Everyone Is to Blame Except Blacks

March 29, 2024  Gregory Hood, @ American Renaissance

Editor's Note:  I've not asked for nor have I received permission to publish this article.  However, I feel this article needs the broadest distribution possible.  If the author or American Renaissance object, I will break this down to a link. RK

One wonders what South Korean car executives thought when they first heard about the charges against them. A lawsuit is for victims who have been harmed to recover damages. However, much as the Civil Rights Act has largely replaced the Constitution, Anglo-Saxon norms are being replaced by the idea that blacks are not responsible for their actions. Thus, when blacks began stealing Korean cars and bragging about it on TikTok, many people blamed the manufacturers, Kia America and Hyundai Motors.

In March 2023, the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin sent the two companies (they have the same parent) a letter telling them to offer free software upgrades or other ways to stop theft.

Part of it read:

The surge in thefts of these vulnerable vehicles has been truly shocking. In 2020 there were 895 thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles in Milwaukee. In 2021, there were 6,970. . . .  Thefts of Hyundais and Kias in Minneapolis increased by 836% in 2022 over the previous year. Year over year from 2021 to 2022, St. Louis County, Missouri, saw a 1,090% increase in thefts of Kias and Hyundais. . . . From 2019 to 2022, Philadelphia witnessed a nearly 800% and 400% increase in thefts of Kias and Hyundais, respectively.

. . . .  In the first three weeks of January 2023, Kias and Hyundais made up 44% of all car thefts in Washington, D.C. (176 thefts out of a total of 393), which was a sharp rise compared to July 2022, when Kias and Hyundais only accounted for 9% of thefts (31 out of a total of 332). In Buffalo, New York, the numbers of stolen Kia and Hyundai vehicles have skyrocketed, from 400 during all of 2022 to 350 in just the first two months of 2023.

The letter implied the thieves were the victims:

In one example, a teen was killed after stealing a Kia Sportage and fleeing police before colliding with another vehicle. In another, four teens were killed after the stolen Kia they were riding in crashed into an embankment at high speed. . . . In Portland, Oregon, a 16-year-old has been involved in at least 3 Kia thefts, two of which ended in dangerous accidents.

Videos on social media show that almost all the thieves are black, with a few other non-whites. White YouTubers have made documentaries about the “Kia boys.” One, in which the narrator interviews foul-mouthed blacks bragging about their adventures, has more than 7.7 million views. The documentary led to an arrest, but the thief was arrested for stealing a car not long after he was released. The “Kia Boys” should not be confused with the “Game Over” kids, another group of young blacks stealing cars. There are even Kia Boys rap videos.

Kia and Hyundai said they would pay victims of theft over $200 million to settle a class-action lawsuit, but a federal judge rejected the settlement. Seattle, Baltimore, Cleveland, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Columbus are also suing. The Louisville Courier Journal published a story implying Louisville was doing something wrong by not suing. Two days later, the city sued. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a former black nationalist, told Al Sharpton on MSNBC that car companies are responsible for making sure that cars “are not so easy to steal that they are a tempting, attractive nuisance for young people.”

There are other suits against manufacturers. Chicago is suing Glock because it claims you can use a “Glock switch” to turn semi-automatics into machine pistols. Black mayor Brandon Johnson is not tough on crime, notably warning people not to “demonize” blacks after mob violence, and suggesting that reparations will lower crime. However, he is taking advantage of the Firearms Industry Responsibility Act that Illinois passed last year, which allows such suits. Twelve states and Washington DC have also sent a letter to Glock warning it to preserve evidence, suggesting they will soon be suing.

Suits like this are not just a shakedown. They can shut down business that enjoy theoretical constitutional protection. The precedent was set when Remington, America’s oldest gun manufacturer, settled a suit filed by families of victims of the Sandy Hook school. They claimed the company marketed its AR-15-style rifle irresponsibly to susceptible young men. The company paid out $73 million and declared bankruptcy. Glock could share Remington’s fate, and responsible gun owners would be punished.

Just about everyone knows smoking is dangerous, but menthol cigarettes are especially dangerous because blacks like them.

• “Targeted menthol cigarette ads helped lead to high Black usage. Should they be banned?“ USA Today, July 27, 2022
• “The ‘predatory marketing’ behind menthol cigarettes and how a ban could save Black lives,” PBS, April 29, 2021
• “How the tobacco industry targeted Black Americans with menthol smokes,” NPR, April 29, 2022

In April 2022, the FDA proposed a ban:

In 2019, there were more than 18.5 million current menthol cigarette smokers ages 12 and older in the U.S., with particularly high rates of use by youth, young adults, and African American and other racial and ethnic groups. Published modeling studies . . . estimate that 324,000 to 654,000 smoking attributable deaths overall (92,000 to 238,000 among African Americans) would be avoided [by a ban] over the course of 40 years.

“Banning Menthol Cigarettes: A Social Justice Issue Long Overdue” argued against menthol cigarettes not just for blacks but for “lesbian, gay, and bisexual smokers, smokers with mental health problems, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and pregnant women.” The NAACP supports a ban, claiming menthol cigarettes victimize blacks. The Biden administration backed away from an initial decision to ban menthols, delaying it until this year.

Paulette Gipson, NAACP Compton, Co-Chair of Black Leaders Against Tobacco Injustice and Betty Williams, President, NAACP Sacramento, right, looks inside menthol cigarette-filled casket, surrounded by white flags symbolizing black deaths from tobacco as they bring awareness to Prop 31 at Fremont Park in Sacramento, July 28, 2022. (Credit Image: © Paul Kitagaki Jr./ZUMA Press Wire)

The reason? The Hill wrote that “a vast majority of Black smokers use menthols, and in an election year, when every vote matters, President Biden can ill-afford to alienate any potential constituency.” An estimated 85 percent of blacks smoke menthols.

The next wave of lawsuits may be against food companies. “People of color have the highest obesity rates in the US,” Vox noted in 2018, and “food marketing is part of the problem.” Since then, there have been many similar complaints:

• “Fast food’s equity problem: Black and Hispanic youth unfairly targeted by ads,” MedicalNewsToday, July 2, 2021
• “Black and Hispanic youth are targeted with junk food ads, research shows,” CNN, January 15, 2019
• “Bombarded by unhealthy food ads, Black and Hispanic consumers suffer real health consequences,” USA Today, November 22, 2022
• “New Study Shows Unhealthy Food Advertising Continues to Disproportionately Target Consumers of Color,” UConn Today, November 16, 2022
• “The Racialized Marketing of Unhealthy Foods and Beverages,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 2022

Someone will argue that minorities were tricked into eating unhealthy food, just as the Sandy Hook shooter was tricked into buying a rifle.

The law has always been a powerful weapon, but liability is expanding. If car and gun makers are to blame for criminals’ actions, and tobacco and junk food companies make blacks sick, practically anything could be grounds for a suit. Already, there are studies alleging that “structural racism” makes blacks sick. In some countries, pro-white speech is banned because it poses a “danger;” likewise in America, judges could well rule words “harm” people.

The “Kia Boys” precedent could mean that everything has to be designed to prevent blacks stealing it or using it to commit crimes, but the blacks won’t be held responsible. This would mean higher costs, less freedom, and ruinous lawsuits. The diversity tax keeps going up. If blacks are exempt from personal responsibility, the rest of us pay up and also take the blame for their poor decisions.