Conservative political pundit Larry Elder visited Fox News on Thursday to discuss a new study that claims “structural racism” contributes to black-on-black crime.
Elder dismissed the central claim of the study — that anti-black racism is the cause of urban violence — and instead argued that fatherlessness within black families is to blame. Elder also said that white people should not be made responsible for black-on-black crime. (RELATED: California Wants To Let Deadbeat Dads Off The Hook For Racial Equity)
“Well, you know, we just had gay Pride Month. Maybe it’s time for a ‘let’s take it easy on the white man month.’ The sad truth is that 60% of the shootings, the robberies, the homicides in America are committed by black people. The sad truth is half of the homicide victims in America are black, almost all killed by other blacks,” Elder told host Laura Ingraham.
“According to the CDC, a young black man age 10 to 43, I’m not making this up, is 13 times more likely to be murdered than a young white man. And contrary to what Joe Biden said at Howard University recently, they ain’t being killed by white supremacists. They’re being killed by other blacks. Now, unless you’re prepared to say black people are just genetically inclined to commit more crime, you have to ask yourself ‘what the devil’s going on?’ And what the devil’s going on is the 10,000 pound elephant in the room, which is the epidemic of fatherlessness. Seventy percent of black kids enter the world today without a father in the home married to the mother,” Elder said.
Elder pointed out that former President Barack Obama once gave a speech which detailed the potential consequences of growing up without a father. These consequences include a higher chance of incarceration, higher likelihood to drop out of school, and higher poverty rates into adulthood.
Elder then mentioned a conversation he had with former President of the NAACP Kweisi Mfume, in which he asked whether “white racism” or the “absence of black fathers” is a bigger problem for the black community.
“To his credit, without missing a beat, he said ‘the absence of black fathers,'” Elder said.
Elder said he’s tried to have conversations about black fatherlessness with other black “leaders” such as Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Maxine Waters, Minister Louis Farrakhan, and Rev. Jesse Jackson. All of these prominent black figures, Elder claims, have refused to come on his radio show to discuss the issue.