Van Jones agreed with Bill Maher that gun homicides are the leading cause of death for young black men, with rates of death from other young black men being much higher than from white criminals.
While Maher suggested the myth that black communities only care about black deaths caused by police or white people, Jones argued this is untrue about communities but true of media coverage.
Maher began, “We do know that, for young black men, gun homicides are the leading cause of death. And…that leading cause outstrips the next 15 causes combined. That’s how bad it is. Also, black men ages 18 to 25 die from gun homicides at a rate nearly 19 times that of white young men the same age. And they’re not being killed by white supremacists, they’re being killed by each other, that is the truth.”
Jones replied, “Absolutely.”
Jones said there are candlelight vigils, teddy bears and balloons left by crying mothers at the sites of black-on-black homicides every weekend without much attention.
“I’m really glad that you raised it, because I think there is this myth that the black community only cares about a black kid getting killed if a white cop does it or a white supremacist does it, and it’s just not true. The media only cares. But there are candlelight vigils every weekend, there are teddy bears, there are balloons, there are crying mothers, there are marches,” Jones continued.
Maher interjected, “But where are the leaders saying, just hey, it’s coming from inside the house, cut it out, guys.”
Jones explained, “It happens every Sunday in every black church. It happens every Saturday in every basketball program. … [W]hen you have people like pastor Carl Day…and others, they leave the church and they go out there and they get no credit, they get no support. I agree with you, the amount of self-inflicted harm, there’s a suicide crisis among young white kids and a homicide crisis among young black kids, and we’re not doing enough about either one and we should be doing a lot more.”
When Maher asked where the leaders speaking out about violence coming from within black communities, Jones responded that black pastors address this issue every Sunday in churches and community organizers do so in youth programs, but they receive little credit or support for their efforts.
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