Besides teaching in “inner city” schools and having many students of African descent, I have also known many Black men in my life ranging from casual friendships to rather more intimate involvements.

Some of my Black acquaintances were, and are, well educated professionals, while some where closer to the street.

But regardless of their socio-economic status, if they were clothed casually, simply changed their appearance by putting on a ball cap, pulling up the hood of their hoodies, or were caring for their just completed hair-do with a durag, they became “thugs” instantly.

They need not commit a crime or act in a threatening way; they just had to put on a ball cap while being Black.

I heard students I knew, who were very good and motivated students, referred to as “thugs” in stores, in school, and on the street based solely on their being young and Black.

Web pages that begin with “thug”, especially image sites, are rife with pictures of young Black men with nothing about them that would indicate why they are considered “thugs”.

It seems for reasons both convenient or bigoted, that any young Black man is considered a “thug” by those who do not know them.

In the media, whenever there are two or more young Black men standing in a group, they are referred to as “thugs”, and now with the riots taking place in Baltimore, there’s actually no distinction made between those who actually are thugs and young Black men who may be acting orderly and responsibly.

The dictionary definition of “thug” is “a cruel or vicious ruffian, robber, or murderer”.

Wearing a hat or hoody, or just being a young Black man does not fit the definition.

But if you want to negatively portray any group, and in the process get others to feel toward them as you do, especially if the desired feeling is one of dislike, applying a negative term such as “thug” to a whole segment of the population, and basing the application solely on looks, and not actions, is very effective.

Repetition increases the effect

When sports teams win or lose, and riots break out that include looting, burning, and vehicular destruction, the media refers to the crowds celebrating as excited fans and rioters, but never “thugs”, even though their actions are the same as in Baltimore but with a much weaker motivation.
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Somehow residents of a city with little employment because the companies that used to be there moved overseas for larger corporate profits, whose schools are poor because the tax base that supports the school system left with the jobs, where obvious problems have been ignored for decades, and which hasn’t been heard might finally explode, seems to have a more explainable reason for extreme actions than people with no financial interest in a team for which they do not play, in whose championship bonuses they do not share, and for whose athletic shirts they have to pay high prices, burn and loot businesses, destroy public and private property, and overturn and destroy automobiles just to say “Yay!”.

I do not condone the rioting in either case, but it would take a moron not to see that if the former is objectionable, so should be the latter.

One should not be condemned, while the other excused.

And, maybe, the reasons for the former should be addressed by the politicians who are now condemning it, and the reasons for the latter not dismissed as the rambunctious behavior of happy fans.

More people are peacefully protesting in Baltimore than are burning looting and rioting, and among them are many young Black men who are not thugs. You will notice that this large group is referred to as “protesters”, but I can imagine that if any of the protesters who happen to be young and Black were to move away from the crowd and stand watching, we would be informed that the protesters are being eyed by “thugs”.

Suggestion.

Let’s reserve the term “thug” to those who have demonstrated by action and attitude that they are thugs.

Let’s stop using the term as a convenient description applied to all young Black men.

There is a theory in education that if you continually tell a student that he or she is stupid, he or she will assume they are and will comply with the label by doing poorly, acting out, and becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.

I can imagine that if all Black males from an early age are told they are ”thugs”, are referred to as “thugs”, and are treated as “thugs”, they, too, will internalize this and will try to live up to expectations.

To be clear, not all young Black men are “thugs”. Putting on a hat or pulling up the hood of a hoody does not make a young Black man a “thug”.

Society makes them, and potentially anyone, a thug, if it creates and then refuses to remedy an environment that is void of hope.

It is a case of nature vs nurture.