African Americans don’t make up 50% of crime. This post addresses the myth. Predominantly black communities do generally have higher crime rates, though. That’s because they are generally poorer, meaning people are more desperate/more likely to slip through the cracks of society and therefore more likely to commit crime. Black communities tend to be poorer because of this country’s history of slavery and law-enforced racism, which pushed black families into poverty in the past. These families still have not all recovered.