My own mother can't do this. She goes on about how the fbi crime statistics are probably "biased" in some way, though has no interest in finding out if or how that's the case. "It's obvious" she says. This greatly upsets me. How can we deal with problems if we can't look them straight in the face?
It's not just politically inconvenient, it's also lacking a lot of nuance. Native Americans commit crimes at an even higher rate than African Americans do. The two groups share a long history of violent disenfranchisement. Taking the statistics in isolation, yes Native Americans and African Americans do commit crime at higher than average rates. But ignoring structural issues is just as disingenuous as ignoring the data.
> But it's also the truth, and one that might help explain why african americans are more likely to have interactions with police (a group I have no love for, tbh).
Can you prove this cause and effect chain? The rate at which African Americans encounter the police is much greater than the rate at which violent crimes are committed. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I haven't seen any causality research here, but the way you've juxtaposed these claims implies that you believe there's causality here.
[1] https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/1352-1...
In reality, twin studies and adoption studies have shown a large genetic component.
We don't even need twin studies to know this. It must be true unless you're a young-earth creationist. If there wasn't genetic variability in criminality, humans wouldn't have been capable of evolving to be so much less violent than other primates.
(And of course, disparities in male/female behavior is obviously biological.)
> I haven't studied the demographic data at length recently, but fairly sure that your assertion does not hold for high income blacks.
In fact, it does hold in higher income brackets too. And I'd bet whites are more violent than Asians after controlling for income, too.
I mean, I think we've pretty well established that crime isn't genetic. It's environmental. So why frame it as if the opposite were true?
I haven't studied the demographic data at length recently, but fairly sure that your assertion does not hold for high income blacks.
I have no comment on the pay gap, I don't know much about it.