By: Roy Douglas Malonson
For years, America has been fed the same phrase over and over again: “Black-on-Black crime.” It shows up in campaign speeches, on cable news, and in online debates. It has been used as a weapon, a talking point, and a way to pin blame. But here’s the truth nobody seems eager to repeat—crime is most often intraracial. People usually harm the people they live near, work with, and grow up around. That means white victims are overwhelmingly harmed by white offenders. In other words, White-on-White crime is real, it’s documented, and it’s happening every single day.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics has tracked this for decades. Their data shows that most violent crimes involve victims and offenders of the same race. It isn’t some hidden secret— it’s simple proximity. You are more likely to be hurt by someone in your community than by a stranger from across town. For white America, that means most victims of violent crime are hurt by white perpetrators. It’s measurable, it’s consistent, and it hasn’t changed much over time. Yet you almost never hear the phrase “White-on-White crime” on the nightly news.
Why? Because the label was never about telling the truth. It was about building a narrative. The FBI’s arrest numbers tell the same story. White individuals make up the majority of arrests in the United States, including arrests for violent crimes. Part of that is because white Americans are the largest racial group in the country, but it’s also because crime usually happens close to home. In 2019, nearly six out of ten arrests for violent offenses were white suspects. The numbers don’t lie—violence is not a “Black issue.” It’s an American issue.
And when we shift the conversation to mass shootings, the reality gets even more uncomfortable. While most gun violence never makes national news, mass shootings dominate the headlines. Schools, churches, grocery stores—places that are supposed to feel safe. As of late September 2025, the Gun Violence Archive had already tracked hundreds of mass shootings this year. And when you look closely, many of those tragedies took place in white communities, carried out by white perpetrators.
Research from The Violence Project breaks it down further. A significant share of mass shooters in the United States have been white males. These cases often involve deep personal grievances, mental health struggles, and easy access to firearms. The National Institute of Justice has pointed out patterns that repeat themselves again and again: warning signs, suicidal thoughts, anger, and alienation. But when the shooter is white and the victims are white, the media doesn’t call it what it is— White-on-White crime. Instead, the coverage leans into mental illness, isolation, or online radicalization. It avoids race altogether.
Just look at Michigan a few days ago. On September 28, 2025, a 40-year-old white man rammed his truck into an LDS church, set the building on fire,
and opened fire inside. Families were torn apart by someone who looked just like them. It wasn’t some “outsider.” It was another clear case of violence from within the community. So why do we never hear that phrase— White-on-White crime? Because it breaks the narrative. It forces America to face the truth that intraracial violence happens everywhere, not just in Black neighborhoods.
It means politicians and commentators can’t point the finger at “them” and pretend the problem doesn’t exist among “us.” Talking about White-on-White crime means admitting that America has a much bigger issue than any single racial group. It means focusing on solutions—mental health care, domestic violence prevention, community-based programs, gun storage laws, and stopping illegal gun trafficking. Those answers aren’t flashy, but they save lives.
For the Black community, this conversation is long overdue. For decades, the phrase “Black-on-Black crime” has been used to stigmatize, as if criminality is part of our DNA. But the truth is clear: white communities are bleeding from within too. Violence is not about race—it’s about proximity, poverty, grievance, access to weapons, and broken systems. The real divide isn’t Black versus white. It’s people who want safe neighborhoods versus the broken status quo that keeps producing more funerals.
If we’re going to be honest, then we have to demand that the truth is told every time. Name the intraracial patterns. Say it for every group, not just for Black people. Study the warning signs and take prevention seriously. Hold the media accountable for its selective storytelling. And track the numbers through neutral sources so we can invest where change will actually make a difference.
The bottom line is simple. America doesn’t just have a “Black- on-Black” problem. It doesn’t just have a “White-on-White problem either. What this country really has is an intraracial violence problem—and a narrative problem that hides it. Fixing both begins with telling the truth, even when it cuts against the headlines. Only then can we fight for the solutions that keep families, churches, schools, and communities— of every color—alive.
