MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It's a phrase frequently tossed about, black on black crime, so we asked everyday people what they think about the term.
"It's constantly all you see on the news like they push it forward so that's all you focus on,” said Dquinton Patterson. “So it kind of has a negative undertone because of what they constantly portray of us."
Patricia Lockhart, a Shelby County School teacher. says the phrase "black on black crime' is just a rebuttal used by those not equipped with facts.
“The term black on black crime is really loaded because it infers that black people are the only race that have crime with each other,” said Lockhart.
Lockhart says facts will show blacks rob blacks. Latinos rob latinos. Asians rob asians. Whites rob whites, and on and on. But we only hear about one, making it seem as if the black community itself is not concerned about crime and she says they are deflecting from the real issue of why people are protesting police brutality against blacks.
"Those people who say 'well why should we worry about what the cops are doing to the African-Americans because the african-americans are killing themselves?’ I think that that's their best argument,” said Lockhart.
Lockhart’s close friend Catherine Akridge believes focusing on the term diminishes the crime while disproportionately fixating on race.
“You have a victim you have a perpetrator or whatever,” said Akridge. “These people have lives and families. That's what we need to know about not what color they are."
Jasmine Croswell who is originally from Chicago says the term brings up anger.
“It’s not a real thing,” said Croswel. “Usually when people bring up black on black crime it's to dismiss the fact that we're still being oppressed and still being killed."
Memphians shared that the term 'black on black crime' should be tossed aside and instead the focus be on why crime is happening in the first place.
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