Attacks on African American Men Reported in Three States

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, pictured at the Michigan Roundtable Festival on Belle Isle in Detroit during the summer of 2008. Azikiwe has written extensively on Pan-African and world affairs over the years. (Photo: Alan Pollock)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Attacks on African American Men Reported in Three States

Flint attacks have resulted in 5 deaths and 15 assaults

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

There have been a series of attacks targeting African American men in three different states: Michigan, Virginia and Ohio. The most deadly of these attacks have occurred in Flint, Michigan, about 70 miles north of Detroit.

In Flint five African American men have been murdered since May and 15 others have been injured. All of the victims are African American except one.

The suspect in the attacks in Flint is a white male believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s. Survivors of the attacks say that the assailant was driving a four-wheel drive Chevrolet S-10 Blazer or GMC Jimmy-type vehicle.

In all of the attacks in Flint, none of the victims have been robbed. Consequently, people have assumed that the sole intention of the assailant was to kill the victims.

All of the men attacked in Flint are described as slightly-built and vulnerable. All of the men were attacked with a knife or a sharp object.

In a news conference in Flint on August 9, officials confirmed that there have also been similar attacks in Leesburg, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Also a similar case has been reported in Toledo, Ohio, about 55 miles east of Detroit.

In Leesburg, according to the Detroit Free Press, “On Thursday, a 15-year-old black male was stabbed in an attack as he was jogging around 9:45 p.m. Two days later, a 67-year-old man was stabbed as he sat on a porch outside an apartment building. Both men were African American.” (Detroit Free Press, August 9)

Both of the men in Leesburg survived and are undergoing treatment in an area hospital. Another Latino man, who is dark-complexioned, was attacked in a shopping center parking lot with a hammer.

The vehicle description given by the survivors in Leesburg is very similar to the one in Flint. All of the attacks have occurred after the assailant had approached the victims with requests for assistance with directions or a broken vehicle.

In Toledo, an attack occurred against Anthony Leno, 59, on August 7 while he was taking a break in an alley near Collingwood Presbyterian Church in Toledo. The suspect was described as driving a Chevy Blazer.

Flint and the Economic Crisis

The city of Flint has been hard hit by the economic crisis over the last two decades or more. There have been major plant closings, home foreclosures and the slashing of public spending.

Flint’s economy was based on the automotive industry that grew rapidly during the early and middle years of the 20th century. The first significant automotive workers sit-down strike in 1937 took place in Flint at General Motors. This strike and plant occupation proved to be a turning point in the recognition of the UAW as a collective bargaining unit.

In a recent personal account of a former Flint resident, John Danz, Jr., he says that “I moved away from my hometown of Flint just two months ago. It was the best move I ever made in my life. My mom decided to move back to Flint from Texas after three years because she missed her family…. Trouble is, Flint is an abysmal cesspool financially and socially. She didn’t think, and now she wonders how she’ll get by without a job from week to week.” (News Blaze, August 7)

Danz continues saying “Let me put the job market of Flint in perspective for you in a personal manner: In eight months in Flint, my mom had one temporary job for three weeks. I never came close to finding a job.”

Flint’s unemployment rate is nearly 24 percent. Industrial jobs have been leaving the region since the 1980s.

Racist Attacks Have Escalated in the U.S.

The killings and assaults that appear to be racially motivated are not taking place in isolation. Civil Rights organizations and other agencies that research racist provocations and violence, report that groups advocating intolerance and hatred have increased since the Obama candidacy and presidency in 2008-2009.

The Tea Party movement has been recently criticized by the NAACP and other groups for harboring racist elements within its ranks. Individuals at Tea Party gatherings have held signs ridiculing President Obama and claiming that he should “go back to Africa” even though he was born in the United States.

In Warren, Michigan during a visit by Obama last year, one white woman paraded around outside the venue where the president was speaking holding a sign saying that the president was “turning the United States into Uganda.” When asked by someone: “What's wrong with Uganda, it is one of the most beautiful countries in Africa?,” the woman had no response.

The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI), which was holding a demonstration in the area as well but calling for the federal government to impose a moratorium on foreclosures and to implement a national jobs program, observed numerous whites making derogatory statements about Obama.

These attacks against African American men must be viewed within the same context as the passage of SB1070 in Arizona that targets immigrants through a racial profiling law. African Americans and Latinos/as have borne the brunt of the current economic crisis suffering the highest unemployment rate in the United States.

Recent mass demonstrations opposing the racial profiling law in Arizona have drawn thousands throughout the U.S. On August 28, the UAW and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition are co-sponsoring a mass demonstration calling for jobs, justice and peace in Detroit.

This demonstration will be followed-up with the One Nation march on Washington, D.C. on October 2 that calls for similar demands to the ones being advanced in Detroit. October 7 has been designated as another National Day of Action to Defend Public Education.

Working class people and the nationally oppressed must come out in great numbers for these demonstrations. The racists and neo-fascists can only be defeated through mass mobilizations and political education campaigns that focus attention on the real impact of the capitalist crisis on all working people throughout the United States and the world.