This article is brilliant. I agree that the “black-on-black crime” phrase has been used to portray black people as inherently criminal and therefore need heavy punitive methods.

“Police exist primarily as a system for managing and even producing inequality by suppressing social movements and tightly managing the behaviors of poor and nonwhite people: those on the losing end of economic political arrangements” (Vitale, 2018).

I have seen this argument made time and time again. Sometimes I hear this argument from black leaders as well, who do not want to be perceived as being soft on crime. In reality, these punitive methods have damaged the lives of black people and their communities.

Black-on-black crime is a dangerous narrative that is always presented when black and marginalized people complain about mistreatment by police and those in power.

Vitale, A. S. (2018). The end of policing. London, UK: Verso.