tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/george-floyd-87675/articles
George Floyd – The Conversation
2023-07-31T12:24:13Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210636
2023-07-31T12:24:13Z
2023-07-31T12:24:13Z
Justice Department launches civil rights investigation of Memphis police – 4 essential reads about holding police accountable
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539936/original/file-20230728-29-n5ruyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C52%2C7008%2C4500&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Signs calling for all officers and emergency personnel involved in Tyre Nichols' death to be named and charged rest on public steps on Feb. 1, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/signs-calling-for-all-officers-and-emergency-personel-news-photo/1246727760?adppopup=true">Lucy Garrett/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Seven months after the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tyre-nichols-officers-fired-memphis-facb607496ba0f8abf9d7cdf21c97446">horrific beating death by police of Memphis, Tennessee, motorist Tyre Nichols</a>, the Justice Department, on July 27, 2023, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/07/27/justice-civil-rights-memphis/">launched a civil rights investigation</a> into allegations the Memphis Police Department routinely used excessive force and, on a systemic basis, discriminated against Black residents.</p>
<p>Although Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said during a press conference that the investigation of the department and city of Memphis is “not based on a single incident or event,” she also said, “In January of this year, the nation witnessed the tragic death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police.” </p>
<p>The Justice Department, Clarke said, received multiple reports of Memphis police escalating encounters with residents that resulted in excessive force and have indications police there use force punitively.</p>
<p>The Conversation has published a range of articles that examine police departments’ unequal and sometimes violent treatment of Black people. Here are four articles to help you understand the depth and breadth of the problem. Rashad Shabazz, <a href="https://newsroom.asu.edu/expert/rashad-shabazz">a geographer and scholar of African American studies</a> who uses location and societal views about groups of people to make sense of police abuse, wrote three of them. </p>
<h2>1. Black police officers can be affected by anti-Black bias</h2>
<p>Police officers in the United States have always treated Black people as domestic enemies and viewed them as a problem, wrote Shabazz, who teaches at Arizona State University. And ample research indicates anti-Blackness is a factor in American policing from which Black police officers are not exempt.</p>
<p>“American society assumes that Black people are prone to criminality and therefore should be subject to state power <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-police-officers-arent-colorblind-theyre-infected-by-the-same-anti-black-bias-as-american-society-and-police-in-general-198721">in the form of policing</a> or, in some cases, vigilantism – as in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. This is a link deeply woven into American consciousness,” he wrote. “And Black people are not immune. In this way, the long-held targeting of Black men by police and widely held negative beliefs about them are a powerful cocktail that can compel even Black officers to stop, detain and brutally beat a man who looks just like them.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539940/original/file-20230728-26-qxz8m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mean wearing black and gray carry a black casket topped with white flowers to the open back of a white hearse." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539940/original/file-20230728-26-qxz8m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539940/original/file-20230728-26-qxz8m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539940/original/file-20230728-26-qxz8m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539940/original/file-20230728-26-qxz8m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539940/original/file-20230728-26-qxz8m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539940/original/file-20230728-26-qxz8m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539940/original/file-20230728-26-qxz8m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Family and friends bring Tyre Nichols’ casket to a hearse after Nichols’ funeral at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church on Feb. 1, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/family-and-friends-bring-tyre-nichols-casket-to-the-hearse-news-photo/1246727428?adppopup=true">Lucy Garrett/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Shabazz wrote that Americans’ collective surprise that five Black police officers could brutalize another Black man indicated a lack of understanding about race and racism.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-police-officers-arent-colorblind-theyre-infected-by-the-same-anti-black-bias-as-american-society-and-police-in-general-198721">Black police officers aren't colorblind – they're infected by the same anti-Black bias as American society and police in general</a>
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<h2>2. The Justice Department has found police in multiple American cities act on racial bias</h2>
<p>Police misconduct in the United States is not unusual. In fact, over the past decade, the Justice Department has found police in cities – including Minneapolis; Louisville, Kentucky; and Ferguson, Missouri – routinely deny Black people their constitutional rights, discriminate against Black people and use excessive force, including unjustified deadly force when interacting with civilians, <a href="https://newsroom.asu.edu/expert/rashad-shabazz">Shabazz</a> also wrote:</p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/police-treatment-in-black-and-white-report-on-minneapolis-policing-is-the-latest-reminder-of-systemic-racial-disparities-208418">Police body camera footage shows officers speak disrespectfully to Black people</a> during traffic stops; about four of every 10 Black people say police have unfairly stopped them; and Black people are more than three times as likely to be killed by police during interactions. These experiences explain why Black people have negative views of police.”</p>
<p>As Shabazz wrote, the unequal treatment of Black people by police stems from the history of slave patrols policing African Americans in the South. </p>
<p>Black people, though, have not been the only targets of police discrimination. Historically, police discriminated against Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Southwest and the Irish – before they were considered white - in the North. White Southerners, white Southwesterners, and white people in the middle and upper classes in the North, however, were not subjected to police abuse or racial discrimination.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, because of their different experiences with police, Black and white people view police differently.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/police-treatment-in-black-and-white-report-on-minneapolis-policing-is-the-latest-reminder-of-systemic-racial-disparities-208418">Police treatment in black and white – report on Minneapolis policing is the latest reminder of systemic racial disparities</a>
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<h2>3. Police officers who brutalize citizens do it repeatedly</h2>
<p>Often, the same police officers who engage in misconduct – such as witness intimidation, evidence tampering and coercion – do the same thing from one case to another, wrote Jill McCorkel. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igzCbrQQHbQ">A scholar of law and the criminal justice system</a> at Villanova University, McCorkel works with people in Philadelphia who were wrongly convicted of crimes.</p>
<p>“In the aftermath of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the Department of Justice found that the department had a lengthy history of <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-officers-accused-of-brutal-violence-often-have-a-history-of-complaints-by-citizens-139709">excessive force, unconstitutional stop and searches, racial discrimination and racial bias</a>,” McCorkel wrote. “The report noted that the use of force was often punitive and retaliatory and that the overwhelming majority of force – almost 90% – is used against African Americans.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539942/original/file-20230728-25-l3qp76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People wearing winter coats and hats protest outside holding black and white signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539942/original/file-20230728-25-l3qp76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539942/original/file-20230728-25-l3qp76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539942/original/file-20230728-25-l3qp76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539942/original/file-20230728-25-l3qp76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539942/original/file-20230728-25-l3qp76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539942/original/file-20230728-25-l3qp76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539942/original/file-20230728-25-l3qp76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Protesters in Boston hold signs demanding justice following the killing of Tyre Nichols.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-hold-placards-demanding-justice-following-the-news-photo/1246610537?adppopup=true">Vincent Ricci/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>But McCorkel wrote that civilian review boards that can conduct their own investigations and impose discipline may be a solution to the problem.</p>
<p>“Research at the national level suggests that jurisdictions with citizen review boards uphold more excessive force complaints than jurisdictions that rely on internal mechanisms,” she wrote.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/police-officers-accused-of-brutal-violence-often-have-a-history-of-complaints-by-citizens-139709">Police officers accused of brutal violence often have a history of complaints by citizens</a>
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<h2>4. Police often shielded from accountability</h2>
<p>Negative cultural myths about Black people and backing from the powerful Fraternal Order of Police together serve to justify a culture of police violence and shield police officers from accountability for their misconduct, Shabazz wrote.</p>
<p>As a consequence, sometimes people who have been abused by police or whose loved ones were killed by police seek police accountability in civil courts. That’s what Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, did when she filed a US$55 million federal lawsuit against the individual police officers who beat and killed her son. That lawsuit also targeted the Memphis Police Department and the city of Memphis.</p>
<p>“In Louisville, in Minneapolis and across the nation, Black <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-law-often-shields-police-officers-from-accountability-and-reinforces-policing-that-harms-black-people-homeless-people-and-the-mentally-ill-201552">people have complained about police misconduct</a> only to have those complaints ignored while white people’s complaints of misconduct are more likely to be sustained,” Shabazz wrote.</p>
<p>But Shabazz also wrote that homeless people who, like African Americans, are heavily policed and viewed as criminals, are also often the victims of police deadly force. And the mentally ill are routinely on the receiving end of police misconduct.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-law-often-shields-police-officers-from-accountability-and-reinforces-policing-that-harms-black-people-homeless-people-and-the-mentally-ill-201552">The law often shields police officers from accountability -- and reinforces policing that harms Black people, homeless people and the mentally ill</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Justice Department has launched a civil rights probe of the Memphis Police Department to examine allegations of excessive force, improper stops and searches and racial disparities.
