Could greater black/white integration in the suburbs foster more racism?

With the U.S. Census Bureau detailing how the black population is growing in Macomb County and other Detroit suburbs, web sites have been inundated with hateful racist remarks. The commentary suggests an invasion, not a migration. Much of this bigotry draws a straight line between blacks and crime.

With that in mind, it’s worth pondering a recent column by Leonard Pitts, Jr., of The Miami Herald which attempted to explode myths about blacks being responsible for most crime, particularly violent crime.

“The tragedy is not simply that many white men and women embrace this damnable lie in the face of all refutation, but that black children hear it and breathe it in like poison until it becomes part of them, until it informs how they see themselves in the world.

“Some years ago, I posed a question to an audience of school kids. If a white person is murdered, what are the odds the assailant is black? Seventy-five percent? Hands — every hand in the room, it seemed — bolted into the air. Most of them belonged to black kids.

“For the record, the actual number is 13.”