According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, black offenders committed 52 per cent of homicides recorded in the data between 1980 and 2008. This can be attributed to a number of factors, such as historic racial prejudice leading to inequality until the modern day. In 2019, African Americans represented 13.2% of the total population in the United States, but 23.8% of the poverty population. Additionally, historically racist policies such as redlining and segregation have led to gang communities in large cities. As such, almost all of this crime originates in gang-related activity.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, this statistic is often used as a reference to racist propaganda claims by white supremacists against African Americans to depict them as savage and criminal in nature.