Lorna Grisby, Politics & Society Editor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208418
2023-07-06T12:26:55Z
2023-07-06T12:26:55Z
Police treatment in black and white – report on Minneapolis policing is the latest reminder of systemic racial disparities
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535099/original/file-20230630-29-v5vyxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3081%2C2051&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People in the Brooklyn borough of New York City protest police violence against Black women on Sept. 5, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participant-holding-a-sign-at-the-protest-brooklynites-news-photo/1228367931?adppopup=true">Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The latest reminder that police officers around the country routinely deny Black people their constitutional rights comes from the Justice Department. This time, it’s about Minneapolis, the site of a police officer’s video-recorded murder of resident George Floyd. </p>
<p>More than three years after <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyds-death-reflects-the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-139805">Floyd’s brutal death</a> and the global protest movement that sprang from it, a June 2023 <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-civil-rights-violations-minneapolis-police-department-and-city">Justice Department report</a> found that Minneapolis police use excessive force, including unjustified deadly force in their interactions with civilians, and discriminate against Black people. </p>
<p>The report echoes Justice Department findings, released in March 2023, about police misconduct in Louisville, Kentucky, where officers killed <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/file/1572951/download">Breonna Taylor</a> during <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/04/feds-charge-4-officers-with-violating-breonna-taylors-rights-00049867">an unlawful search of her home</a> in March 2020, and about <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf">police in Ferguson, Missouri</a>, in a report released in March 2015. An <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/michael-brown-killed-by-police-ferguson-mo">officer shot and killed Michael Brown</a>, who was unarmed, during a 2014 encounter. </p>
<p>The Justice Department <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-civil-rights-violations-minneapolis-police-department-and-city">found that Minneapolis police</a> also discriminate against Native Americans; routinely use excessive force, including “unreasonable use of tasers”; violate the rights of citizens exercising their First Amendment right to free speech; participate in racially discriminatory stops against Black people and Native Americans; and discriminate against people with serious mental illnesses.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A uniformed, white police officer kneels on the neck of a Black man as he lies on the ground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A screenshot of a video shows former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck as Floyd cries out in pain, stating that he can’t breathe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEZh0C-pmaw">23 ABC News - KERO</a></span>
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<p>As a <a href="https://newsroom.asu.edu/expert/rashad-shabazz">geographer and scholar of African American studies</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-police-officers-arent-colorblind-theyre-infected-by-the-same-anti-black-bias-as-american-society-and-police-in-general-198721">I’ve written</a> about <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-law-often-shields-police-officers-from-accountability-and-reinforces-policing-that-harms-black-people-homeless-people-and-the-mentally-ill-201552">racist policing</a> for <a href="https://theconversation.com/minneapolis-long-hot-summer-of-67-and-the-parallels-to-todays-protests-over-police-brutality-139814">The Conversation</a> before. So, I struggled to find a new way to examine the topic this time around. And that led me to the enduring question: Why is racial discrimination by police so common in the United States? </p>
<h2>Policing in black and white</h2>
<p>Justice Department reports, <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-officers-accused-of-brutal-violence-often-have-a-history-of-complaints-by-citizens-139709">complaints from citizens</a> and dozens of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21533687211047943">academic studies painfully point to</a> racial discrimination by police as a common practice. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/opinions/systemic-racism-police-evidence-criminal-justice-system/">evidence</a> is overwhelming. Countless studies have shown that Black people are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15377938.2021.1992326">routinely stopped</a> by police and live in racially segregated communities <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/2020/06/17/how-racial-segregation-and-policing-intersect-america">that police heavily monitor</a>. These conditions have led to <a href="https://thecrimereport.org/2021/01/14/blacks-overrepresented-in-violent-crime-arrests/">Black people being overrepresented</a> in arrests for violent crime that doesn’t involve a fatality. </p>
<p>Police body camera footage shows <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1702413114">officers speak disrespectfully to Black people</a> during traffic stops; about four of every 10 <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/the-role-of-race-and-ethnicity-in-americans-personal-lives/">Black people say police have unfairly stopped them</a>; and Black people are more than <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/blacks-whites-police-deaths-disparity/">three times</a> as likely to be killed by police during interactions. These experiences explain why Black people have <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2016/09/29/the-racial-confidence-gap-in-police-performance/#wide-racial-gaps-in-views-of-police-performance">negative views of police</a>. </p>
<p>For white Americans, however, their feelings and interactions with the police are more positive. For instance, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/the-role-of-race-and-ethnicity-in-americans-personal-lives/">only a quarter</a> of white people surveyed report being in situations where they believe police were suspicious of them. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/06/03/10-things-we-know-about-race-and-policing-in-the-u-s/ft_2020-06-03_raceandpolice_04/">78% feel police protect people</a> from crime; 75% say police use the correct amount of force and that they treat people of color and white people equally; and 70% of white Americans feel police are held accountable for their misconduct.</p>
<p>These experiences explain why white Americans are more likely to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/06/03/10-things-we-know-about-race-and-policing-in-the-u-s/">give police high marks</a> – 75% – for job performance.</p>
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<span class="caption">Demonstrators pose in front of the Georgia Capitol building on March 13, 2021, during a march commemorating the one-year anniversary of the police killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-pose-for-a-picture-in-front-of-the-georgia-news-photo/1231697654?adppopup=true">Megan Varner/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>These differences influence how race shapes people’s interactions with police. African Americans have negative views of police because of past and personal experience. Many white people have more positive views shaped by living on their side of the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/color%20line#:%7E:text=%3A%20a%20set%20of%20societal%20or,usually%20used%20with%20the">color line</a>. </p>
<h2>Experiences shape people’s views</h2>
<p>The fact that Black and white Americans have different views on the police are not accidents. </p>
<p>This reality is built on a long history of police targeting people of color. Indeed, policing in the United States was established on the practice of controlling specific populations. In the 19th century, for example, <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/869046127">policing in the South</a> was designed to monitor the movement of enslaved Black people. Some of the first police forces in the nation were developed to keep the enslaved from escaping and to recapture them if they did. They were called slave patrols, and by law, some states required white men to serve as slave patrollers. </p>
<p>Similar histories exist with <a href="https://www.history.com/news/how-stereotypes-of-the-irish-evolved-from-criminals-to-cops">the Irish</a> in the Northeast before they were <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780415913843">considered white</a>, as well as with Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/08/871929844/cult-of-glory-reveals-the-dark-history-of-the-texas-rangers">Southwest</a>. </p>
<p>Policing and controlling the movements of specific nonwhite groups have often gone hand in hand. This powerful cocktail of racism and policing has enabled <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/05/us-police-brutality-un-experts-george-floyd">brutal forms of violence</a> against people of color.</p>
<p>In each case, police discriminated against Black people in the South, Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Southwest and the Irish in the North, while treating white Southerners, white Southwesterners and the middle and upper classes in the North differently. The parallels to this moment are not an accident. And neither is police misconduct.</p>
<h2>Policing the way it was intended</h2>
<p>The Justice Department’s report will place the practices of the Minneapolis Police Department under public scrutiny. And it will be part of the mountain of studies, complaints and federal reports that show widespread racial discrimination.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man draped in the US flag, with his back to the camera, sits on a motorized bicycle. A crowd of people stand yards away from him with their backs to the camera as well." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man draped in the U.S. flag sits on a motorized bicycle near the White House during June 3, 2020, protests over the death of George Floyd.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-draped-in-the-us-flag-sits-on-his-motorized-bicycle-news-photo/1217490160?adppopup=true%20ALT%20TEXT:%20A%20man%20draped%20in%20the%20US%20flag,">Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That said, with the long history of how policing began and how targeting groups was part of its foundation, along with the studies that document it, what’s apparent is that police misconduct is not an aberration. Despite claims of serving and protecting the public, that is simply not what the police have always done.</p>
<p>It’s no wonder, then, that so many people believe racial discrimination is endemic to policing and is simply part of the way it works. And while this most recent Justice Department report shows that, it also makes the case that Minneapolis police are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/15/angela-davis-on-george-floyd-as-long-as-the-violence-of-racism-remains-no-one-is-safe">working the way they were intended</a>. </p>
<p>If this is the case, then Black people’s denial of basic constitutional guarantees by law enforcement, enshrined in our nation’s founding documents, is, to quote the abolitionist Fredrick Douglass, a “<a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/douglass_july_4_speech.pdf">shameless hypocrisy</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rashad Shabazz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
At a time when Americans celebrated their nation’s independence, it’s clear not every American enjoys the same constitutional rights.
Rashad Shabazz, Associate Professor at the School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201552
2023-04-26T12:27:41Z
2023-04-26T12:27:41Z
The law often shields police officers from accountability – and reinforces policing that harms Black people, homeless people and the mentally ill
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522419/original/file-20230422-2941-mgfo9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C46%2C4422%2C2667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A demonstrator holds an 'End Police Violence' sign during a protest after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrator-holds-a-end-police-violence-sign-in-front-of-news-photo/1217490145?adppopup=true">Frederic J. Brown/AFP/via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Seeking accountability in the brutal police beating death of her son, the mother of Tyre Nichols has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/19/us/tyre-nichols-death-lawsuit-memphis-police/index.html">filed a US$55 million federal lawsuit</a> against the individual officers, the Memphis Police Department and the city of Memphis, Tennessee.</p>
<p>There’s no way to predict the outcome of this lawsuit. But civil suits are by now a familiar tool of grieving families on a familiar quest.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-council-set-to-vote-on-derek-chauvin-brutality-settlements/600266757/">multimillion-dollar settlements</a> by the city of Minneapolis over police use of excessive force and a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/video/justice-department-finds-civil-rights-violations-louisville-metro-police-department-and">Justice Department finding</a> that police in Louisville, Kentucky, routinely violate the constitutional rights of Black people confirm what many have long complained about: that police are unnecessarily violent and violate their rights.</p>
<p>In mid-April 2023, <a href="https://www.minneapolismn.gov/news/2023/april-/settlements/">Minneapolis settled two civil lawsuits against the city’s police department</a>, for nearly $9 million. Similarly, the third anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s March 13, 2020, killing by Louisville police officers brought with it federal validation that officers from Louisville Metro Police Department and Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government often <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-civil-rights-violations-louisville-metro-police-department-and">violate the Constitution and federal law</a> when they interact with Black people.</p>
<p>“It’s heartbreaking to know that everything you’ve been saying from day one has to be said again through this manner; that it took this to even have somebody look into this department,” Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Justice Department’s findings on March 9, 2023.</p>
<p>Why are Black people so often ignored when it comes to complaints about their interaction with police? And why are police given automatic credibility and shielding from accountability?</p>
<h2>Automatic credibility</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/us/politics/louisville-police-breonna-taylor-justice-dept.html">Louisville</a>, in Minneapolis and across the nation, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd.html">Black people</a> have complained about police misconduct only to have those complaints ignored while white people’s complaints of misconduct are more likely to be <a href="https://www.chicagoreporter.com/police-misconduct-complaints-by-whites-more-likely-to-be-upheld/">sustained</a>.</p>
<p>One reason for this is that, throughout American society, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674238145">Black people are viewed as criminals</a>. This stereotype encourages <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15377938.2021.1992326">more police encounters</a>, which in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/nyregion/nypd-arrests-race.html">New York City</a>, for example, has led to Black people’s being twice as likely to be stopped by the police. This might also explain why <a href="https://thecrimereport.org/2021/01/14/blacks-overrepresented-in-violent-crime-arrests/">Black people, who are 12.5% of the national population, represent 33% of people arrested for nonfatal violent crimes</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522420/original/file-20230422-18-yaxkk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Flanked by two suited women, a gray-haired man in a suit and wearing glasses speaks behind a lectern with the emblem " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522420/original/file-20230422-18-yaxkk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522420/original/file-20230422-18-yaxkk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522420/original/file-20230422-18-yaxkk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522420/original/file-20230422-18-yaxkk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522420/original/file-20230422-18-yaxkk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522420/original/file-20230422-18-yaxkk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522420/original/file-20230422-18-yaxkk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland discusses the findings of the civil rights investigation into police departments in Louisville, Ky.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/attorney-general-merrick-garland-with-associate-attorneys-news-photo/1247908774?adppopup=true">Luke Sharrett/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>There’s also a long history of police targeting racial minorities. From Black people in the <a href="https://www.learningforjustice.org/podcasts/teaching-hard-history/jim-crow-era/criminalizing-blackness-prisons-police-and-jim-crow">South</a> and, as I have written about, <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p081149">in the Midwest</a> to Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/08/871929844/cult-of-glory-reveals-the-dark-history-of-the-texas-rangers">Southwest</a> or <a href="https://www.history.com/news/how-stereotypes-of-the-irish-evolved-from-criminals-to-cops">the Irish</a>, before they were <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780415913843">considered white</a>, in the Northeast, policing and controlling minority groups has often gone hand in hand. </p>
<p>And this history didn’t just fade away as time passed. It became part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-police-officers-arent-colorblind-theyre-infected-by-the-same-anti-black-bias-as-american-society-and-police-in-general-198721">culture of modern policing</a>. This may account for the staggering levels of police misconduct toward Black people. Black men, for example, are more than three times as likely <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/blacks-whites-police-deaths-disparity/">to be killed during a police encounter as white people</a>. Black people are also more likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0858-1">be pulled over by the police</a>.</p>
