In my PhD I speculated and hypothesised reasons why young black men may not joyride in the UK. Here’s a little chunk of Chapter 3. How do things stand now?
Information gleaned during fieldwork suggests young black men were involved in 'displaying'
on Blackbird Leys, yet despite the media's normal treatment of black people and crime there
was nothing made of it. There were no 'black joyrider runs down blond-haired girl' headlines
like the 'black mugger' headlines of the early 70s (Hall et al,1978). Where available, figures
suggest (Procter and Townsend, 1994) and observation suggests that young black men do
not attend motor projects. If true, there might be a number of reasons this might be: first that
this represents a real lower involvement of black men in joyriding or second, and not incompatible with the first reason, that if involved they are sent to custody or receive other community penalties. Graham and Bowling (1995) found - though not statistically significant - a cumulative male self-reported participation in car theft as follows: White (4%); Black (1%); Indian (2%); Pakistani (8%); and Bangladesh! (3%).
Reasons for lower involvement might be: first a different relationship to the car amongst young Afro-Caribbean men, that is they may be keen on cars but not for the short-term gratification offered by joyriding or displaying. That is, it may not be 'cool' or 'phat' (hot) to joyride. When the police stop you, it is important to be the owner of the car and have all the documentation in order. It enables you to maintain a 'cool pose' (Clatterbaugh, 1990).
Moreover, like new clothes the car is to be seen, to be appreciated by your friends. Bayley (1986) notes that "cars were a form of display" (pl) that "The cars provided the costumes. " (p2) and "For some people, owning a new car is the nearest they will ever get to perfection in an otherwise flawed and soiled life." (p4) You cannot cruise the block if the police are chasing you. 'Respect' is earned not by short-term flashy display of a car but the long-term use of a car. Joyriding may not be a way of doing masculinity but a way of doing white masculinity. Back (1994) notes how young white men adopt music and clothes come from black styles. The reverse does not appear to operate in respect of cars. Moreover, Graham and Bowling's (1995) findings on different patterns of drug use between different groups indicate different attitudes to drugs. For instance, 12% of white males reported amphetamine ('speed'!) use at some time against less than 1% for blacks.
Other figures for drug use and crime more generally show equivalent overall offending rates so, these differences in patterns of offending suggest different attitudes to the practical and symbolic components of crime. Whilst in no way conclusive, the contention that young black men may have a different relationship to the car is supported by the lyrics of 'rap' songs like DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's 'Summertime'. Several verses make passing reference to cruising in, or looking after, cars. One verse combines all these themes:
Chillin' in a car they spent all day waxin'
Lean to the side
But you can't speed through
Two miles an hour
So everyone can see you
(1991. A Taylor/C Smith/ R Bell/Hula/K Fingers/W Smith Zomba Productions)
Alternatively, young black men may have an equal propensity and opportunity to take cars but do not do so for fear of discriminatory policing catching them at a greater rate than white colleagues.
Work in California (Schwendinger and Schwendinger, 1985) suggests that young Hispanic Men in gangs have a different relation to the car. Instead of the speed and immediate excitement they prefer a Lo-rider; a car deliberately lowered to hug the ground which ischromed and tricked out with lush fittings. It is driven very slowly round the neighbourhood to flaunt ownership and style. They could not be driven at speed whilst in the lowered position and would not be. The point is to impress your friends and irritate your enemies by driving
around very slowly with the window down. Non-hispanic groups prefer to customize cars by raising the back-end and emphasising speed through coachlines and flame graphics that suggest the dragster or the hot-rod.
Only the American studies mention race though the smaller studies by the probation service in this country routinely monitor race. Neither address the issue. The American studies mention race to disprove the favoured status' hypothesis and the probation studies mention but do not dwell on race as an issue. Thus Davies (1993) mentions that 4.2% of West Midlands Probation Service women motor off ending clients were black as were thirteen percent of male motor offenders. There is no discussion of what this means. Is this low or high for the area? Moreover, as Davies examines both motoring offences and motor theft offences together it is not possible consistently to pull out the full facts for car taking. The numbers for the combined totals are such that the numbers of black joyriders would be too small for useful statistical treatment. It is however important to consider the issue of black involvement in car taking.
