I think Thomasm was pointing to a fact. A generalization, yes, but a fact, and I think that the charge of racism is all too often a charge against statements of fact. I don't agree that the writer was putting down his Black friends in making his statement. To state, for example, that there is a likelihood of meeting with violence in a certain neighbourhood is not to state that everyone in that neighbourhood has a propensity to violence. To state that Black on White violence is far greater than White on Black violence is not to state that every black person is violent, nor that every white person is non-violent.