<p>These racial realities work in concert with cultural myths about police and policing that always <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/police-brutality-shootings-derek-chauvin/672873/">paint them as heroes and good guys</a> who protect us from the bad guys at great risk to their own personal safety. </p>
<p>These cultural myths and the support of the powerful <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/police-unions-minneapolis-kroll.html">Fraternal Order of Police</a> – an organization made up of U.S. sworn law enforcement officers – justify violent police culture and help to immunize officers against accountability for their conduct.</p>
<p>Taken together, these things set up a hierarchy of credibility that shields police from accountability.</p>
<h2>Shields against accountability</h2>
<p>According to UCLA law professor <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1159278111/police-brutality-shielded-joanna-schwartz">Joanna Schwartz</a>, legal protections like qualified immunity protect police officers from repercussions that stem from abuse. Qualified immunity is a 1967 Supreme Court doctrine that protects police and other government official from frivolous lawsuits. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://eji.org/issues/qualified-immunity/">court rule was designed</a> to reduce the power of the 1871 Klan Act, which empowered citizens to bring lawsuits against police for not protecting them from lynchings.</p>
<p>The law shields police from accountability by requiring that complaints include evidence to show that police conduct was unlawful and that the officer knowingly violated the law that was deemed illegal in a previous case. This legal formula gives police the power to frame interactions in a way that protects them from claims of abuse.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522713/original/file-20230424-18-ubinm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Flowers lay on the ground before hand-drawn images of people killed by police and notes listing their names." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522713/original/file-20230424-18-ubinm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522713/original/file-20230424-18-ubinm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522713/original/file-20230424-18-ubinm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522713/original/file-20230424-18-ubinm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522713/original/file-20230424-18-ubinm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522713/original/file-20230424-18-ubinm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522713/original/file-20230424-18-ubinm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flowers and pictures lay at a memorial for victims of police violence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/flowers-and-pictures-lay-at-a-memorial-to-victims-of-police-news-photo/1233472043?adppopup=true">Spencer Platt/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>By claiming their actions were necessary to protect themselves, qualified immunity makes their actions legal and makes holding police accountable nearly impossible. In short, police are given the benefit of doubt and their version of events is taken as truth. </p>
<p>Even when complaints are made against police officers, the municipal attorney, who represents the officers, often doesn’t communicate the complaint to the police department, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/677131/shielded-by-joanna-schwartz/">on the assumption that it’s frivolous</a>. </p>
<h2>The issue is not Black and white</h2>
<p>As a geographer and scholar of African American studies, I use space and place to make sense of police abuse. And what <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p081149">my research</a> demonstrates is that the disproportionate killing of Black people by police happens for two reasons:</p>
<p>1) Black people live <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/2020/06/17/how-racial-segregation-and-policing-intersect-america">in racially segregated communities that are heavily policed</a>. </p>
<p>2) <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5004736/">Black people are viewed as perpetual criminals</a>.</p>
<p>This perspective has allowed me to understand how other groups are also affected by police violence in ways similar to Black Americans.</p>
<p>Homeless people, who are <a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-01-21/use-of-force-incidents-against-homeless-people-are-up-lapd-reports">heavily policed and seen as criminals</a>, experience disproportionate levels of deadly force, too. In Phoenix, for example, the Justice Department is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/weather/2021/aug/05/phoenix-investigation-justice-department-police-abuse">investigating claims of abuse and excessive uses of force</a> against homeless people. The investigation is also inquiring into whether the Phoenix Police Department has a pattern of unconstitutionally <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2021/08/16/homeless-say-phoenix-police-frequently-throw-away-belongings/5543513001/">seizing and disposing of the belongings</a> of people living on the streets.</p>
<p>Police misconduct also affects people with serious mental illness. In Salem, Oregon, for example, a woman called 911 because her son was intoxicated, high and mentally ill. Within minutes, a police officer <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-some-encounters-between-police-and-people-with-mental-illness-can-turn-tragic">burst into their house and shot her son dead</a>, without trying to calm him down or assess the situation. </p>
<p>Police shot a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/09/910975499/autistic-13-year-old-boy-shot-by-salt-lake-city-police">13-year-old boy</a> in Salt Lake City after his mother called 911 because he was experiencing a mental crisis. Fortunately, the boy survived, but the same can’t be said for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-happened-daniel-prude.html">Daniel Prude</a>, whom police in Rochester, New York, killed because of erratic behavior.</p>
<p>Systematic police abuse of Black people and routine misconduct against homeless people and those with serious mental illness make encounters with police officers dangerous and potentially deadly. Giving police automatic credibility and shielding them from accountability will, I believe, perpetuate abusive practice and subsequently <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/police-misconduct-costs-cities-millions-every-year-but-thats-where-the-accountability-ends/">put municipalities in a never-ending spiral of using taxpayers’ money to settle cases</a> of police misconduct.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201552/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rashad Shabazz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Shielding police from accountability can only lead to more brutality, misconduct – and multimillion-dollar settlements.
Rashad Shabazz, Associate Professor at the School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201569
2023-04-18T20:01:07Z
2023-04-18T20:01:07Z
Diseases gave us the rise of Christianity, the end of the Aztecs and public sanitation. How might future plagues change human history?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517613/original/file-20230327-27-ualse4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4439%2C3183&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elena Mozhvilo/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Every once in a while a book lands on your desk that changes the way you perceive the world you live in, a book that fundamentally challenges your understanding of human history.” So began the blurb that came with this book. Aha! I thought. The usual advertising hyperbole, a gross exaggeration. </p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/pathogenesis-9781911709053">Pathogenesis</a> <em>did</em> challenge much of my understanding of world history. Who knew that if it wasn’t for an Ebola-like pandemic in the 2nd century CE, Christianity would never have become a world religion? Or that if it weren’t for retroviruses, women would be laying eggs rather than having live births? (According to the book’s author, a retrovirus inserted DNA into our ancestor’s genome that caused the placenta to develop.)</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Book review: Pathogenesis: How germs made history – by Jonathan Kennedy (Torva)</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517614/original/file-20230327-20-1geds5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517614/original/file-20230327-20-1geds5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517614/original/file-20230327-20-1geds5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517614/original/file-20230327-20-1geds5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517614/original/file-20230327-20-1geds5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517614/original/file-20230327-20-1geds5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517614/original/file-20230327-20-1geds5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517614/original/file-20230327-20-1geds5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>However, this is not another book of Amazing Facts: it is a work of scholarship, with nearly 700 references and notes. At the same time, it is very readable, and even amusing at times. </p>
<p>Many books have been written about the impact of disease on civilisation. I have even written my own modest <a href="https://medium.com/@adrian.esterman/infectious-diseases-and-their-impact-on-civilisation-4eb8ac72cc5b">essay</a> on the topic. However,
Pathogenesis delves deeply into the social history of the world. </p>
<p>Jonathan Kennedy has a PhD in sociology from the University of Cambridge, and his sociological bent comes through strongly. In eight chapters, and some 350 pages, Kennedy takes us on a whirlwind tour of social history, describing how infectious diseases have shaped humanity at every stage. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/viruses-are-both-the-villains-and-heroes-of-life-as-we-know-it-169131">Viruses are both the villains and heroes of life as we know it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘It’s a bacterial world’</h2>
<p>Kennedy starts by describing the three great branches of living organisms, <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-peaceful-coexistence-to-potential-peril-the-bacteria-that-live-in-and-on-us-104110">bacteria</a>, <a href="https://microbiologysociety.org/why-microbiology-matters/what-is-microbiology/archaea.html">archaea</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/eukaryote">eukaryotes</a> – it is the latter that contains all complex life forms, including humans. However, fewer than 0.001% of all species are eukaryotes. </p>
<p>Bacteria, on the other hand, are the dominant life form on this planet. As Kennedy puts it, “it’s a bacterial world, and we’re just squatting here”. </p>
<p>Our own species, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/rethinking-homo-sapiens-the-story-of-our-origins-gets-dizzyingly-complicated-99760">Homo sapiens</a></em>, arose some 315,000 years ago, living for the most part in Africa. At the same time, human species such as Neanderthals and <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-from-elusive-human-relatives-the-denisovans-has-left-a-curious-mark-on-modern-people-in-new-guinea-196113">Denisovans</a> spread out into Europe. However, about 50,000 years ago, <em>Homo sapiens</em> burst out of Africa and spread across the world, while all other human species simply vanished. There are many <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-homo-sapiens-became-the-ultimate-invasive-species/">theories</a> as to why and how this occurred – for example, perhaps <em>Homo sapiens</em> were just smarter. </p>
<p>However, Kennedy proposes his own theory. Because <em>Homo sapiens</em> lived primarily in Africa, they were exposed to many pathogens, and eventually acquired genetic changes that gave them some protection. The exodus out of Africa exposed other species to these pathogens, causing their demise. </p>
<p>He describes the <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-were-the-mysterious-neolithic-people-that-enabled-the-rise-of-ancient-egypt-heres-what-weve-learned-on-our-digs-121070">Neolithic</a> revolution, which took place about 12,000 years ago and which saw the change from hunter-gatherers to farmers. Because of their nomadic existence in small groups, hunter-gatherers tended to be relatively healthy, with an average lifespan of 72 - better than the average lifespan in some countries today! </p>
<p>It has always been assumed that this revolution was a good thing, bringing better nutrition and more leisure time. However, in Kennedy’s view, the Neolithic revolution led to the emergence of despotism, inequality, poverty and backbreaking work. He describes how settlement and the farming of domestic animals led to the emergence of zoonotic diseases – that is, <a href="https://theconversation.com/preventing-future-pandemics-starts-with-recognizing-links-between-human-and-animal-health-167617">diseases spread by animals</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517617/original/file-20230327-24-pz4erz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517617/original/file-20230327-24-pz4erz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517617/original/file-20230327-24-pz4erz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517617/original/file-20230327-24-pz4erz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517617/original/file-20230327-24-pz4erz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517617/original/file-20230327-24-pz4erz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517617/original/file-20230327-24-pz4erz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517617/original/file-20230327-24-pz4erz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Settlement and the farming of domestic animals led to the emergence of diseases spread by animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">kallerna/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/disease-evolution-our-long-history-of-fighting-viruses-54569">Disease evolution: our long history of fighting viruses</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Plagues and social upheavals</h2>
<p>In a chapter on ancient plagues, Kennedy quotes from Monty Python’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-of-brian-at-40-an-assertion-of-individual-freedom-that-still-resonates-114743">The Life of Brian</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He points out that Roman cities were, in fact, “filthy, stinking and disease-ridden”, and goes on to describe the great plagues <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-3-prior-pandemics-triggered-massive-societal-shifts-146467">that weakened the Roman Empire</a>. The first was the Antonine Plague, possibly caused by smallpox. This was followed some 70 years later by the Plague of Cyprian from AD 249-262, which led to the splitting of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity. </p>
<p>Kennedy completes this chapter with a description of the Plague of Justinian, caused by bubonic plague. The massive deaths caused by this epidemic led to the demise of the Roman Empire, and the Muslim conquest of the Middle East. </p>
<p>In the period 1346–53, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-the-black-death-give-birth-to-modern-plagues-3820">Black Death</a> tore through North Africa and Europe, killing an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death">estimated</a> 75 million to 200 million people. Kennedy describes the devastation and huge social upheavals that resulted from this pandemic. Until then, the Roman Catholic Church dominated society. But:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>During the Black Death and subsequent plague outbreaks, people looked to the Church for comfort. All too often they didn’t find it. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517616/original/file-20230327-22-23ih7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517616/original/file-20230327-22-23ih7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517616/original/file-20230327-22-23ih7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517616/original/file-20230327-22-23ih7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517616/original/file-20230327-22-23ih7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517616/original/file-20230327-22-23ih7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517616/original/file-20230327-22-23ih7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517616/original/file-20230327-22-23ih7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Black Death killed an estimated 75–200 million people in Europe and North Africa. Hugo Simberg Black Death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This led to the rise of Protestantism, aided by the invention of the printing press - a shortage of labour encouraged the development of such labour-saving devices. Over the next 200 years, waves of plague repeatedly hit Europe. A quarantine system was developed in Venice, and <em>cordon sanitaires</em> established, to prevent movement of people between cities - ring any bells? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/did-the-black-death-give-birth-to-modern-plagues-3820">Did the Black Death give birth to modern plagues?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Pathogens as New World killers</h2>
<p>In the period from 1500 onwards, white colonialists nearly wiped out indigenous people by infecting them. Kennedy starts with the early 16th century, when Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés led an expedition to Mexico. His arrival <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-smallpox-devastated-the-aztecs-and-helped-spain-conquer-an-american-civilization-500-years-ago-111579">introduced smallpox</a>, which resulted in the total destruction of the Aztec Empire within just two years. However, this was just the start. </p>