The question then is do young black men joyride? Full ethnic monitoring of the Criminal Justice System will, in due course, reveal the extent to which there is differential involvement in - or policing of - car crime. This would still leave unresolved the question of joyriding given the difficulties of defining it set out in Chapter 1. Even, if a greater or lesser involvement in car crime could be shown it would still not indicate whether young black men took cars for the same reasons as young white men.
Some facts are known about black car use, for instance of Afro-Caribbean women only 10% use cars as the driver and 45% as a passenger. The figures for Asian women are higher on both 22% as drivers and 64% as passengers (GLC 1984 and 1987). The stereotype of the young black man, and sometimes the fantasy of those young black men, places him behind his shades, behind the wheel of a BMW (Black Man's Wheels). It is not clear whether this is a racist usage or an ironic appropriation by those young men, taking and driving away the initials but not the product. In another context the initials stood for Baader-Meinhof Wagen, as this left-wing terrorist group favoured these vehicles in undertaking their terminal critique of the bourgeois society that produced them. The proper meaning of the initials is Bayerische Motorenwerke.
Whatever the reason for joyriding - drift, status frustration, sub-culture, unemployment or class warfare - these will be shared by many young men and women. Theoretically then, young black men should be as involved in joyriding as young white men. Even with official statistics it would be difficult to be sure but the absence of media finger-pointing, anecdotal evidence, the findings of McGaghy et al (1977) and monitoring by and observation at motor projects raises the possibility that joyriding is largely a white phenomenon.
I’ll try to update some of this but also confess to missing Greene’s (1994) ‘Naughty by nurture: Black male joyriding is everything gonna be alright’.
Greene’s work is a rebuke to my assumptions but think that differences between UK and US are partially an explanation. Elsewhere in my PhD I’d argued for differences due to cheaper cars, lower age of driving and even absence of roundabouts but should have reasoned that the absence of black men in UK literature and motor projects was part of that difference.
Sadly, Greene was battered to death before publication of his article.
He sets out the many discriminations young african-american men labour under; some, a minority, respond by committing crime. Greene, speaking of Newark, New Jersey notes a ‘protest joyriding’ as paradigmatic. His description of high speeds, screeching tyres, doughnutting and the police chase could come from any description of joyriding. He seems to be on the same page as me in noting, ‘these cars are like those the media dangles as the vehicles to manhood, happiness, and self-worth’ (1994,75).
Moreover, he finds, ‘the media has created the impression of an epidemic of out-of-control young Black men engaging in auto theft’ (1994,75). Which helps me confirm there was no such coverage in UK that focussed on the race of joyriders, i.e. they were presumed to be white. Though I have a partial realist concern when he also says, ‘the media has seized on joyriding and treated it as if it is at the same level of seriousness as other car-related crimes such as car theft or carjacking’ (1996,75).
His own description of joyriding involves car theft but as a robbery carjacking is a notch up in seriousness. It is of concern that media elided the two.
He was writing against a background in a fall of reported auto theft in New York and New Jersey. Unusually New York separated out carjacking from other forms of robbery; just over 2,000 gunpoint robberies a year in 1991 and 1992 and an estimate of 19,000 nationally in 1991 and 21,000 in 1992 (about 1.1% of all auto-thefts . Having a gun as a persuader may explain why, ‘contrary to the impression created by the media, carjackings rarely result in any physical injury’ (1996,79). I’d like to know about any mental and emotional fallout.
He seems fairly unfazed by putting ‘usually untrained drivers on the streets for short durations’ (1996,80) though in my work noted that on way to displaying (and often ruining and possibly torching) the car they drove well enough to avoid detection. I pointed out in my work how bad much driving by owner’s was and felt media demonization was in part to make them feel better. But even today (admittedly in covid19-times) the USA is different. For instance, ‘Nearly 20,000 Georgia Teens Are Issued Driver’s Licenses Without a Road Test’!
