A PRODUCT OF MY ENVIRONMENT 3:
Fight Culture/Gun Violence
Fighting is a natural behavior that can be dated back to the earliest of the human species. It is a part of human nature. Thousands of years ago, we physically fought outside threats as a defense mechanism to survive. Over the years, humans domesticated fighting by turning it into one of the most popular sports. Today, people fight for more imperious reasons like boosting their ego, dispersing fear onto others, and showing their dominance over peers.
Today I will go over some of my theories on fight culture in the Black community. I want to point out that African Americans are not the only ethnic group who practices fight culture. There will be some people who will not find this topic relatable. This blog series is about giving outsiders a better understanding of the behaviors and beliefs of Black people who come from adverse neighborhoods. If you have not read Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog series, please check them out as they lay the foundation for the rest of the series to follow.
WHAT IS FIGHT CULTURE?
The word culture means a culmination of customs or behaviors attributed to one group of people. Street fighting has become so normal in Black communities that it can be regarded as a part of our culture. In the hood, we fight to settle issues. If you are caught talking bad about someone behind their backs, snitching, stealing, or something as small as accidentally bumping into someone, be prepared to fight it out. Because we are very quick to fight, many people think we are ignorant, dysfunctional, and trouble-makers. While fighting shows a lack of self-control and effective communication, some of us did not choose to be that way.
I felt compelled to write about fight culture to explain the behavior to outsiders and to shed light on how it hinders my people. Some people are violent by nature. For others like myself, it is a learned behavior as a result of your environment. In fact, fighting is a part of American culture as a whole.
EMBEDDED
In Black communities, children can be taught from a very young age to ‘fight fight’ as we call it. I have pondered for a little while on why we feel the necessity to teach a toddler to be violent. It is not possible for a toddler to defend themselves against a predatory adult, which proves that we do not teach our children to fight against legit threats but to fight against other children. Why?
Could it be that our ancestors may have felt the need to teach their children to defend themselves due to unwarranted violence against Black people throughout our history in this country? We were beaten into submission as slaves, terrorized as free people during the Jim Crow era, and harassed by police divisions since they were formed. Black people may have learned a thing or two about being violent through our oppressors. Unfortunately, instead of forming rebel groups to defend ourselves against the oppressors, Blacks began to exert this same violence against each other.
THE STANDARD
I grew up in North ‘Norf’ Philadelphia, where a person is held to a higher standard if they can fight well. There are hood legends who made a name for themselves in the streets off of popular fight videos.
Parents encourage fighting by masking it as defensive behavior. But what happens when that child becomes so accustomed to fighting that they become the agitator? The same parents who say they are teaching their children to defend themselves are slow to correct their children when they become the aggressors.
Like many children, I did not like violence when I was a kid. I did not like to be around it or indulge in it. But when you are surrounded by other children whose parents are grooming them to be fighters, then you become susceptible to getting into fights. I had to learn to fight, as my mother is a peaceful woman; she never taught me to be violent. Children who were never taught to fight become victims of troublemakers.
This can be a turning point for those innocent children who tried their best to avoid drama. They can either take the bullying or fight back and stand up for themselves. Because fighting and winning are so much praised in the Black community, once a child gets a feel of the power and respect of winning their first fight, there is no turning back. They become fighters, resorting to violence to settle the smallest of issues.
WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM?
Go to any hood in Philadelphia and ask a random person if they think street fighting is an issue in the Black community, and you just might get punched in the face for asking. Friends of mine who come from the same part of Philly as I do believe learning to fight has helped them gain the confidence needed to face this hostile world. I can agree with this statement. This is why many Black people are able to defend themselves against the ‘Karens’ and other bullies of the world. However, this article is not about the kind of fighting one would need to partake in to protect or defend. This is about the oftentimes unnecessary, and brutal street fighting that is a staple in most poor Black neighborhoods in America.
Let’s examine how fight culture has affected the Black community over time.
First, street fights can be unpredictable and take a turn for the worse at any moment. I have witnessed and been a part of fights where people have been beaten out of their clothes, beaten into incontinence, stabbed, tasered, stomped out, and worse.
In November 2022 the world learned about the tragic death of a young African American woman by the name of Shanquella Robinson. Her mother was suspicious of her death and turned to social media for help in finding out what really happened to her daughter. Soon, a fight video was uploaded and shared millions of times across multiple social media platforms. In the video, you can see another African American woman punching, throwing, and kicking Shanquella’s tiny body inside their hotel room. Shanquella does not fight back or defend herself in any way, making it clear that this was a full-on assault. Shanquella was pronounced dead less than 24 hours after this attack.
The people who do not see an issue with the cultural norm of fist fighting often do not consider the possibility of one being able to kill another with their bare hands; but, without doubt, it can happen. I do not think that killing Shanquella was this woman’s intention, but this is a prime example of how violence of any kind can lead to unintentional circumstances.
Secondly, street fights have become the preceding incident in urban neighborhoods that leads to gun violence. During the 1980's and 1990's drug wars, gun violence in major cities was at the highest ever recorded. Washington D.C., a city whose poverty-stricken neighborhoods were ravaged by drugs and gun violence, reached an astounding 703 homicides in 1990. It was not until many of the drug dealers were killed or sent to prison that homicide numbers started to drop in these cities.
Homicides by guns are rising again, but for different reasons. Most gun violence in inner cities comes from street-related issues. Most law-abiding citizens are not affected as long as they stay away from that lifestyle. Even so, there is always a chance of becoming an innocent bystander of gun violence if you are caught being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Guns are very easily accessible and get into the hands of irresponsible teens who do not think twice about taking someone else’s life. The motive for gun violence can be over something as small as cutting someone off in traffic.
There was a time when there were unwritten rules to street fighting. No jumping, biting, and no weapons. But, that is the uncertainty about living the street lifestyle; the rules change often. Now, almost every fight involving teenage males in the city of Philadelphia ends in gun violence. Today we have an out-of-control gun problem in almost all urban neighborhoods in America. Gun violence is at an all-time high, with 2022 ending with 514 homicides in my hometown of Philadelphia; one of the highest numbers recorded since the 1990s.
THE BOTTOM LINE
- Fighting is a natural human behavior needed to defend and protect. However, there are incidents where people misuse their ability to fight to bully or take their anger out on the innocent. This is when it becomes a problem.
- Black people have endured a lot of trauma in this country which plays a huge role in our natural tendency to defend and protect.
- People who are quick to fight do not realize they are practicing barbaric behavior that shows they lack the ability to effectively communicate and problem-solve.
- Instead of constantly drilling into our children’s brains to ‘fight fight’, a better alternative is to teach effective verbal communication and to resort to violence only when necessary.
- Fighting used to be a fair way to get over valid issues in the Black community. Now, people would rather shoot it out than risk losing a fight.
Fighting has been replaced with gun violence in our communities. This changes everything. Are we still encouraging our children to fight, knowing it could lead to them possibly losing their life?
Thoughts? Thanks for reading.
Citations
Petrillo, M. (2023, January 2). Epicenter of Philly gun violence found in a few zip codes. MSN. Retrieved January 9, 2023, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/epicenter-of-philly-gun-violence-found-in-a-few-zip-codes/ar-AA15TEJr
Escobar, G. (1991, January 2). Washington area’s 703 homicides in 1990 set a record. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 9, 2023, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/01/02/washington-areas-703-homicides-in-1990-set-a-record/ee71dd1f-59c8-4f03-af62-05b0a6134365/
