When is “All Skin Folk Ain’t Kin Folk” Going to Apply to Those Who Kill Us?

“All skin folk ain’t kin folk” 

really ought to start 

applying to people 

who maim, murder, & leave 

children parentless 

in the Black community.

“All skin folk ain’t kin folk” 

This is taken from the writings of the great author Zora Neale Hurston. It means all people who are Black do not have your best Black interests in mind.

In recent years some have been applying this quote to elected female leaders who are hard on crime. In my opinion, this is foolish. Much like the robbery of reproductive rights, this is a threat to women’s lives and independence.  

Unchecked Crime Areas Are a Burden on Women

💣In my professional experience, unchecked crime areas make it more dangerous for women to live on their own if they choose to. I will not mention any specific area but I have been an interviewer on a federal grant-funded research study. 

I spoke with women across one state from some of these very familiar areas directly about their experiences with sexual violence.  It is so very dangerous.  

My co-interviewer spoke with one woman who contracted HIV when the male who raped her climbed into her apartment through her window.  If I told you the city, we would all know it well. 

 💣Unchecked crimes keep women locked in toxic relationships.  Sometimes the devil she knows may be safer, in her mind. 

💣Unchecked crime makes housing in safe areas even more ludicrously unaffordable. Many an advocate will tell you, women may choose to stay in a violent relationship just to keep their kids in a safer and more academically achieving school zone.  

Women should not have to choose between frying pans-the dangerous man in the home or the dangerous males in the neighborhood who may invade her home. 

💣Unchecked crime areas keep women extremely fearful of working late, helping out on projects for work, taking night classes, or spending time out with friends. 

 Coming in late can cause fear and anxiety for women who live alone in an area where the crime rate is exceedingly high.  

💣Unchecked crime areas eventually brings in more police, tougher laws, and officials who are in no mood to hear anything about “soft on crime”.  They may try it for a bit, but once crime gets out of control, no one is in the mood anymore. 

Solutions are the answer.  IF there are real answers on what works then that needs to be brought forth.  If it needs funding, that needs to be brought forth.  Solutions with an action plan on exactly who will work it and exactly how it will be paid for are what is needed. 

Questions

Aren’t you all tired of blaming women for the crimes of men yet?

 Why are women and girls supposed to just grin and endure the burden of male-driven violent crime?  

Why are we expected to “take one for the team” on every single social issue?

Why are our female elected officials wrong for doing their jobs while the males who do not get elected to president? 

WITH the support of the males who say they will not vote for the females because they did their jobs? These males hate the women for ending crime to protect the community but DO NOT hate the males who have stated that they hate the community. They will for those men.

What other solutions do you offer?

Do you realize that you can’t elect leaders and then just disappear? We all have to work at this.

I want Black folks to declare that “all skin folk ain’t kin folk” when:

• males shoot these young girls while she’s chatting with friends on social media (at least a couple in as many days now)
• a famous female rapper is shot by a lesser-known male rapper
• males are killing their female partners
• people are abusing children and stealing their innocence

Finally, I despise mass incarceration but, advocating for lawlessness and minimal punishment is not the answer. We can’t want peace and freedom from violence more than the habitual violent offenders.