In The Philadelphia Negro (1899), W.E.B. Du Bois stresses “Crime is a phenomenon of organized social life, and is the open rebellion of an individual against his social environment” (p.235). What is Du Bois’s argument about the causes of crime in Black communities? Do these causes of crime still persist in Black communities in the 21st century?
Please leave at least three comments. One is your original contribution. And two comments are you replies to your classmates. Deadline: 10/23/22, 11:59 pm.
[…] Discussion Forum 8: Criminology of W.E.B. Du Bois […]
W.E.B. Du Bois believed the “Negro problem” were caused by social economic classes and the history of black people, the inequality black people face from jobs and seen as a human. They were seen as how they were seen before as slaves, not considered as an equal. In my opinion these causes still persist in black communities till this day, some people aren’t fortunate to have certain access to good schools, or good jobs. Some people still get discriminated against in job interviews.
I agree with what you said. Depending on where you live, your income level it can determine many aspects in your life.
Hi Vanessa, how are you ? I completely agree with the cause of social economic classes and the history of black people ,the inequality African American face from jobs and seen as a human .
i agree vanessa , how social economic classes is one of the causes of crimes in black community’s. Some people are unfortunate and they don’t have the same advantage as any other person like the upper classes who has many more opportunities.
Hi Vanessa, racism against black people has been going for century and as a young black man I don’t see racism and inequality changing when it comes to black people.
Great response, Vanessa systemic racism has existed for years, and although it has gotten better, just walking into a specific neighborhood shows that it has not changed by much. Also, within black communities, often more often than none, the resources such as low-income housing isn’t all that great.
Hello Vanessa, I do agree that some people are not fortunate to have access to greater activities in the world due to their crime background growing up.
Hello Vanessa, I agree that discrimination in job interviews still persists today one of them being things such as hair, black women have struggled in this aspect when it comes to job interviews.
I totally agree with you it is sad to see people treat African American people like slaves when slavery has ended.
W.E.B DuBois’ argument about the causes of crimes in the Black American community are due to societal conditions, such as segregation, poverty, lack of opportunities’, etc. The social condition in a community is reflected in crime because crime is a reaction to these conditions. DuBois is saying that there isn’t a problem with black people themselves but their surroundings and the way that white society saw them. The causes of crime still persist the black community till this day because we still live in modern day segregated communities, which we now call gentrification and are still forced to leave our original communities behind because it is too expensive to afford.
Hello kalia , How are you ? they are many reason why African American communities faces more crimes but you cover most of the common ones . And I agree that African Americans do not create these crimes or these conditions .
agreed kaila! the community that you live in is the cause of crime. how is one able to survive , if there is no equal opportunity to a job.
Hello Kalia well done on this discussion.
It is unfortunate how many neighborhoods are becoming “gentrified” because it’s forcing people that are originally from these communities out with no where else to go.
Hello Kalia, I do agree about how gentrification due to having knowledge of it in the past and how difficult it can be to live in a certain area, and how the buildings are different then the ones that were built in the 90s or 80s even.
Hey Kalia, I agree with your statement on the issue of gentrification, while the goal of gentrification is to help neighborhoods flourish economically. It instead pushes these poor communities out because they are unable to keep up with rising prices, in this aspect it only helps the wealthy and most of these gentrified areas result in black communities.
According to the Philadelphia Negro (1899 ) W.E.B . Du Bois stresses “ Crime is a phenomenon of organized social life, and is the open rebellion of an individual against his social environment. The article aims to build on the previous literature in three ways. They examine what may have spurred Du Bois’s interest in crime and caused him to repeatedly return to the subject throughout his career. The review of some of his early crime-related works and then place them in the context of other American climatologists writing during his era. Du Bois writes the problem of African American criminality here at the beginning of the 21st century. Du Bois pointed to the recently passed legal segregation as another contributor to crime in the African American community. Bois‘s belief that this practice resulted in race friction that in some instances, led African Americans to engage in crime. He aimed to determine how these officials perceived African American crime patterns in their jurisdiction.
The Philadelphia Negro (1899), written by W.E.B. Du Bois, despite being a work of fiction, provides an interesting view into this debate about why Black communities were prone to crime. Whereas Du Bois argues that it was a product of their social environment and poverty, others argued that it was due to their race. In their influential work, The Negro in Philadelphia, Dusky and Korn conclude that “for the Negro the economic factor is paramount. However, the evidence presented by Du Bois suggests that more than just economic factors contributed to patterns of crime in Black communities. Rather than viewing crime as the open rebellion of an individual against his social environment, crime, in the case of Philadelphia Negroes, was a result of a combination of social, economic, and cultural forces that acted to frustrate their upward mobility. Some sociologists chose to view the phenomenon of Black criminality as a matter of race. Du Bois, on the other hand, thinks that Black crime is rooted in community factors. Du Bois thinks that the high rates of poverty and criminality in Black communities reflect their situational disadvantage. Yes, these causes still persist in black communities to this day.
Du bois was certain that his research demonstrated instances of racial division that motivated African Americans to commit crimes. His observation led to the conclusion that the causes of crime in black neighborhoods were a lack of employment and the power structure that affected them, which benefited whites because they belonged to the upper class. Du bois argued that they faced systemic racism and unequal prospects for a better existence. Due to his studies that i have read, I do believe that crimes still persist in the black community where the neighborhoods between white and black become stubbornly segregated. In which, people of color are disproportionately overrepresented from high poverty rates and earn the lowest income. Which leads to a persons of color who are excluded and without education are more inclined to commit crimes to sustain.
I also agree with his studies that crime persists in the black community, where white and black neighborhoods are stubbornly segregated.
I agree that white and black neighborhoods are stubbornly segregated in which people of color are disproportionately overrepresented.
