NCJ Number
85543
Journal
Urban League Review Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (Fall 1981) Pages: 25-34
Date Published
1981
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Black-on-black homicides, which occur at a disproportionate rate when compared to other racial combinations of homicide victims and offenders, stem largely from aggression spawned by racial oppression that denies blacks the opportunity to express productive power.
Abstract
In an economic system founded on productivity, the most productive period in a man's life is between the ages of 18 and 35. This is the same age bracket of those black males murdered and the same bracket of those who murder. In system theory, there is the concept of entropy. Entropy is the stage in which a unit of the system void of its essential maintenance resource, i.e., energy, is deprived of performing its ascribed function. At this juncture, the unit begins to disintegrate randomly and ultimately dies. During this death process, this disintegrating unit causes havoc as it becomes a hostile force that arbitrarily, capriciously, and spontaneously bombards other units, often causing damage and death to these units before it succumbs itself. This same process occurs in the black community, as young blacks, particularly males, are denied the opportunity to demonstrate personal power in productive ways. Such destructive aggression will continue in the black community as long as white institutions dominate socioeconomic power structures and exclude blacks from the socioeconomic and political structures that control their lives. The only relief will be freedom which will enable blacks to dominate the institutions that affect their lives. Such power must be won by the blacks from the whites, since it cannot be expected that the white oppressors will willingly relinquish their power over those deemed an inferior underclass. Thirty-eight references are listed.