<p>In the early 1530s, Mexico was hit by an epidemic of <a href="https://theconversation.com/measles-new-efforts-needed-to-stop-an-old-disease-13706">measles</a> that killed 80% of its population, making it the deadliest epidemic in recorded history. Over the following decades, across the whole of the Americas, the introduction of infectious diseases from Europe resulted in a 90% fall in the population. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517624/original/file-20230327-15-s0x2ks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517624/original/file-20230327-15-s0x2ks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517624/original/file-20230327-15-s0x2ks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517624/original/file-20230327-15-s0x2ks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517624/original/file-20230327-15-s0x2ks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517624/original/file-20230327-15-s0x2ks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517624/original/file-20230327-15-s0x2ks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517624/original/file-20230327-15-s0x2ks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hernán Cortés brought smallpox to Mexico, resulting in the total destruction of the Aztec Empire within two years, as illustrated in this 16th-century drawing of Aztec smallpox victims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, during this period, it wasn’t just the New World that was profoundly affected by pathogens. On the west coast of Africa, explorers and would-be colonialists died in droves from <a href="https://theconversation.com/worlds-first-mass-malaria-vaccine-rollout-could-prevent-thousands-of-children-dying-169457">malaria</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/zika-dengue-yellow-fever-what-are-flaviviruses-53969">yellow fever</a>. </p>
<p>Interestingly, Kennedy starts his chapter on revolutionary plagues with the murder of <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyd-deserved-a-better-life-a-new-book-charts-his-trajectory-from-poverty-to-the-us-prison-industrial-complex-and-the-impact-of-his-death-182947">George Floyd</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-black-lives-matter-movement-has-provoked-a-cultural-reckoning-about-how-black-stories-are-told-149544">Black Lives Matter</a> movement, before delving deep into the history of slavery. He describes slavery in Greek and Roman times, and the booming trade in slaves in the medieval Mediterranean. </p>
<p>The association between black Africans and <a href="https://theconversation.com/slavery-is-not-a-crime-in-almost-half-the-countries-of-the-world-new-research-115596">slavery</a> only began in the 15th century. In fact, only 3% of the 12.5 million humans trafficked across the Atlantic ended up in the United States. The most common destinations of the slave ships were the European colonies in the Caribbean, where African slave labour was first used more than a century before their shipment to North America. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, slave labour from tropical West Africa toiled on sugar plantations owned by the English, Spanish, French and Dutch. Yellow fever carried by mosquitoes wiped out many of the Europeans, including military garrisons, leading to slave revolts.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-a-slave-state-how-blackbirding-in-colonial-australia-created-a-legacy-of-racism-187782">Friday essay: a slave state - how blackbirding in colonial Australia created a legacy of racism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Diseases ‘thrived’ in Dickensian habitats</h2>
<p>When Kennedy switches his focus to Britain, and the industrial revolution, he describes it as the change from a Thomas Hardy novel to one by <a href="https://theconversation.com/great-expectations-by-charles-dickens-class-prejudices-the-convict-stain-and-a-corpse-bride-159816">Charles Dickens</a>. The crowded and unsanitary conditions in working-class urban districts created new habitats, in which pathogens thrived. </p>
<p>Kennedy again evokes Monty Python to invoke the scenery of those days, reminding readers of the famous four Yorkshiremen sketch. The scene made me think of a different quote from the same sketch:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You were lucky to have a house! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of falling!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Every Epidemiology 101 course covers the story of <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/people/john-snow/">John Snow</a> (no – not the “Winter is coming” one!). <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section2.html">Two decades</a> before the development of the microscope, Snow examined cholera outbreaks to discover the cause of disease and how to prevent it. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517625/original/file-20230327-14-jix57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517625/original/file-20230327-14-jix57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517625/original/file-20230327-14-jix57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517625/original/file-20230327-14-jix57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517625/original/file-20230327-14-jix57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517625/original/file-20230327-14-jix57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517625/original/file-20230327-14-jix57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517625/original/file-20230327-14-jix57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Snow proved in 1854 that cholera is a waterborne disease: a London pub is named for him.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/6699">ceridwen/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the third UK cholera outbreak in 1854, Snow famously removed London’s Broad Street water pump, to demonstrate that cholera was a waterborne disease. For those interested, there is a <a href="https://londonspubswherehistoryreallyhappened.wordpress.com/2019/03/05/john-snow/">John Snow</a> pub in London. Kennedy, of course, includes this story in his book.</p>
<p>Kennedy points out that 3.5 billion people – half of the world’s population – have no access to proper toilets, while a billion don’t have clean drinking water and 1.5 million people, mainly children, die every year from waterborne diarrhoeal diseases. </p>
<p>We still have massive <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-cholera-remains-a-public-health-threat-74444">cholera outbreaks</a>, especially in areas where normal life has been disrupted by war or natural disasters. <a href="https://theconversation.com/tuberculosis-kills-as-many-people-each-year-as-covid-19-its-time-we-found-a-better-vaccine-151590">Tuberculosis</a> still kills 1.2 million people a year, despite the availability of antibiotics. Malaria kills another 600,000. </p>
<p>Finally in this section, he briefly covers <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-hospitalisations-and-deaths-are-rising-faster-than-cases-but-that-doesnt-mean-more-severe-disease-187163">COVID</a>. He points out that not everyone in the world benefited from the medical advances that came about because of COVID, and the self-interested actions of high-income countries have deprived the poorer countries. As he puts it, “pathogens thrive on inequality and injustice”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fleas-to-flu-to-coronavirus-how-death-ships-spread-disease-through-the-ages-137061">Fleas to flu to coronavirus: how 'death ships' spread disease through the ages</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Future plagues</h2>
<p>Kennedy concludes by looking at future plagues. He points out humanity’s precarious position: we live on a planet dominated by bacteria and viruses. He believes our best chance of surviving the threat posed by pathogens will come from working collaboratively and reducing inequality both within and between countries. </p>
<p>Based on its title, I assumed this book would be about the role of pathogens in shaping civilisation. Instead, I found a social history of the world, with the odd foray into diseases and their influence on society. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and can highly recommend it to those with an interest in history, sociology and epidemiology.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian Esterman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This whirlwind tour of social history describes how infectious diseases have shaped humanity at every stage. It suggests reducing inequality will give us our best chance of surviving future plagues.
Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200460
2023-02-24T06:59:49Z
2023-02-24T06:59:49Z
South African rapper AKA’s murder video went viral - it shouldn’t have
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511984/original/file-20230223-28-ios1yu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rapper Kiernan 'AKA' Forbes Known during the Metro FM awards nominations in Johannesburg in January. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Veli Nhlapo. © Sowetan.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the days after the killing of rapper Kiernan Jarryd Forbes, known as AKA, and his friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, the murders kept playing out on social media. Again and again, leaked CCTV footage of the two being gunned down was viewed and shared – some 490,000 times in the version of just <a href="https://twitter.com/muse_africa">one Twitter account</a>. </p>
<p>The explosive viral spread of the grainy but dramatic footage shows the limits of mainstream media ethics. Beyond the reach of press and broadcast codes and complaints mechanisms, social media platforms are driven by algorithms that measure and reward success by the millions of clicks. This often means boosting the worst and most sensational material. It’s urgently necessary to find ways of ensuring the platforms show greater responsibility.</p>
<p>Mainstream media ethics, as captured in the <a href="https://presscouncil.org.za/ContentPage?code=PRESSCODE">South African Press Code</a> and the <a href="https://www.bccsa.co.za/codes-of-conduct/">Broadcasting Code</a>, make it clear that footage of this kind can only be used if there is good reason. Violence should not be glorified, the press code says, and the depiction of violent crime should be avoided “unless the public interest dictates otherwise”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-media-often-conflates-malicious-criticism-with-genuine-critique-why-it-shouldnt-141486">The media often conflates malicious criticism with genuine critique: why it shouldn't</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Public curiosity about the assassinations is undoubtedly high, but it’s not the same as what the codes understand as public interest. That is defined as </p>
<blockquote>
<p>information of legitimate interest or importance to citizens.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The concern about material of this kind is less about the possibility of hampering police work, <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-and-courts/experts-say-sharing-of-leaked-footage-of-aka-and-tibzs-murders-could-hamper-investigations-4fbd2fd7-abc6-497a-926e-81c98bf49603">as some have argued</a>, but about the potential harm: <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2023/02/13/leaked-footage-of-aka-murder-torments-his-family-says-lawyer">the pain caused to a grieving family</a> and the offence caused to audiences by gratuitous and shocking violence. Where the value of material lies more in offering grisly entertainment than in its news value, publication becomes questionable.</p>
<h2>The duty to shock</h2>
<p>Editors do sometimes decide that disturbing, graphic images can be used. Examples include photographs <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/chris-hani">of assassinated South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani</a>, of a Mozambican man set alight in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/witness-safrica-idUKNOA93176520080529">xenophobic violence in South African in 2008</a> or the footage of <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/05/us/george-floyd-video-angle/index.html">the police killing of George Floyd</a> in the US.</p>
<p>Journalists argue there is sometimes a positive obligation to show unpleasant realities. Kelly McBride, vice-president of the US nonprofit media institute <a href="https://www.poynter.org/">Poynter Institute</a>, <a href="https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2019/good-editors-must-be-thoughtful-when-showing-readers-hard-truths-like-photos-of-dead-bodies/">says</a> some images may have the “power to galvanise the public”, adding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>it’s irresponsible for a news organisation to shield its audience from hard truths.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, much depends on context and the handling of the images. Responsible editors will include audience advisories so they can opt to avoid the image. Some effort to provide names and other details can help to humanise the victims, evoking more human empathy than simple ghoulish fascination.</p>
<p>In the case of the AKA and Tibs murders, most South African mainstream publishers seem to have taken the view that the circumstances did not justify the publication of the actual shooting. Most simply reported the existence of the footage.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A man wearing a shirt and jacket sitting in a chair with his cusped hands resting on a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511986/original/file-20230223-695-kms2t9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511986/original/file-20230223-695-kms2t9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511986/original/file-20230223-695-kms2t9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511986/original/file-20230223-695-kms2t9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511986/original/file-20230223-695-kms2t9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511986/original/file-20230223-695-kms2t9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511986/original/file-20230223-695-kms2t9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tebello ‘Tibz’ Motsoane.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darryl Hammond © Sowetan.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But no such restraint was shown on social media. Fascinated by the sensational murder of a music star, users shared the footage in their tens and hundreds of thousands.</p>
<p>Clearly, professional codes and mechanisms are powerless against a truly viral phenomenon of this sort. The <a href="https://www.presscouncil.org.za/">Press Council</a> and the <a href="https://www.bccsa.co.za/">Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa</a> handle complaints against mainstream media, but they have no authority over the wider public on social media.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/journalism-makes-blunders-but-still-feeds-democracy-an-insiders-view-146364">Journalism makes blunders but still feeds democracy: an insider's view</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is increasing concern about the spread of harmful content on social media platforms – not just gratuitous violence, but also hate speech, misinformation and much else. Several governments are developing legislation to fight toxic content. But the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/about-us/high-commissioner">UN High Commissioner for Human Rights</a>, among others, has voiced concern that the laws may be a pretext to act against dissent.</p>
<p>Peggy Hicks, director of thematic engagement at UN Human Rights, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2021/07/moderating-online-content-fighting-harm-or-silencing-dissent">says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some governments see this legislation as a way to limit speech they dislike and even silence civil society or other critics.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The social media giants themselves –such as Twitter, Google and Facebook – have emphasised that they are not publishers, simply offering a platform for sharing and, therefore, don’t have to take responsibility. However, they increasingly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/24/facebook-releases-content-moderation-guidelines-secret-rules">accept the need for content moderation</a>. </p>
<p>Machines are necessary to cope with the sheer volume of material. But human content moderators have a critical role as artificial intelligence is not always smart enough to deal with complex contexts and linguistic nuance, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-global-reach-exceeds-linguistic-grasp/">as emerged in leaks from inside Facebook</a>. Moderators in their thousands have the unenviable task of sifting through a vast and unending flood of truly terrible material, from decapitation to child porn.</p>
<p>The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) is <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/internet-trust-unesco-global-conference-tackle-online-disinformation-and-hate-speech">looking into</a> the regulation of social media platforms. <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000384031.locale=en">A draft set of guidelines</a> emphasises the need for platforms to have policies based on human rights and to be accountable.</p>
<p>Fundamentally, the platforms’ algorithms operate on a logic of rewarding traffic, which needs to be tempered with considerations of the common good. According to Unesco:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The algorithms integral to most social media platforms’ business models often prioritise engagement over safety and human rights.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Gossip sites in sensationalist feeding frenzy</h2>
<p>In the example of the AKA video, sensationalist gossip sites also traded on and drove much of the traffic. A Google search for mentions of the video is dominated by obscure sites using poor language, for whom the video is simply clickbait. Their business model relies on bulk traffic to earn advertising income, and that in turn relies on the platform giants’ algorithms.</p>
<p>That, perhaps, is the most important lesson of the uncontrollable spread of the AKA video: ways need to be found to write elements of information ethics into the platforms’ algorithms. It is deeply damaging to social cohesion to have machine logic systematically boosting the worst and most disturbing material.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200460/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Franz Krüger is the deputy ombud of the South African Press Council. He writes in his personal capacity. </span></em></p>
The explosive viral spread of the grainy but dramatic footage shows the limits of mainstream media ethics.
