The Peculiarly Silent Pandemic of Gun Violence in the Black Community
In his recent book, A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America, Elliot Currie highlights the disproportionate impact community violence has on the African American community. Shockingly, according to Currie, from the years 2000-2018 over 162,000 African Americans died violent deaths. Of that total, 139,000 were Black men – with 85% of those killed, dying by gun violence. This stark reality is underscored by an analysis of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2019, gun mortality data, which found that young Black males ages 15 to 34 are the most disproportionately impacted. Despite making up just two percent of the population, they accounted for 37 percent of all gun homicides in 2019—a rate of firearm homicide that is 20 times higher than white males of the same age group. […]