The death toll has soared also because far too many Americans still don't get too excited about black violence as long as it doesn't spill over the borders of the ghettos. Many black males are engaged in a seemingly eternal search for identity and self-esteem. Their tough talk and swagger are defense mechanisms. They measure their status by demonstrating proficiency in physical fights or by sexually abusing black women. An accidental bump, an ill-spoken word, a prolonged stare from a stranger is often taken by insecure black males as an ego challenge or an affront to manhood and so often escalates into violence.
Many black men feel life is futile and that violence is both honorable and redemptive.
The internal rage still lies dangerously close to the surface. For a brief moment some blacks stretched reality to the outer limits by claiming that black communities are urban jungles where violence is permissible as an ordinary means of survival. These explanations for the mindless violence that sometimes racks poor, black neighborhoods are phony and self-serving. And whoever is foolish enough to buy these excuses gives a tacit green light to a handful of young men to commit aggressive violence. Combs hired Johnnie Cochran to defend him.