, many inner-city black men became victims of violence or were imprisoned; however, women continued to desire and have children with them, provided reasons for their behavior, and at times encouraged or participated in the behavior. Inner-city women would often be engaged in clubbing, provocativeness, and drug use as well using the same language and aggression from “street code”. They also dealt with the stress of poverty, stigmatization for being a single or welfare mother, raising children with little to no help from absent/part-time fathers, and were often mothers who lost children to street violence. Black women in the inner city were loyal victims who embodied strength and desired respect for all that they had to put up with from men, inner-city life, and American beauty standards.
Beatings At Home
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It was stressful. Although black women contributed to maintaining the social structure in poor black neighborhoods, many also created the experiences that contribute to violent behavior in adolescents. Physical, emotional, and mental abuse is directly linked to parents. Some black parents who did not feel fulfilled or respected in society, at work, in failed relationships, or in their own childhood home expected their children to give them the respect that they felt they deserved. As a result, they had unrealistic expectations for their children regarding what they should say, what they should do, and how quickly they should move to complete tasks. Many mothers and fathers overemphasized signs of respect (as opposed to actual respect) from children and teenagers. These demands for showings of respect from their children were developmentally age-inappropriate expectations and a lack of appropriate boundaries. In reality, these were needs that a caring, responsible adult would provide each other as opposed to children. Thus, when children did not behave in a way that was desirable to the parents, the parents would lash out at them. Furthermore, many parents were abused themselves. Children emulated this behavior with other children. The children would be berated, belittled, and physically accosted by their parents and behave the same way at school or around the neighborhood. Child abuse and traumatic experiences like absent fathers, family membership instability, frequent moves, encounters with drugs, and violence contribute to children’s poor behavior, cognitive capital, and impulse control. Additionally, many children resort to violence with each other because they cannot fight their parents for whom they harbor a grudge for being irresponsible, absent, or abusive. But they can often direct their anger and violence toward a peer or someone who they learned is not a threat like pro-social people, teachers and police. In fact, many young mothers in poor, black neighborhoods encourage and teach their children to fight their siblings or other children because they believe it to be a necessary skill in poor, inner-city neighborhoods and schools. School-age children often become more violent in adolescence and young adulthood as group belongings increase. Again, many of these alliances are to gain respect and protection. Because they are already exposed to violence, they are primed to commit violence as a conflict resolution in any relationship or situation.
Violence As the Go to Answer
It is important to notate that most black people do not live in poverty. Of those who do, a small percentage are repeat violent offenders and are typical in the lowest, low-income group where adverse childhood experiences are extremely high. Police and most people know that these areas can be dangerous. The message within these particular, poor black neighborhoods is that the quickest way to gain and keep respect is to demand it by any means necessary. Engaging in teasing, casual threats, and slight disrespect like calling each other “n___” helps to determine status, rewards and threats in the hood hierarchy. How well a resident will tolerate banter and threats will reveal the levels of respect required in the relationship. Engaging in malevolence and chaos tests respect, loyalty and pecking order. Again, with white people on the bottom, they cannot engage in these games at all or else be met with violence. Aggression against teachers, the police, and people in positions of authority is commonplace, too. In these areas, verbal, mental, and physical abuse of children is common and par for the course; however, children quickly learn to “deal with it” or take it out on “their little friends”. Many women and men routinely engage in domestic violence, street altercations, and violent crimes. Seemingly neutral people may maintain a persona that demonstrates that they could be violent too if needed just so as not to be a victim. Many fathers and men deal in alliances and literal wars over drugs and illegal activities. Lastly, mothers often tolerate the lifestyle with loyalty and their own hard, heavy hand. This cycle is why violence is prevalent in poor, black neighborhoods as opposed to other poor neighborhoods.
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As for me, I am very high on the hood hierarchy. I get a theatrical showing of respect when I visit. No one “plays with me.” No one calls me “n___”. No one threatens me. My family, who grew up in Chicago, has a reputation for an incredible amount of banter and violence and tried to ensure that none of us were soft, badly hurt, or killed. Before 8th grade, I grew up in 8 of the very worst neighborhoods in Fayetteville, NC. I got into 4 or 5 fist fights. I learned to shoot guns, witnessed a murder at an ice cream shop, and was shot at in a hospital parking lot all by 10th grade. My boyfriend was shot in the face and went to prison on federal drug and murder charges. My uncle is in prison for murder. My brother went to prison for shooting an off-duty police officer 5 times and was shot 9 times in the shootout. I was about that life but I’m not now. The streets taught me aspects of respect and human nature that help me in the corporate world. People can be scary but generally, fear of people or situations is mostly mental. It’s good to be patient in emotional situations and to not react at all (let alone violently) because thinking first is best, and violence is the complete last resort and only under specific circumstances. Humans deserve respect for being human and admiration is earned. Structure and authority are good, and not everyone can be the boss, but those that are, are for a reason. I joined the Air Force at 17 and worked in special operations for 20 years.
Speaking out loudly ❤️❤️
TeKeita, you are awesome! I have been working on this for a while and quite frankly we each have pieces of this puzzle the other needs to complete the picture and solve it. Plz contact me. luv1st9@gmail.com. my thoughts:
1) this is a culture. Not a race, not a gang, not a form of music, and certainly not mainstream Black culture which is fine just the way it is. It is a subculture with no real name.
2) historians have traced it back to ancient Ireland and scotland. So it's a white culture that came here hundreds of years ago that no longer exists over there. Their white racial descendants can be found in Appalachia talking remarkably similar to gangster rappers. This is a Keltic white crime subculture.
3) If society would be allowed to criticize this culture to death and teach every child how stupid and foolish it is we could reduce it dramatically. But apparently every single sector of American society is united in the belief that this culture must never be criticized because that would be opressing every black person on the planet. In other words criticizing an ancient white crime culture means we would be criticizing people because of their race including Oprah and Denzel Washington.
4) this crazy situation can get cleared up through video. First, explain to America that we are going to reveal to them America's greatest murder culture. One that they've never heard of. Second, get some white hillbillies on tape saying their version of this culture. While explaining it's a white culture. Then get the guys you're talking about from the hood on tape saying the same exact meaning as the hillbillies. So that people look at this as a white problem (which is historically accurate). Third, then explain in depth the foolishness and depravity of this subculture. Fourth call for movies to be shown to all children teaching them how this culture leads to jail, poverty and/or death. Teach America that loving black people means criticizing everyone who kills them. It means criticizing every white racist cop who killed a black person and everyone who is not a white racist cop who kills a black person. Both. Not just the first one. All black lives matter to those who love.
TeKeita, you are a celebrity to me. Can we talk by email?