229. Crime’s Value Chain

The per­sis­tent objec­tion of many Amer­i­cans to their black eth­nic minor­ity is prob­a­bly not at bot­tom the prob­lem that these folk are black. It is not even their per­ceived incli­na­tion to crim­i­nal­ity, which after all is a uni­ver­sal human trait. The prob­lem seems to be that not enough of them have moved fast enough up the crim­i­nal value chain. Crim­i­nal bankers of ran­dom skin tints can hold the coun­try to ran­som and still keep their con­do­mini­ums. Cap­tains of indus­try can poi­son mil­lions slowly and bask in ‘exec­u­tive bonuses’. Patri­ots can wrap them­selves in the flag and mur­der with impunity. Bemedalled gen­er­als can fling whole armies to rav­age the poorest, most god­for­saken peo­ple on the planet. Well paid aca­d­e­mics can nour­ish their van­ity in clouds of obscure pre­tense. Politi­cians can be lying front-men for all of the above on the way to golden retire­ment. But hell, damna­tion and life in an out­sourced prison waits for the black teenager who mugs a pedes­trian on their way to the cin­ema (that is, you and me). So the real solu­tion to the ‘race prob­lem’ seems to be get­ting these black guys to put their con­sid­er­able tal­ents into a more advanced type of skul­dug­gery.