Franz Krüger, Associate researcher, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199039
2023-02-08T13:41:24Z
2023-02-08T13:41:24Z
How Black communities cope with trauma triggered by police brutality
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508202/original/file-20230205-29-3bqf1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1772%2C451%2C5224%2C4206&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A portrait of Tyre Nichols at the entrance of the church where his funeral was held in Memphis, Tenn., on Feb. 1, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/screen-at-the-entrance-of-mississippi-boulevard-christian-news-photo/1246727538?phrase=tyre%20nichols&adppopup=true">Lucy Garrett/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The release of footage showing the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols by <a href="https://wreg.com/news/local/tyre-nichols/">Memphis police</a> and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/atlantas-cop-city-people-protesting/story?id=96716095">protests in Atlanta</a> in 2023 renewed public debate on the issues of police brutality and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/31/1152502698/tyre-nichols-killing-revives-calls-for-congress-to-address-police-reform">police reform</a>.</p>
<p>For some people, seeing is believing, and the circulation of videos documenting police violence is valued as a tool of accountability. </p>
<p>But for many in the Black community, which studies show is <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/news-release/lancet-more-half-police-killings-usa-are-unreported-and-black-americans-are-most-likely">disproportionately affected by police brutality</a>, viewing videos of and having conversations about police violence can have several <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14065">adverse effects</a>, including <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40615-019-00629-1">psychological distress</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2021.2006261?casa_token=s7mKCpWoc0wAAAAA%3AxA42-v7wRL8cmVj0XubR0Mv4fv0udBbgqKwHoVRDohPSr41dFVOGRvbGkXUz4t9YukrN0RutFwXY">trauma</a>. </p>
<h2>What is trauma?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/trauma">American Psychological Association </a> defines trauma as “any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation, confusion, or other disruptive feelings intense enough to have a long-lasting negative effect on a person’s attitudes, behavior, and other aspects of functioning.” </p>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/judith-lewis-herman-md/trauma-and-recovery/9781541602953/">seminal book</a> “Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror,” published in 1992, <a href="https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/58637">Dr. Judith Lewis Herman</a> notes that encountering a traumatic event permanently alters one’s perceptions of safety. </p>
<p>To prepare for a threat, these individuals develop intense feelings of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/fear">fear</a> and <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/related/anger.asp">anger</a>.
These changes in <a href="https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/fight-or-flight-response/#:%7E:text=The%20fight%20or%20flight%20response,body%20to%20fight%20or%20flee.">emotional state</a> are usually biological, as shifts in attention, perception and emotion are normal <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10829/">physiological reactions</a> to a perceived threat. </p>
<p>This is known as our “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128009512000042">fight or flight response</a>.”</p>
<p>Trauma can manifest itself in various ways. For example, on some occasions, traumatic events are known to lead to feelings of <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/related/depression_trauma.asp">depression and intense sadness</a> and episodes of
<a href="https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/trauma">helplessness</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, trauma is known to increase one’s state of <a href="https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-hypervigilance#:%7E:text=Hypervigilance%20%E2%80%94%20the%20elevated%20state%20of,(PTSD)%20can%20exhibit%20hypervigilance.">hypervigilance</a>, or the elevated state of constantly assessing potential threats in the area. This state of <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/hypervigilance#causes">elevated alertness</a> often creates anxiety around dying and can have physiological impacts on the body, such as sweating and elevated heart rate.</p>
<h2>Police brutality and Black trauma</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://emerson.edu/faculty-staff-directory/deion-hawkins">critical scholar</a> and researcher, I use <a href="https://www.theiacp.org/resources/document/successful-trauma-informed-victim-interviewing">trauma-informed</a> interview techniques to better understand the intersections of police brutality and mental health in the Black community. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10646175.2023.2174391">My research</a>
focuses on those most affected, and that <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00026/full">research</a> highlights the human experience. </p>
<p>There is always a face behind the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fvio0000418">statistic</a>.</p>
<p>Thus, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027642221145027">my work</a> typically uses <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2837428/">critical race theory</a>, as it focuses on the perspectives of marginalized people. For example, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33902344/">my study</a> published in the Journal of Health Communication explored how stories of police brutality are circulated within the Black community and how these stories affect mental health. </p>
<p>Through dozens of interviews, I discovered three key ways in which trauma is triggered by incidents of police brutality that often appear in Black communities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black woman wearing a mask is standing next to large poster that has a portrait of her son. her son" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508207/original/file-20230205-13-u33jo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508207/original/file-20230205-13-u33jo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508207/original/file-20230205-13-u33jo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508207/original/file-20230205-13-u33jo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508207/original/file-20230205-13-u33jo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508207/original/file-20230205-13-u33jo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508207/original/file-20230205-13-u33jo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Valerie Castile stands by a portrait of her son, Philando Castile, on July 6, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/valerie-castile-stands-by-a-portrait-of-her-son-philando-news-photo/1225042618?phrase=Philando%20Castile&adppopup=true">Stephen Maturen/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Intense sadness, hypervigilance and sense of helplessness</h2>
<p>The excerpts below are direct quotations from members of the Black community whom I interviewed as part of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10410236.2021.1913838">larger research project</a>. This study was conducted in Washington, D.C., in 2018, but <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-41051-001">its findings</a> are still relevant, as it reveals how police brutality directly fuels trauma in the Black community. </p>
<p>Because of research protections and protocol, pseudonyms are used, and no other identifying information can be published. </p>
<h2>1. Intense sadness</h2>
<p>When asked about feelings after viewing videos or images of brutality, every interviewee indicated intense sadness as the primary emotion. This sadness often affected how individuals went about their day, especially work-related activities. </p>
<h2>Darius</h2>
<p><em>I remember I walked into work, face cut up and people were like, “What’s wrong? What happened?” I told them I had been in a fight. But really, I had been beat up by a police officer who assumed I was someone else. I appreciated them asking me if I was OK, but I wasn’t really comfortable telling them, you know? We had previous conversations that let me know they didn’t really think Black lives mattered. After Philando, I had to take a sick day to recover. That’s how sad I was, man.</em></p>
<h2>Chanelle</h2>
<p><em>Philando Castile. I was rrreealllly sad. Philando was the boiling point. I cracked. I literally had to leave my desk at work and take a break. When I came back, my white co-workers told me I was overreacting because I didn’t know him, which pissed me off. What they don’t get is that Philando could be anyone in my family. It’s not just Philando, it’s that I fear my brothers could be shot in cold blood at any moment. That’s why I was so damn sad.</em> </p>
<h2>2. Hypervigilance</h2>
<p>Interviewees also discussed their chronic fear of dying at the hands of law enforcement. In turn, this fear prompts a permanent state of hypervigilance or hyperalertness; many members of the Black community constantly feel they are going to die if they encounter a police officer. </p>
<h2>Mary</h2>
<p><em>Whenever I see cops, I tense up. One time, cops pulled up to me when I was in a car and my friend looked at me with the straightest face and said, “One of us is about to die.” I was so shocked, and I said, “That’s not funny.” But he was serious. He really thought one of us was going to die.</em></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402189/original/file-20210521-17-177335d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="George Floyd's headstone sits front and center in an orderly faux cemetery with other white headstones set up in grass" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402189/original/file-20210521-17-177335d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402189/original/file-20210521-17-177335d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402189/original/file-20210521-17-177335d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402189/original/file-20210521-17-177335d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402189/original/file-20210521-17-177335d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402189/original/file-20210521-17-177335d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402189/original/file-20210521-17-177335d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each headstone in Minneapolis’ ‘Say Their Names’ cemetery represents a Black American killed by police – deaths that create a ripple effect of pain felt in Black communities nationwide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/george-flyods-headstone-sits-front-and-center-at-the-say-news-photo/1232363944?adppopup=true">Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Luke</h2>
<p><em>There is not a single time where I can sit in a car and hear a siren or see a cop light flash, that I’m not fearful. I imagine it’s like what soldiers feel when they hear anything that sounds like a bomb. When I hear sirens, I start to look around and hope that someone else is around. Because, if I were to get shot, I would want someone to be able to tell the truth. People are straight up dropping at the hands of police. I never want to be in that situation.</em></p>
<h2>Corey</h2>
<p><em>I’m always scared and alert, honestly. I walk around on campus, and I use my iPad to listen to music. I always have my iPad with me. I’m afraid the police are going to see me holding my iPad and assume it’s something else, and before I have time to explain what it is, I’m afraid I would be shot. I always have my headphones in, too. I replay this terrible scenario in my head over and over again. A cop is yelling at me to stop, but since my headphones are in, I can’t hear him and keep walking. He thinks I am running away and shoots me in my back.</em></p>
<h2>3. Sense of helplessness</h2>
<p>Adding to sadness and hyperalertness, many Black Americans also feel they have little control over interactions with police and cannot change the outcome. This is true regardless of their tone, behavior or actions. This is known as helplessness, a known symptom of trauma. </p>
<h2>Lena</h2>
<p><em>It’s a sad reality to accept that no matter how you dress, how you talk, a police officer will always judge you and think you’re a threat. I don’t think we have control over if we are going to get beat or not. Black folks could literally read a how-to-survive book and do every step, but cops would still find some reason to make the situation worse. We are always in a Catch-22. If we talk too much, we are talking back. If we talk too little, we are suspicious. I do everything in my power to avoid cops. Listen, someone broke in my house and I refused to call the police. I be damned. Because I think they would have assumed I was the robber and shot me.</em></p>
<h2>Virginia</h2>
<p><em>Every time I see a video, I feel an intense sadness. It feels like you are in the world’s worst … cycle I guess; some kind of sick joke. It’s like, damn, it happened again. Like nothing is ever going to change. Things may look like they are getting better, but then even when they are arrested, the sadness continues.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deion Scott Hawkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Police brutality disproportionately affects Black communities and can cause numerous adverse effects, including depression, anxiety and trauma.
