Dear Black People,
Let’s talk strategy.
We’ve all been there. You’re minding your Black business, maybe talking about systemic inequality or the latest police brutality case, and suddenly some Fox News–fed defender of the mythic “American dream” jumps into the conversation with the intellectual equivalent of a rubber chicken:
“But what about Black-on-Black crime in Chicago?”
Cue the eye-roll.
It’s the tiredest, most disingenuous deflection in the book. It’s the kind of rhetorical rope-a-dope used not to spark meaningful conversation, but to dodge accountability and recenter white anxieties. It’s racism’s favorite remix: blame Black people for structural problems they didn’t create, don’t control, and certainly don’t profit from.
But guess what? We’re not playing that game anymore.
When They Deflect, You Redirect
The next time a talking head, Facebook cousin, or coworker with a MAGA mousepad tries to weaponize “inner city crime” against you, don’t take the bait. Take aim. Not at defensiveness—but at the real dystopias.
Let’s start naming names, shall we?
- Salt Lake City, Utah: Where the mountains are high and so are the meth rates. Opioid overdoses and white teen suicide rates are epidemic—and not even the Mormon Tabernacle Choir can sing over the despair.
- Portland, Oregon: Gentrified to the edge of collapse, blanketed in homelessness, and gripped by rising addiction. But hey, keep telling us about Baltimore.
- Boise, Idaho: A well-known white nationalist recruiting zone. The fentanyl crisis is spreading faster than their “patriot” militias.
- Spokane, Washington: Trailer parks, meth labs, and domestic violence reports that could put Lifetime out of business.
- Duluth, Minnesota: Where the heroin is cheap and the racism is frosted over with passive-aggressive small talk.
- Youngstown, Ohio: A ghost town with boarded-up businesses, drug corners, and enough sorrow to write ten Bruce Springsteen albums. But sure, let’s talk about Detroit.
- Morgantown, West Virginia: The land of meth labs, Confederate flags, and the belief that COVID was a hoax created by Hillary’s emails.
- Springfield, Missouri: High crime, crumbling schools, and generational trauma passed down like family heirlooms.
- Erie, Pennsylvania: Imagine Detroit without culture, rhythm, or relevance. Just vibes and boarded-up gas stations.
More “What Abouts” for Their List
Let’s not forget the rural and suburban opioid ravages that dot the American landscape like open wounds:
- Billings, Montana
- Fort Smith, Arkansas
- Manchester, New Hampshire
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Grundy, Virginia – Where pill mills, poverty, and incest intersect in a town square of dysfunction.
- Paintsville, Pikeville, and Hazard, Kentucky – The names alone sound like Netflix true crime titles.
- Bluefield and Elkins, West Virginia – Where “family ties” take on a whole new meaning.
- McDowell County, West Virginia – Statistically the most overdosed, underfunded, and inbred region east of the Mississippi.
This Isn’t About Shame—It’s About Truth
Let’s be clear: addiction is a disease. Poverty is systemic. Crime is cyclical. These are not jokes—they are tragic realities for many. But what we will not continue to do is allow white America to hold up a mirror to Black communities cracked by centuries of oppression while hiding their own broken windows behind cherry-picked stats and racist tropes.
We will not be lectured about “Black-on-Black” anything from people who’ve turned Appalachia into an open-air drug den and whose idea of social mobility is marrying their cousin and hoping for a bigger tax return.
So Don’t Get Mad. Get Informed. Get Loud.
The next time someone tries to sidestep racism with “but Chicago,” hit them with Clay County, Kentucky and watch the color drain from their face faster than a Fox anchor in a drag brunch.
Don’t defend. Redirect. Reclaim. Refocus.
This isn’t about comparison—it’s about correction. Because when you shine a light on the real America, the one festering under Confederate nostalgia and powdered donut budgets, you’ll see dysfunction has no color… but the hypocrisy does.
And that, my friends, is how you stop a deflection in its tracks.
#DearBlackPeople
#SayTheirTowns
#ChicagoIsNotYourScapegoat
#FoxNewsCanKeepIt
#WhiteDysfunctionIsReal
#AccountabilityNotAnecdotes
Photo by Marco Lastella on Unsplash
