Popular culture blames Black individuals for conditions rooted in mass incarceration

Evidence

The legend of the “missing Black father” had become as popular as the legend that there are “no good Black men.” Back in May 2008, Tyra Banks had devoted an episode of her popular television talk show to the topic, calling it “Where Have All the Good Black Men Gone?” The nearly 1 million Black men in prison and the life expectancy of Black men being six years below White men did not make the discussion. Tyra Banks speculated, sounding the tune of racist Black women, that Black women were having trouble finding good Black men because so many were dogs or dating non-Black women or men. In no time, racist Black men were saying the same thing about Black women. The longest-running No. 1 R&B single of 2010, Alicia Keys’s “I’m Ready,” featured Hip Hop sensation Drake, who rapped: “Good women are rare too, none of them have come close.” Few good Black men plus few good Black women equals few good Black people, equals racist ideas. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1225

Categorization

• XREF: Directly instantiates Kendi’s core inversion: the missing-father legend is a racist idea produced to explain away the policy reality of 1 million Black men in prison, rather than arising from ignorance.
• ADDENDUM: Could extend ‘On Sacrifice’ or a general argument piece as a contemporary case of blaming victims of structural policy rather than the policy.