Maura Washington

Dr. Michelle Hite

English 103
20 February 2013
Black-Out
Grammy-award winning rapper Kanye West stated in the song Murder of Excellence,
aint nothing on the news but the blues. West hints on a truism, when watching or reading
mainstream news the topic of death is unavoidable. Data provided by The Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development Health Series shows that for every 100,000
Americans, approximately six are killed by form of assault (Fisher). This cross-national data
shows that the experience of death is not an isolated one. If the latter statement is true, why does
mainstream media routinely depict the experience of death, to be isolated to White Americans?
With national coverage of shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Connecticut,
a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado, and at a constituent meeting in the parking lot of a
supermarket in Casas Adobes, Arizona, it supports the assumption that the life nor death of
Black Americans hold little to no value. Black Death is a marginal matter only relevant for
interrogating the lives and experiences of black people.
Scholar Karla Holloway defines Black Death and dying in Passed On as a century-long
experience stamped by the vulnerability of African Americans to untimely death. Holloway
shows how death is as related to life in black identity. Since the Antebellum period death has
been viewed as a pervasive part of the African Americans experience. Throughout the text
mentions of death that results from white rage and violence can be found. Referred to as color-
coded death, (Holloway 3) this death is a result of nothing other than African Americans being
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viewed as holding less value than their White counterparts. In addition to the untimely deaths
mentioned previously, African Americans have suffered excessive death at the hands and mercy
of entrusted national medical establishments, and as a result of hazardous and unhealthy work
conditions. Such experiments as the well-known syphilis experiments at Tuskegee University,
John Hopkins, Chicago Medical College and the Medical College of Virginia brings me to the
assumption that White Americans view black life as an expendable body without a soul. The
ideology of racism persisting today cannot be argued when one sees how easily White
Americans cannot only inflict but also ignore and numb themselves to the tragic predicaments of
people, not because of something theyve done just because they do not racially identify with
them.
This action and way of thinking is a broad societal philosophy that has been around since
the time of slavery. Despite what the institution claims and documents this is not a post-racial
America. Stories similar to the February 26 2012

shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin
in Sanford, Florida by 28-year-old multi-racial Hispanic American, George Zimmerman shows
how Black America and its communities have been left in a very indefensible place. Simply
leaving ones home puts African Americans at risk of being targeted by anyone who deems us
suspicious. From childhood and into adulthood, the lives of African Americans are inevitably
victimized by structural as well and interpersonal racism.
Death by white hands is not the only form of senseless violence blacks face in todays
society. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 1976 and 2011, there were
279,384 black murder victims in the United States. Of those 279,384 almost all of the victims
were killed by other African Americans (Kirkwood). To this end Black-on-black crime can
actually be viewed as the most dangerous threat to black Americans. This leads to the question,
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why are we killing our own people? Black on black crime is an exhibit of cultural alienation,
resulting from cultural oppression and cultural perversion ("Madame Noire"). Black violence
can be ascribed to the deculturalization of blacks, the forced assimilation of Eurocentric values,
and the lingering effects of slavery ("Madame Noire"). It can be presumed that majority of
African Americans hold no value to life of neither themselves nor others.
Regardless if its death by White hands or death by Black ones, Black people are faced
with untimely deaths daily. If Whites view Blacks lives as expendable bodies and Blacks hold
no value to life, who should be concerned? It constantly remains that Black life does not matter
enough to any racial party to be protected. One can view any medium of mainstream media, and
point out the racial imbalances in reporting on crime victims. However if only a small percent of
the minority is concerned, how can Black Death offer nation scrutiny into violence and death
as a broad civic concern? It cannot. Unfortunately, Black Death is a marginal matter only
relevant for interrogating the lives and experiences of black people. This will continue to be so
until African Americas align culturally and build African self-consciousness.









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Works Cited
Fisher, Max. "Chart: The U.S. has far more gun-related killings than any other developed
country." Washington Post 14 12 2012, n. pag. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/14/chart-the-u-s-has-far-more-
gun-related-killings-than-any-other-developed-country/>.
Holloway, Karla. Passed On. Duke University Press, 2002. 3. Print.
Kirkwood, R. Cort. "Chicagos Murders for 2012 Likely to Exceed 2011." New American
[Appleton] 26 07 2012, n. pag. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/12217-chicagos-murders-for-2012-
likely-to-exceed-2011>.
, ed. "Why Do African American Youth Kill Each Other." Madame Noire. N.p., 28 09
2010. Web. 20 Feb 2013. <http://madamenoire.com/104793/why-do-african-american-youth-
kill-each-other-the-lack-of-cultural-alignment/>.