We already know, courtesy of The Brookings Institute, the stark difference in gun violence between black and white people. Spoiler alert: the majority of the gun violence—fatal and nonfatal—in America is committed by black individuals, who collectively make up less than 13 percent of the U.S. population.
But did you know that “interpersonal gun violence” in America, where black people disproportionately commit and are victims of gun violence, is because of racial segregation?
Yes, that’s right: lack of white people is the reason black people in predominantly black communities shoot one another.
Racial Segregation and Gun Violence in Black Communities, by Algernon Austin, [Pictured right] CEPR.com, August 11, 2023
What distinguishes the United States from other rich countries is not freedom, but firearms. No other rich country has a firearm homicide rate anywhere near as high as the United States. As if to emphasize this point, over last month’s Fourth of July holiday weekend, there were at least 17 mass shootings which left 18 people dead and 102 injured. The Fourth of July is the most popular day for mass shootings in the United States.
While mass shootings receive the most national media attention, it is important to be aware that the United States has at least four different gun violence crises occurring at the same time. For this discussion, “interpersonal gun violence” will refer to shootings associated with street crime and interpersonal conflicts, including intimate partner gun violence. Interpersonal gun violence causes more deaths and injuries than mass shootings. While there were at least 17 mass shootings over the Fourth of July weekend, there were hundreds of interpersonal shootings that same weekend.
Gun violence is a complicated issue with multiple causes. Interpersonal gun violence has a disproportionately harmful impact on Black people. Previously, the Center for Economic and Policy Research illustrated the relationship of gun violence to poverty and economic hardship. The figure illustrates the relationship between gun violence victimization among Black people and racial segregation. (The data is for 42 states for which the public health researcher Anita Knopov and her colleagues were able to obtain Black firearm homicide rates and segregation measures.)
Source: Knopov et al. 2018 Get the data Embed Download image
More segregated states tend to have higher Black firearm homicide rates. More in-depth analyses show that the relationship between segregation and violence holds even with controls for poverty and other measures of economic hardship. (See, for example, these articles.) Residential segregation facilitates, concentrates, and amplifies multiple forms of social and economic disadvantage in Black communities, which then creates the conditions for a higher rate of interpersonal violence.
There are numerous facets to the gun violence problem in the United States. One component is the high degree of social and economic marginalization of many in the Black population. A strong commitment to improving the material economic circumstances of Black people would lead to less interpersonal gun violence.
Does the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) believe there should be further integration, so white people get to be the victims of black gun violence? What’s the point of this study other than proving white majority communities in the U.S. are free of gun violence, while the same can’t be said of majority black communities?
And doesn’t this study help prove why white people don’t want to live around black people and be in heavily black cities/communities/neighborhoods?