Deion Scott Hawkins, Assistant Professor of Argumentation & Advocacy, Emerson College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199078
2023-02-07T13:34:09Z
2023-02-07T13:34:09Z
Memphis police numbers dropped by nearly a quarter in recent years – were staffing shortages a factor in the killing of Tyre Nichols?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508464/original/file-20230206-15-5bqd42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C88%2C4876%2C3177&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dwindling numbers means more inexperienced officers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MemphisPoliceReform/4f92c57fa8604c258a8ae2a81288ed30/photo?Query=memphis%20police&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=743&currentItemNo=191">AP Photo/Gerald Herbert</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the years running up to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, the Memphis Police Department faced an increasingly dire <a href="https://www.actionnews5.com/2022/06/17/mpd-makes-adjustment-handle-staff-shortages/">staffing crisis</a>. Indeed, <a href="https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/02/15/memphis-police-seek-to-add-300-officers/">shortages on the force</a> have led to questions over whether, given their relative lack of experience, the five officers now charged with Nichols’ murder <a href="https://www.nj.com/opinion/2023/01/tyre-nichols-tragic-death-happened-despite-police-reforms-enacted-to-prevent-it-opinion.html">would have been assigned to the now-disbanded SCORPION unit</a> – or <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/01/30/could-lower-standards-for-police-recruits-breed-future-misconduct/">even hired in the first place</a>.</p>
<p>Memphis <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/us/police-staffing-shortages-recruitment/index.html">isn’t alone in confronting the issue</a> of dwindling officer numbers. In January 2023, the federal judge monitoring the Baltimore Police Department said <a href="https://www.wbaltv.com/article/judge-baltimore-police-consent-decree-officer-recruitment/42672197%5D(https://www.wbaltv.com/article/judge-baltimore-police-consent-decree-officer-recruitment/42672197">a severe staffing shortage there is causing slow reform progress</a> as the agency attempts to comply with a <a href="https://consentdecree.baltimorecity.gov/">federal consent decree</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ypvpo1gAAAAJ&hl=en">We are</a> <a href="https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-public-affairs-and-community-service/criminology-and-criminal-justice/about-us/justin-nix.php">criminologists</a>, two with <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/criminology_and_criminal_justice/our_people/directory/adams_ian.php">experience as police officers</a>, who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12556">study police turnover</a> and its effects on agencies and communities. In jurisdictions across the U.S., we’ve seen how police departments are experiencing significant changes to the three main variables in police staffing: recruitment, resignations and retirements.</p>
<p>We’ve also seen that these changes are likely to <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/linking-the-workforce-crisis-crime-and-response-time/">deteriorate the quality of policing</a> and may give rise to more incidents of officer misconduct, increased violent crime, decreased policing services and a failure to meet community and professional standards. The investigation into <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/tyre-nichols-memphis-police-dead.html">what happened in Memphis, Tennessee, on Jan. 7</a> is still ongoing, but we believe the effect of staff shortages and the experience levels of the officers involved in Nichols’ death should form part of the inquiry.</p>
<h2>Turnover in Memphis</h2>
<p>Since 2011, the earliest year of staffing data available on the <a href="https://data.memphistn.gov/Public-Safety/Police-Headcount/iwk8-fxnz">Memphis Data Hub</a>, the Memphis Police Department’s number of sworn officers has dropped by 22.6% – from a high of 2,449 officers in September 2011 to a low of 1,895 officers in December 2022.</p>
<p>When an agency loses this many officers, one consequence can be that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/memphis-police-scorpion-unit-tyre-nichols-rcna67711">more inexperienced officers</a> end up in <a href="http://theconversation.com/tyre-nichols-death-underscores-the-troubled-history-of-specialized-police-units-198851">specialized details like SCORPION</a>, as agencies struggle to fill gaps in their operations. </p>
<p>In response to staffing shortfalls and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/memphis-violence-reduction-murder-crime-rate-policing/671877/">rising crime</a>, the Memphis Police Department <a href="https://www.actionnews5.com/story/38513242/mpd-makes-changes-to-college-requirements-for-recruits">relaxed its hiring standards</a> in 2018, such as by no longer requiring a college degree to begin working as a police officer.</p>
<p>However, this approach only temporarily improved staffing levels. After <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html">mass racial justice protests</a> in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, the trend reversed as the agency began losing officers again. This downward trend surpassed the lows that previously led to lowered hiring standards in 2018.</p>
<p><iframe id="4fWvf" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/4fWvf/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Turnover takes different forms, and in our analysis, the Memphis Police Department has seen a distinct increase in the number of officers leaving the agency voluntarily, prior to retirement. The department experienced a significant spike in resignations since the summer of 2020, losing an additional 75 officers to resignations compared with what would have been expected based on trends in years past. This increase in resignations equates to an additional 3.3% of the Memphis Police Department leaving in just two years.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507706/original/file-20230201-17282-m0ncyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507706/original/file-20230201-17282-m0ncyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507706/original/file-20230201-17282-m0ncyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507706/original/file-20230201-17282-m0ncyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507706/original/file-20230201-17282-m0ncyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507706/original/file-20230201-17282-m0ncyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507706/original/file-20230201-17282-m0ncyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The monthly count of officers resigning from the Memphis Police Department, from January 2011 to January 2023. The blue line shows a change in the trend from May 1, 2020. The yellow line represents the expected level of resignations in the post-period.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://data.memphistn.gov/Public-Safety/Police-Headcount/iwk8-fxnz">Adams/Mourtgos/Nix</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A national trend</h2>
<p>Concern about staffing shortages is not confined to Memphis and Baltimore. Over the past three years, police recruitment and retention have been <a href="https://www.policeforum.org/workforcesurveyjune2021">key concerns</a> for jurisdictions across the country.</p>
<p>We monitor police staffing levels in several agencies across the U.S. In one large, Western police department, we found that in the seven months following the Floyd protests, voluntary resignations of sworn officers were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12556">nearly three times (279%) higher than baseline expectations</a>.</p>
<p>In some places, extreme staffing pressure has led to <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/linking-the-workforce-crisis-crime-and-response-time/">rapid increases in police response times</a> to emergencies. For example, in Salt Lake City, the police staffing crisis <a href="https://www.slcpd.com/open-data/response-times/">led to response times nearly doubling</a> for priority calls in 2020 and 2021. </p>
<p>In conversations with police chiefs and other leaders at smaller and suburban agencies, we hear that they have faced a lower-intensity staffing challenge for <a href="https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2010/RAND_MG959.pdf">more than a decade</a>.</p>
<p>However, those at larger, metropolitan agencies nationwide say the crisis has boiled over, and they fear they are losing the ability to provide baseline levels of service. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/11/us/police-retirements-resignations-recruits.html">Both groups of police executives</a> directly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/25/us/police-officer-recruits.html">link the staffing crisis to fallout from the 2020 George Floyd protests</a>.</p>
<h2>Transfers, retirements and $30,000 bonuses</h2>
<p>Although our studies do not follow individual officers, <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/01/21/police-hiring-government-jobs-decline">recent reporting by The Marshall Project</a> uses yearly federal economic data to show that nationally the police profession experienced a small decline in total employees – including both sworn officers and civilian staff – between March 2020 and August 2022.</p>
<p>This may reflect agencies offering highly lucrative bonuses for officers willing to transfer agencies, rather than swarms of officers leaving the profession altogether. </p>
<p>When speaking with police chiefs in large agencies, a consistent story emerges: They say officers are not leaving the profession, but instead are leaving for other nearby agencies that offer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/09/nyregion/new-york-police-department-attrition.html">better pay and a more positive work environment</a>.</p>
<p>This phenomenon, known as “lateral transfers,” is rapidly shifting officers away from large, urban departments and toward smaller police agencies and sheriff’s departments.</p>
<p>In an ongoing study, we analyze turnover data from 14 large agencies over the last decade and observe that one suburban agency and one sheriff’s department actually experienced decreases in resignations and retirements during the period. Meanwhile, the large urban departments in our sample generally experienced surges in resignations and retirements since the summer of 2020, indicating there are turnover patterns that benefit some agencies, while harming others.</p>
<p>It makes economic sense for agencies to compete for already trained officers. Turnover is expensive. Hiring and training a new officer can cost <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/recruitment-retention-and-turnover-police-personnel-reliable">one to five times the annual salary</a> of an individual officer.</p>
<p>Agencies can save on these costs by competing for already trained officers, as they have already passed background checks and committed to the profession to some degree. Severe labor shortages have resulted in agencies turning to lateral bonuses, offering large financial benefits to attract already certified officers from other agencies. The Seattle and New Orleans police departments now offer <a href="https://krcrtv.com/news/nation-world/police-departments-staffing-shortage-rising-crime-rates-solution-united-states-hiring-bonus-hollywood-thin-blue-line-cops-recruits-training-los-angeles-officers-americans-first-responders-law-enforcement">$30,000 bonuses to attract trained officers</a>.</p>
<p>The police staffing crisis has been exacerbated by the ongoing retirement wave of officers hired through <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/18/weekinreview/the-nation-new-cops-need-help-the-perils-of-police-hiring.html">funding from the 1994 crime bill</a>. The bill, led by then-Senator Joe Biden, directed over $8 billion to hiring an additional 100,000 police officers nationwide in order to combat crime. However, officers hired with that federal money are now retiring, adding additional staffing pressure as the most experienced officers leave the profession in the same wave that brought them in. </p>
<h2>Focus on public safety</h2>
<p>The International Association of Chiefs of Police <a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/239416_IACP_RecruitmentBR_HR_0.pdf">surveyed its members in 2019</a> and found that 75% were experiencing greater recruitment challenges, with 25% reducing or eliminating some services as a result.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tyre-nichols-death-underscores-the-troubled-history-of-specialized-police-units-198851">Tyre Nichols' death underscores the troubled history of specialized police units</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Good policing requires good police officers. To live up to community expectations and fulfill the general policing mission of improving public safety, we believe local leaders need to <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/performance-based-approach-police-staffing-and-allocation">adequately staff their police agencies</a> so that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/ajle_a_00030">under-policing does not continue</a> to <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aeri.20200792">negatively impact the communities they serve</a>.</p>
<p>Because staffing shortages involve agencies across the nation, and in many cases pit agencies against one another in competition for ever-decreasing pools of talent, it will likely require federal and state action to address effectively. President Biden has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/01/fact-sheet-president-bidens-safer-america-plan-2/#:%7E:text=The%20Plan%20will%3A,over%20the%20next%20five%20years.">proposed $10.9 billion to help hire an additional 100,000 police officers</a> over the next five years. Adding more officers will help, but so too will keeping officers in the profession, especially in the <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/new-orleans-murder-surge-puts-young-black-men-at-high-risk/article_7a875126-a0ce-11ed-ac2b-f73126bb8b2a.html">communities most impacted</a> by <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/violent-crime-in-cities-on-the-rise">historic increases in violent crime</a>. </p>
<p>Addressing this issue will require the collaboration of police leaders and their communities to determine what level of police services they require, as well as financial support from state and federal levels to ensure police agencies can improve, rather than degrade, their workforces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Police departments have faced recruitment and retention problems since the 2020 George Floyd protests. It has meant some agencies have had to lower standards to attract new officers.
