COLUMN: Crime and Prejudice

From Felix Rouse's "Still, I rise," Fall '94 The DP even printed an in-depth look into the crime situation in the past year, and it appears that violent crime has taken a dramatic increase. Experts are looking further into statistics, but it really doesn't make a difference to the students at this point. The fact that a student died has really opened the eyes of many students. It's a pity it took an incident as severe as Alimohamed's to really cause the University to sit up and take an initiative in the battle against crime. I fear, however, that the surge in crime will further enhance the prejudices people already have about African-Americans. The fact that the University is in West Philadelphia -- a predominately black area -- doesn't help to alleviate the problem much either. West Philadelphia, like most urban areas, has the usual problems with crime. Of course, these occur for reasons which not many people care to talk about, such as lack of opportunities, but that's another column. However, the fact remains that crimes are being committed and the majority of them are committed by blacks. Thus, a great deal of crime is committed by blacks -- but not all crime. This is a fact that is often overlooked. The media (as we all know) not only continuously feed us reports of violent crime over and over again until we are numb to it -- they also present blacks in an unfavorable light. Most media institutions are centered in large metropolitan cities, where a great deal of blacks reside. This causes them to focus on crime that is often black on white. (We won't discuss the fact that most black on black crime is hardly given the same attention.) Many students at this university have lived their entire lives in suburban areas where the level of crime (especially violent crime) is very low. Many had very little contact with black people before they arrived at this school (and some still have yet to have any contact with people of color). This lack of interaction with blacks leaves a void for many non-blacks which is filled by the media. The recurring image of blacks being arrested and engaging in gang warfare helps many people to believe that most young blacks commit crimes. Granted, in 1990 48.9% of state prisoners and 31.4% of federal prisoners were indeed black -- but there are hidden statistics that lie in everything. It is interesting to note that 84% of the crimes committed by blacks are committed against blacks. So why is white America freaking out? There are some students here who fear walking through campus at night and are terrified at the sight of a black person coming at them on the walk. This may seem a little extreme to you, but take a peek at the Escort Vans zipping around campus -- they're always jam packed. Or check the campus safety records for walking escorts -- requests have skyrocketed this semester. I have seen people cross the street at the sight of me walking towards them. Some students have even voiced their fears of blacks in classrooms, and aren't afraid to say things like, "Hey, let's face it, blacks do commit a majority of the crimes in this country, and I'm just being cautious." Caution is one thing, but prejudice is another. I understand that walking alone on that street, late that night, was terrifying for that person who crossed the street (only to return as soon as I was past), but would the person have crossed at the sight of a white male walking towards them? This column is not to say that this prejudice is spreading all over campus, but it does serve to heighten people's awareness to what could happen if you don't just look at crime for what it is -- crime. Crime should not be used to stereotype a group of individuals. Those individuals who do generalize about a race based on prejudicial and fragmented information, only serve to alienate the black population at this university even further. Felix Rouse is a junior Political Science major from Newark, New Jersey. Still, I Rise appears alternate Thursdays.