I agree with what you say when a person does not earn enough money to support himself or his family, he reaches a point where he becomes desperate and this lead to committing crimes to earn some extra money.
As illustrated in the reading materials, W.E.B. Du Bois believed that criminal activities of the Black communities were influenced by systemic inequality and racism. He argued that slave codes, characterized by special trials and punishment of Negroes were severe enough to spark unruly responses among many imported enslaved people. At the same time, crime was influenced by the failure of policing bodies to address the concerns of people from Black communities. Also, Du Bois mentioned that the violent economic and social changes which occurred in the nineteenth century interfered with the morals of people from Black communities.
In my view, systemic inequality and racism are still present in the 21st century and have influenced the rise of criminal activities in Black neighborhoods. Sadly, historical injustices have left many Americans from the Black community opting for pervert behaviors to meet their basic needs. At the same time, some are still fraught with unequal treatment that lingers within American society despite being promised a better future. Statistics show that many Black neighborhoods have higher gun homicide rates than other communities, even with the same socioeconomic status. Due to historical and current social factors, Black communities are more likely to commit certain crimes.
I agree that historical injustice still exists present time and with the showing statistics on black crimes.
Du Bois’s hypothesis regarding the causes of crime in Black communities holds that the “Negro problem” has socioeconomic and historical roots. The lack of blacks in the city’s top industrial jobs, the prevalence of black single-family homes, the ongoing legacy of slavery, and unequal racial relations are some of these causes. Crime, in the case of Philadelphia’s Black population, was the result of a confluence of social, economic, and cultural forces that worked to obstruct their upward mobility, as opposed to being seen as the outward rebellion of a person against his social environment. Yes, this still happens in the twenty-first century.
W.E.B Du Bois’s presents the argument that the cause of crimes in the black community is societal hierarchy. Du Bois believe crime is bound to happen because of the lack of opportunities and inequality. The causes of crimes still persist in black communities today because racism is still alive. Whether it is blatant, hidden, or micro aggressions, racism can prevent black people from getting opportunities.
I agree with you here, Sapphire, racism is very much still alive, and it becomes even more evident when trying to find decent housing within NYC in certain areas.
Hello Sapphire,
Yes, it’s simply a societal hierarchy and them being the minorities that affect hem from ascending above socially, economically and politically.
I agree. The power other races have obtained when complaining to black communities is huge. It seems as it historically blacks being at the bottom will continue.
Du Bois argued that the cause of crime within black communities was the lack of education. Also, many black communities faced housing issues. Du Bois found that African Americans were paying “abnormally high rents for the poorest accommodations, and race prejudice added to this difficulty. I feel that many of these problems still exist within black communities present day. Just walking from w96 street in manhattan to w125 street, there is a clear definition between the rich and the poor. Many minorities cannot afford the high prices, so they are pushed to city housing which is not the greatest. So to help make ends meet, many young men turn to a life of crime to improve a bad situation.
According to Du Bois, he argued that the crime withing the black communities were due to them not being very educated which also caused them to have financial issues. The African American communities were having a hard time finding the proper job that pays a substantial amount.
Hello Heriberto,
I agree the lack of education completely affects their finances to provide for themselves.
Du Bois focused on the socioeconomic and historical reasons of the “Negro issue,” including the exclusion of blacks from the city’s most prestigious industrial occupations, the predominance of black single-family houses, the ongoing legacy of slavery, and uneven racial relations. Yes, these causes of crime still persist in Black communities in the 21st century because unfortunately racism still exists till this day and micro-agression is always expressed to people of color.
The predominance of black single parent households is a great topic to shed light on. Often times people say this is the reason for so many crimes in black communities and so many troubles within the black youth. Micro aggression will always be a thing due to the viewpoints and stance others have with just your skin color.
W.E.B Dubois argues that blacks can be seen as a problem when it comes to the world, and how dangerous they can be and how often they can fill up juvenile detention centers and how intelligent criminals filled up penitentiaries. I’m not sure if these crimes still exist in the 21 century but from the reading, I do feel that some of these crimes still exist in some areas in the world.
W.E.B Du Bois focused on the societal and economic factors that were the reasons of the “Negro issue”. Black people were heavily discriminated against which limited them to many things such as job occuptaions and education. This fueled poverty and crime in black communities, due to the restrictions they faced in society for being black. In the present 21st century the past has some influence on generational poverty and lack of education we see today. We still face racism, but although it is not as heavy as it was before and there is a focus on equality, the african american population has one of the highest poverty rates in america today. This might be a factor to the crime we see in black communities today and other societal factors.
Yes i agree we still face crazy amounts or racism. Its sad but very true it seems like they will never give the black communities a break.
W.E.B Du bois was a great man of his time. He was shown to focus his thoughts and mind on the “Negro issue.” That being the discriminatory remarks judgments and injustice that was created against blacks. He focused on the effects these types of issues affected black communities. It sparked poverty amongst the blacks and blacks youth even with the drug epidemic that was targeted towards blacks. In most recent times of 21st century these crimes still persist within black communities. With the black lives matter protest arising after the Killing of George Floyd May 2020 it has shown the police violence against the black community still exists. This movement sparked millions of protest worldwide even a film. W.E.B du bois raised attention to the fact that black communities are known to he targeted at the highest when pertaining to crime. This being because of the stigma surrounding black communities. Not only just that but the historical upbringing within black communities is hard to change. Many of the people wont let it go.
W.EB Du Bios argued that African American suffered from inequality, since slavery African American people were not seen as people but as objects in my opinion. These causes still exist today especially in low income areas blacks are seen as less than and it is truly sad to know we have to raise kids in this area where people speak or look down on other people based on their skin color.