Ian T. Adams, Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of South Carolina
Justin Nix, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska Omaha
Scott M. Mourtgos, Ph.D. candidate in Political Science, University of Utah
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/187251
2022-08-08T12:19:55Z
2022-08-08T12:19:55Z
College requirements for police forces can save Black lives, but at what cost?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476118/original/file-20220726-22256-7os2v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=386%2C296%2C5604%2C3682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators stand off with officers July 3, 2022, in Akron, Ohio, as they protest the killing of Jayland Walker, shot by police.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-standoff-with-akron-sheriffs-officers-outside-news-photo/1241690704?adppopup=true">Matthew Hatcher/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Police forces requiring at least a two-year college degree for employment are less likely to employ officers who engage in actions that cause the deaths of Black and unarmed citizens, according to our new <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-022-09534-6">peer-reviewed study</a> of data on 235 U.S. city police departments from 2000 to 2016. </p>
<p>Findings from our analysis conducted alongside colleagues <a href="https://aysps.gsu.edu/profile/william-sabol/">professor William Sabol</a> and <a href="https://www.cityofmorrow.com/government-police-administration.asp">David Snively, interim police chief in Morrow, Georgia</a>, also revealed that Black citizens were no more likely than white citizens to die during police encounters in places where police are required to have more college education.</p>
<p><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/vio0000407">With a few exceptions</a>, most prior research shows officer education level and department college requirements do not significantly affect deadly police outcomes. That research is mostly limited by data availability and methodological challenges preventing more rigorous studies.</p>
<p>Further, no one has really looked at racial differences in the effects of college requirements on police-caused deaths until our study.</p>
<p>Because research into the effects of college requirements on the use of lethal force by police – especially against Black people – is lacking, we analyzed a unique dataset developed from various government and crowd-sourced databases to conduct our research. </p>
<p>This dataset included roughly one-fifth of all documented police-involved fatalities and a quarter of Black people killed by police in the U.S. from 2000 to 2016.</p>
<p>Our results demonstrated that college minimums are associated with as much as three times lower rates of police-related fatalities involving Black people than police forces without a college degree requirement. </p>
<p>These more educated police were also responsible for unarmed citizens dying at a rate two times lower than their counterparts.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Recent high-profile police killings of Black Americans, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">George Floyd</a> in 2020, have underscored long-standing issues with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01609-3">racial disparities</a> in police-caused deaths. </p>
<p>These tragedies renewed questions about police recruitment, hiring standards and educational requirements for police forces.</p>
<p>Since the early <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/police-and-modern-society">1900s</a>, public leaders have <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/Publications/cops-p341-pub.pdf">heralded</a> college-educated officers as ideal candidates.</p>
<p>The assumption is that departments would then be composed of officers who serve communities fairly while reserving potentially deadly actions for only the direst circumstances. </p>
<p>We can only speculate on the underlying reasons for our study’s findings. </p>
<p>But a key contribution of this research is that it clarifies several questions regarding college education policies in law enforcement, making it a valuable tool for police administrators.</p>
<p>For one, our study reveals that an associate degree requirement, at minimum, shows the most promise for reducing the frequency of fatal police encounters.</p>
<p>Next, as evidenced in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-022-09534-6">our supplemental analysis</a>, police agencies trying to reduce fatal confrontations should consider ways to recruit college-degreed applicants while at the same time support college attendance among current officers. </p>
<p>The final point is that the impact of a more educated police force may emerge during only the most dangerous encounters that often precede the use of weapons.</p>
<p>The positive effects of education minimums are clear, based on our research. </p>
<p>But we also made an alarming discovery – Black residents were arrested four times more frequently in cities requiring a college degree for new officers. </p>
<p>Indeed, more studies are needed. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Several critical gaps remain in our research on the value of higher education in policing. Available data on police-caused homicides, including the <a href="https://fatalencounters.org/">Fatal Encounters data</a> that we used, do not provide reliable information on case dispositions and whether the police actions were justified or not. </p>
<p>Nor do the available statistics tell us anything about police actions that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2021/11/11/non-fatal-police-shootings-disparities-data/">do not result in death</a>.</p>
<p>Also, we used college degree requirements to estimate the educational composition of police departments. </p>
<p>Ideally, we would examine the actual number of college-degreed officers in police agencies. Such national data remain unavailable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thaddeus L. Johnson is affiliated with the Council on Criminal Justice. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha N. Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
New research on police departments across the country reveals a significant link between the use of fatal force and college education – the more educated are less likely to use it.
Thaddeus L. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University
Natasha N. Johnson, Clinical Instructor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/182947
2022-07-27T20:12:47Z
2022-07-27T20:12:47Z
George Floyd deserved a better life. A new book charts his trajectory from poverty to the US prison-industrial complex – and the impact of his death
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475799/original/file-20220725-55372-7s6qxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=542%2C21%2C3860%2C3083&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Lane/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>George Perry Floyd, Jr. was murdered when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin sank his knee into Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Video footage went viral within hours, helping to inspire protests against racism and police violence that lasted all the American summer of 2020.</p>
<p>But while the size of the protests was unprecedented, the activism of that summer had <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fury-in-us-cities-is-rooted-in-a-long-history-of-racist-policing-violence-and-inequality-139752">deep roots</a>. Journalists across the United States and indeed the world, focused attention on that history of protest, as they had done during the 2014 police killings of Eric Garner, choked to death in New York, and Michael Brown, shot in Ferguson, Missouri. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice – Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (Penguin RandomHouse)</em></p>
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<p>At the Washington Post, reporters and researchers devoted significant resources to a six-part series, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/12/george-floyd-america/">George Floyd’s America</a>. Now, two of those journalists, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, have expanded the work into a book: <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/703358/his-name-is-george-floyd-by-robert-samuels-and-toluse-olorunnipa/">His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice</a>. </p>
<p>When Floyd was born in 1973, 200,000 people were incarcerated in the US. By the time of his death, as Samuels and Olorunnipa point out, that number exceeded 2 million. The proportionate rate of growth of that number in <a href="https://usafacts.org/data/topics/security-safety/crime-and-justice/jail-and-prisons/prisoners/?utm_source=usnews&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=fellowship&utm_content=bracketed_link">Texas</a>, where Floyd grew up, is even worse. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-10-13/report-highlights-staggering-racial-disparities-in-us-incarceration-rates">African Americans are locked up at 4.75 times the rate of white Americans; Latinos at 1.3 times the rate</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475757/original/file-20220724-26-wfg4dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475757/original/file-20220724-26-wfg4dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475757/original/file-20220724-26-wfg4dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475757/original/file-20220724-26-wfg4dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475757/original/file-20220724-26-wfg4dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475757/original/file-20220724-26-wfg4dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475757/original/file-20220724-26-wfg4dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475757/original/file-20220724-26-wfg4dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>This <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/intl-rates.png">extraordinary rate of incarceration</a> is a political choice rather than a reflection of more violent criminals being locked up. Rates of incarceration <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=ED19CF648065ABC51FE1605ED5D77E32?doi=10.1.1.462.6544&rep=rep1&type=pdf">increase</a> with political conservatism and the increased rates of poverty, income inequality and unemployment that accompany that conservatism. Extensive investment in prisons, jails and police forces has created a self-perpetuating system that evolves by producing the very criminals it locks up.</p>
<p>This life-and-times biography poignantly depicts the mechanisms by which African Americans, especially male children and adults, become disproportionately the fodder for that system. A long history of racism, it might be said, funnelled George Floyd to prison.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fury-in-us-cities-is-rooted-in-a-long-history-of-racist-policing-violence-and-inequality-139752">The fury in US cities is rooted in a long history of racist policing, violence and inequality</a>
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<h2>The grandson of sharecroppers</h2>
<p>Floyd’s two parents were both born to <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sharecropper">sharecroppers</a> in North Carolina. The cycle of poverty in which they were trapped was not of their own making. Black Americans have been prevented from building wealth from the moment slavery ended. </p>
<p>Floyd’s great-great-grandfather, for example, who was born into slavery in 1857, amassed land worth $US30,000 in 1920, but his white neighbours stole it from him by a mixture of fraud underpinned by the threat of violence. That tale is absolutely typical for a majority of Black families in the US South.</p>
<p>The knock-on effects have been intensified by government policies that meant for generations, Black Americans had <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-see-the-legacy-of-slavery-look-at-present-day-school-systems-43896">fewer opportunities for education</a>; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/opinion/sunday/race-wage-gap.html">earned</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/04/economic-divide-black-households/">less</a> even for the same work; and were <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/17/1049052531/racial-covenants-housing-discrimination">prevented</a> <a href="https://aas.princeton.edu/news/2020-pulitzer-prize-finalist-history-race-profit-how-banks-and-real-estate-industry-undermined">from buying property</a> that would <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/12/4/20953282/racism-housing-discrimination-keeanga-yamahtta-taylor">build wealth over generations</a>.</p>
<p>Desperate for a better life for her three children, Floyd’s mother uprooted them to Houston, Texas, when Floyd was four. There, they lived in public housing in the segregated <a href="https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/07/20/george-floyds-third-ward-reflections-on-the-neighborhood-made-him">Third Ward</a>.</p>
<p>Government policies that requisitioned homes from Black residents elsewhere in Houston had forced them into this section of the city. In the Cuney Homes development, known as “the Bricks,” even today the median income is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/george-floyd-neighborhood-stimulus/2021/04/09/59f57e7c-9623-11eb-962b-78c1d8228819_story.html">US$15,538</a>, well under half the <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N">national average</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475800/original/file-20220725-55416-zdyf6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475800/original/file-20220725-55416-zdyf6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475800/original/file-20220725-55416-zdyf6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475800/original/file-20220725-55416-zdyf6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475800/original/file-20220725-55416-zdyf6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475800/original/file-20220725-55416-zdyf6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475800/original/file-20220725-55416-zdyf6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475800/original/file-20220725-55416-zdyf6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A memorial to Floyd in Houston’s Third Ward.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David J. Phillip/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Floyd attended the local Jack Yates Senior High School, opened in 1926 when education was segregated by race and never the equal of other Houston schools catering to white children. As Floyd grew to 193 centimetres tall, he learned to offset the alarm that his size and colour induced in people. </p>
<p>He became self-deprecating and deliberately easy-going, charming people across generations everywhere he went. Excelling at football, he secured entry to college. </p>
<p>But Floyd’s dreams of playing pro football were stymied by his academic achievements. Never good at tests, Floyd fell behind by middle school and struggled to graduate high school. There were just not the resources in the schools to make up for living in poverty in an overcrowded flat with the responsibilities of caring for relatives. </p>
<p>After four years at two colleges, Floyd dropped out and returned to Houston. Not long after, he was arrested for the first time for selling drugs. </p>
<p>Samuels and Olorunnipa do an extremely good job of showing that at every node along the passage toward being turned into fodder for the prison-industrial complex, Floyd’s chance of escape was significantly less than that of a white man of the same age. Reading how Floyd’s options narrowed, it was impossible not to share his frustration and despair.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475803/original/file-20220725-55416-yczxwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475803/original/file-20220725-55416-yczxwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475803/original/file-20220725-55416-yczxwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475803/original/file-20220725-55416-yczxwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475803/original/file-20220725-55416-yczxwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475803/original/file-20220725-55416-yczxwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475803/original/file-20220725-55416-yczxwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475803/original/file-20220725-55416-yczxwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protestors gather near the scene of the arrest of George Floyd on May 28, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Craig Lassig/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Forensic exposé of injustice</h2>