He points out, as did I, the history of middle-class white involvement in joyriding. He rails against conflating any rape of woman whose car is jacked as robbery of the car not assault on her. Also, the ethnicity of car jackers not known as bundled in with all robbery.
He complains extensively about the media but provides few examples beyond a ‘review’ of an episode of a CBS series 48 hours called ‘Steal That Car’ (9 December 1992). Black and Hispanic street level thieves were shown and a white professional thief, a white victim and white police officers all feature. We are told rare carjacking deaths and rapes get parsed with joyriding as autotheft.
Greene likens protest joyriding to rap music as providing ‘context and meaning to the behaviour of those who do not accept the legitimacy of their own oppression’ (1996,85). His arguments and footnotes almost suggest such expressive ‘protest joyriding’ is constitutionally protected free speech!
Knowledge of the events that have led to the Black Lives Matter movement makes me very dubious about his claim that Black joyriders when cornered by the police for the misdemeanour of joyriding, ‘these youngsters scatter on foot, knowing the police cannot shoot feeing non-felons’ (1996,87).
About half a million cars were stolen in the USA in 2018. Full details here. Neither joyriding nor carjacking get a mention.
The Crime Survey of England and Wales ending March 2019 shows 27,455 victims of car crime with 4% of vehicle-owning households being victims of car crime (theft from, theft of an attempts of an from) but only 0.4% of theft. Rather randomly, and assigning no significance to it here, 15% of Arab vehicle owners and 7.5% of Buddhists. Men and women seemed equally at risk, but men owned car at twice the rate (or were registered as keeper). The large variety of ethnic self-descriptions available show the majority have higher rates of victimisation. The unemployed seemed to have higher rates of vehicle theft (0.7%) against the employed (0.5%). As indices of deprivation and disorganisation also tend to higher levels of vehicle theft, we might favour this as an explanation over insurance fraud but either potential explanation would need examining.
He contrasts ‘protest’ from ‘traditional’ joyriding in that the protestors are confrontational and don’t seek to avoid detection. In discussing protest, he brings in the ‘double’ scripts of black life (WEB DuBois, Souls of Black Folk):
Such a double life, with double thoughts, double duties, and double social classes, must give rise to double words and double ideals, and tempt the mind to pretence or revolt, to hypocrisy or radicalism.
All good stuff but most people will now be well acquainted with the language he discusses and the trainers and fashion styles. Obviously, I’m back with him when he says, ‘I will discuss that part of American popular culture which emphasizes a connection between materialism, masculinity, and the possession of a car’ (1996,89). But depart a bit when cites Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road on the significance of cars. First he overlooks their appeal to young white men and ignores Springsteen’s lyric mentioning ‘the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets’. Secondly, he cites the Honda Accord and Acura Legend as popular cars with the American public and joyriders. I find it difficult to think of those as ‘cool’ or ‘sexy’ cars so feel their availability might be more of an influence. But I’m in no authoritative position to contradict him.
The joyriders I spoke to and those mentioned in the literature were aspirational in their desires but stole the easiest. To shame the motor manufacturers the Home Office from 1991 published an index that compared the numbers stolen to the numbers on the road. Those suggested the Honda was a low risk car. I can’t reconcile the figures but What Car say ‘52,288 cars stolen in the UK in 2019 – one every nine minutes’. With only 40% returned. The Ford Fiesta is most sold and most stolen.
He tells of being pulled over by a white cop when driving in his Acura Legend (!) and ponders how it might have turned out if his son had been driving. This reminds him to think of the wider less fortunate majority of black youth. He only gives footnoted recognition to his failure to address the very similar problems faced by young black women.
He spends much time critiquing various policing and sentencing crackdowns before proposing school and community-based access to and education about cars and driving. He also wishes young men were less interested in gold chains and cars. He is more forgiving of rap quoting lyrics from Everything's Gonna to Be Alright by Naughty by Nature throughout.
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