Rampant crime has devastated Philadelphia in recent years. From murders to carjackings, innocent Philadelphians have fallen prey to the criminal underworld. After the city experienced a record number of homicides and carjackings, Democratic politicians in the City Council formulated a blueprint in 2023 to deter crime. While it was created in September 2023, a post on X this week revealed that one of the suggestions in “The Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia” to save Philadelphians from being victimized by criminals was none other than “combating institutional white racism.”
Philadelphia set a record in 2021 for the number of homicides in a year with 562 murders. From 2021 to 2023, there were 1,486 homicides — the most ever during a three-year period in Philadelphia’s over 300-year history. The city recently set a record for the number of carjackings in a year; Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) was one of the victims. Retail theft has wreaked havoc in the area, causing many stores to shut down and move out due to the crime.
Hint: “Institutional white racism” was not responsible for all of those crimes.
If Philadelphia’s Democrats were serious about reducing the city’s crime, they would stop with these ghost hunts of institutional white racists and pivot toward the demographic responsible for the overwhelming majority of violent crime: black men. It’s the unfortunate reality that Democrats refuse to admit and continuously ignore, instead opting to blame things such as “institutional white racism.”
Consider the data. For example, black Americans make up 13.6% of the country’s population, according to the most recent data from the census. However, according to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, in 2022 (the most recent year available), there were 19,274 known homicide offenses in the country. Of these offenders, 9,429 of them were black, the highest total of any racial demographic. Furthermore, considering that most of these crimes were committed by black men, this means that approximately 7% of the country was responsible for nearly 49% of all homicides.
There is a similar significant disproportion when it comes to assaults. According to the FBI, there were 2,918,676 assault offenses in 2022. Among the known offenders, 1,119,829 were black men. Again, this means approximately 7% of the country was responsible for about 38% of all assaults.
This isn’t to demonize black people, as many Democrats have argued upon the revelation of such statistics. Nor is it racist to mention them. The fact is that black men disproportionately commit violent crimes compared to other races. This is especially true in Philadelphia. It’s why suggestions of “combating institutional white racism” to make a “safer Philadelphia” is Democratic nonsense.
Nevertheless, blaming white racism is seemingly all Democrats know how to do. It’s indicative of their toxic ideology and reflective of the delusional and unrealistic world they live in. They don’t care about reducing crime or helping innocent Philadelphians from being victimized. They only want to play semantical political games reinforcing adherence to their radical political ideology. Their objective is to create a class of the perpetually aggrieved, not solve the city’s problems.
Consider the recommendations under the “Combating Institutional White Racism” component in “The Blueprint.”
The first subsection is “The Problem.” It discusses the “school to prison” pipeline. It really has nothing to do with “institutional white racism.” Yet, the Democrats who wrote this pamphlet tried their best to make it so.
“The school to prison pipeline plays a prominent role in our school system,” it said. “Teachers in low-income districts are not equipped with the proper diversity, equity, or inclusion training to break the institutional racism. Housing also plays a large role in discrimination, and many are not aware they are unable to file complaints with Housing and Urban Development.”
An analysis of this subsection reveals several things. First, everything mentioned above is arguably fictitious. The so-called school to prison pipeline only plays a prominent role in Philadelphia’s school system with those who choose to commit crimes and do bad things. People make individual choices to commit crimes; it’s not a condition of growing up in Philadelphia.
Next is the presence of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This sentence, “Teachers in low-income districts are not equipped with the proper diversity, equity, or inclusion training to break the institutional racism,” makes absolutely no sense. It’s a pathetic attempt to shift blame and reinforce adherence to political ideology rather than offer legitimate suggestions. It’s yet another example of the uselessness of DEI and why it should be eradicated from society.
Additionally, the last sentence about housing discrimination is another pointless addition meant to be a left-wing dog whistle. It serves no real purpose there. People aren’t murdering or carjacking Philadelphians because they were not aware that they could file complaints with Housing and Urban Development. The section reads like a comedy skit from Saturday Night Live, not a legitimate government policy paper.
The second subsection, “The Solution,” suggests that there needs to be more teachers of color in Philadelphia’s schools. It also calls for teachers to undergo training and take anti-racism classes.
“More teachers of color need to be hired to work in schools and administrative positions,” it said. “All educational employees should attend anti-racism training, focusing on bias and racism.”
Again, a brief analysis of this should come to one conclusion: Why do teachers need to take biased left-wing training, and how will that stop Philadelphia’s criminals from murdering or carjacking innocent people? And having more teachers of color in schools is welcomed. No one would object to that. However, what does it have to do with a safer Philadelphia?
Is it to suggest that Philadelphia’s criminals, the majority of whom are black males, need teachers of color to tell them murdering people is terrible? Otherwise they will not understand this lesson? Or do they need teachers of color to convey to them that committing crimes is wrong? Seriously? These are the kinds of logical fallacies Democrats use to deflect from tragic criminal realities.
Of all the criminals in Philadelphia who murdered, assaulted, carjacked, or stole in the last three years, I can safely say that they would still have committed these crimes if they had teachers of color or interacted with school employees who attended anti-racism training. None of those conditions would have changed any of the fates of criminals.
In the final subsection, “The Next Steps,” the “Blueprint” calls for schools to have culturally competent social workers.
“In addition to police officers, schools should hire culturally competent social workers,” it said. “Legislators and political officials need to collaborate with schools and nonprofit organizations to address micro-aggressions and increased acts of both hate and violence.”
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There’s not much difference here from the previous two sections. It is just more of the same useless assertions predicated on adherence to the Left’s ineffectiveness and political policies. Microaggressions are just another mythical occurrence that Democrats create to justify poor choices and alleviate people from any individual responsibility for their actions.
The “Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia” isn’t an action plan to help reduce crime. There were many other suggestions in addition to the institutional racism section. Some were actually good. However, much of it was arguably just a political manifesto meant to reinforce unsuccessful left-wing political policies. It’s putting lipstick on a pig, so to speak, except in this case, even the lipstick is terrible. And even though the “Blueprint” had other recommendations, the mere presence of “white institutional racism” is biased and indicates that Democrats in Philadelphia are not serious about reducing crime. Instead, their main concern is advancing radical left-wing political agendas under the guise of criminal justice.