<p>Quotas for arrests meant police sought the “low-hanging fruit” of petty drug dealing done on the streets. Misconduct charges for these police officers are common: the cop who arrested Floyd in 1997 for selling drugs was sacked in 2002 after being charged with theft and hampering arrest. The officer who arrested Floyd in 2004 was “later accused of falsifying charges in hundreds of drug cases, including the one involving Floyd.” </p>
<p>Chauvin himself had faced <a href="http://complaints.cuapb.org/police_archive/officer/2377/">29 charges</a> of misconduct and internal investigations prior to murdering Floyd. (Only 18 appear on the city’s police internal affairs records.) But because <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-policing-reforms-george-floyds-murder">records of “decertification” are patchy</a>, such “wandering” officers can often get themselves <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/wandering-cops-moving-from-department-to-department-is-a-roadblock-to-police-accountability">rehired</a>.</p>
<p>The officers can stay unaccountable by targeting impoverished men who, unable to afford lawyers, are more likely to accept plea deals. Floyd was never tried by jury; he rather accepted eight plea deals.</p>
<p>He knew that even if he got to court, the decision was unlikely to be positive because the state of Texas does not provide public defenders. Rather, the court pays for a private lawyer to defend those who can’t afford their own representation. Judges in Harris County, where Houston is located, more often than not will appoint lawyers who had donated to their election campaigns.</p>
<p>In 2007, police arrested Floyd for a violent assault on evidence provided by a dubious photo ID process. (It has since been improved.) Facing up to 40 years of prison, a reluctant Floyd accepted a plea deal for five. </p>
<p>Claustrophobia made Floyd’s time in prison difficult, and yet he discovered that none of the mental health, drug addiction, or education programs included in legislation such as the notorious <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/1994-crime-bill-and-beyond-how-federal-funding-shapes-criminal-justice">1994 Crime Bill</a>, which sloshed billions of dollars into prison building, were available. As the authors point out, it was only after the <a href="https://www.communitycatalyst.org/blog/how-structural-racism-fuels-the-response-to-the-opioid-crisis#.YtX8puxBxqs">opioid crisis</a> hit white communities that such funds were expended. In short, whereas policymakers declared crack cocaine a crime problem, they saw opiate addictions, more commonly associated with white people, as an epidemic or public health emergency. </p>
<p>The man responsible for prosecuting the case against Derek Chauvin, Jerry Blackwell, knew well the racism inherent at every level of what we uncritically call “the criminal justice system.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475768/original/file-20220725-31994-41c760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475768/original/file-20220725-31994-41c760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475768/original/file-20220725-31994-41c760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475768/original/file-20220725-31994-41c760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475768/original/file-20220725-31994-41c760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475768/original/file-20220725-31994-41c760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475768/original/file-20220725-31994-41c760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475768/original/file-20220725-31994-41c760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Derek Chauvin at his trial.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pool Court TV/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Blackwell anticipated the defence would claim that Floyd’s drug use or some physical anomaly was the reason he had died. He therefore required an independent medical examiner review the coronial findings into Floyd’s death.</p>
<p>That person, and the examiner who worked for the Floyd family in the civil case against the city of Minneapolis (which the city settled before trial for a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/13/976785212/minneapolis-agrees-to-pay-27-million-to-family-of-george-floyd">record $US27 million</a>), both questioned whether the autopsy had been conducted correctly. Specifically, they doubted whether the incisions made on Floyd’s body were sufficient to ascertain the cause of death. And, indeed, the defence claimed that Floyd’s drug use and a supposedly enlarged heart had contributed to his death.</p>
<p>This was not unique; as the authors report, in 2021 researchers found evidence that medical examiners “had misclassified or covered up nearly 17,000 deaths that involved police between 1980 and 2018”. </p>
<p>All this detail might make the book sound dull, but the research is woven lightly through the account of Floyd’s life so as to maintain momentum. We learn too about Floyd’s family, friends, girlfriends, and his young daughter Gianna. The authors bring to life Floyd’s ability to take people as he found them, underpinned by a deep Christian faith in God.</p>
<h2>Activism</h2>
<p>The final third of the book, which focuses on events after Floyd’s death, is also gripping. Even as we know the outcome, the twists and turns in the criminal case against Chauvin make for heart-in-the-mouth reading. Chauvin was <a href="https://theconversation.com/relief-at-derek-chauvin-conviction-a-sign-of-long-history-of-police-brutality-159212">convicted of murder and manslaughter</a> and is serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence. And in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/07/derek-chauvin-sentenced-violating-george-floyd-civil-rights">early July</a> a federal judge sentenced Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights – the sentence will be served concurrently.)</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sentencing-of-george-floyds-killer-has-lessons-for-policing-in-australia-and-new-zealand-too-162164">The sentencing of George Floyd’s killer has lessons for policing in Australia and New Zealand too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Even more striking is the depiction of the bravery of protestors in Minneapolis and of Floyd’s family members, especially his brother, Philonise Floyd, as they seized an opportunity they never wanted – as spokespeople for justice. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475796/original/file-20220725-31994-5enrk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475796/original/file-20220725-31994-5enrk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475796/original/file-20220725-31994-5enrk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475796/original/file-20220725-31994-5enrk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475796/original/file-20220725-31994-5enrk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475796/original/file-20220725-31994-5enrk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475796/original/file-20220725-31994-5enrk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475796/original/file-20220725-31994-5enrk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Philonise Floyd speaks to the media after Chauvin’s conviction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Minchillo/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Joined by the civil rights veterans, the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Philonise campaigned hard for federal legislation to reform policing. Republican opposition to the hardest-hitting sections of the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1280">George Floyd Justice in Policing Act</a>, introduced to Congress in February 2021 by Rep. Karen Bass, meant the bill foundered – and has still not been passed. </p>
<p>Unlike all the earlier sections of the book, the activism around police and legislative reform is not given quite the context it deserves. Although Samuels and Olorunnipa interviewed 400 people for their book, activists who have long campaigned against police brutality and for the <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing">dismantling</a> of the entire criminal justice system in favour of a society built on <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-prison-abolition-movement">equal distribution of resources</a>, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVjMNMG6Mxo">Angela Davis</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html">Ruthie Wilson Gilmore</a>, do not appear. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475802/original/file-20220725-26-u439u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475802/original/file-20220725-26-u439u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475802/original/file-20220725-26-u439u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475802/original/file-20220725-26-u439u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475802/original/file-20220725-26-u439u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475802/original/file-20220725-26-u439u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475802/original/file-20220725-26-u439u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475802/original/file-20220725-26-u439u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests in Houston over Floyd’s death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David J. Phillip/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nor is there much comment on the <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-policing-reforms-george-floyds-murder">efficacy of prior efforts</a> to reform the criminal justice system via legislation. Banning choke-holds, for instance, will not end police murders when Black lives are still not regarded as mattering as much as those of white people.</p>
<p>This criticism aside, His Name is George Floyd is a monumental achievement – a work of activism in itself. </p>
<p>Bringing Floyd vividly to life, it makes an impassioned and persuasive plea for the dignity and preciousness of life. The book’s cover deliberately evokes the <a href="https://www.torranceartmuseum.com/staffpicks/2021/1/7/i-am-a-man-written-by-hope-ezcurra">posters held aloft during the 1968 workers’ strike in Memphis, Tennessee</a> (when Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed), that proclaimed “I <em>Am</em> a Man.” </p>
<p>George Floyd was a man, too, who deserved a better life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clare Corbould has received funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a member of the Australian Greens.</span></em></p>
A new book about George Floyd, the grandson of sharecroppers, murdered by a police officer in 2020, is a moving work of reportage and activism.
Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183784
2022-06-09T17:57:39Z
2022-06-09T17:57:39Z
Thin-skinned blue line: Police fight against defunding, showing their true colours
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467791/original/file-20220608-219-magyim.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4630%2C3263&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A person holds a sign calling for to defund the police during an October 2020 protest in Ottawa after a police constable was acquitted of manslaughter in the 2016 death of a Black man, Abdirahman Abdi.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020 and the subsequent mass mobilizations for <a href="https://defundthepolice.org">police defunding and abolition</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-defund-police-transferring-money-community">defund movement has continued to organize</a>. </p>
<p>Has this work had an impact in Canada? Have there been <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/one-year-after-george-floyd-s-death-where-does-defund-the-police-stand-in-canada-1.5441519">successful challenges to reducing Canadian police budgets</a>?</p>
<p>The answer is complicated and depends on how you define success.</p>
<h2>Raised awareness</h2>
<p>Some argue the mobilization and movement-building that has transpired — people brought together in campaigns for police abolition that reimagine community safety — is a huge success in and of itself. <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/canadians-are-talking-about-defunding-the-police-heres-what-that-means-and-what-it-could-look-like/">Abolition has entered the public consciousness</a> <a href="https://defund.ca">like never before</a>.</p>
<p>Dozens of books have been published by academics, lawyers and activists, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675803/becoming-abolitionists-by-derecka-purnell/">building on the work of Black feminists in the United States</a> <a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/policing-black-lives">and Canada</a> who have long argued <a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/disarm-defund-dismantle">police perpetuate rather than reduce violence in our society</a>. </p>
<p>There have been some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-defund-police-transferring-money-community">modest successes in defunding police</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/edmonton-police-service-to-receive-10-9-million-less-than-expected-in-2022-funding-to-be-redirected-to-community-safety-initiatives">In Edmonton</a>, city council voted to cut the 2022 police budget increase by $10.9 million and reallocate the money to social services. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/city-hall/boards-committees-commissions/220117bopc1021.pdf">In Halifax</a>, a subcommittee of the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners has tabled a detailed and carefully researched report to city council on how the local police force could be gradually detasked and defunded.</p>
<p>When one looks further, however, what becomes apparent is a serious and growing <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/04/27/as-big-corporations-strike-a-pose-for-racial-justice-they-keep-on-funding-the-police/">counter-campaign</a>. It’s perhaps the strongest indication of the movement’s success at undermining the sanctity of police budgets until now.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A boy holds a sign reading Police Lives Matter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467793/original/file-20220608-268-r3j100.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467793/original/file-20220608-268-r3j100.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467793/original/file-20220608-268-r3j100.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467793/original/file-20220608-268-r3j100.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467793/original/file-20220608-268-r3j100.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467793/original/file-20220608-268-r3j100.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467793/original/file-20220608-268-r3j100.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young boy shows his support for police during a rally in Utah in September 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Counter-tactics</h2>
<p>Police have fought vigorously against the defund movement <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/15/opinions/defunding-police-dangerous-crime-gagliano/index.html">through threats and false conceits of impending violence</a> if budgets are cut. They are co-opting calls for community safety, branding themselves as protectors in need of continuing or increased resources. They position themselves <a href="https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/the-myth-of-police-as-embattled-heroes">as innocent heroes under attack</a>, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/62/1/90/6282889">and discredit those who critique them</a>. </p>
<p>One strategy police use is an offensive and personal tactic of removing people from positions of influence if they support police defunding. </p>
<p>When Winnipeg City Coun. Sherri Rollins critiqued police racism in March 2020, an informal complaint was lodged against her by the police board alleging she <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8791984/winnipeg-city-councillor-complaint-convoy-policing-criticism/">lacked compliance with the city’s respectful workplace policies</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1268898354336903171"}"></div></p>
<p>Similarly, in July 2020, another Winnipeg city councillor, Vivian Santos, discussed defunding and was ousted from the police board. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/vivian-santos-resigns-police-board-1.5649003">Police removed her on alleged security grounds</a> when background checks turned up a friend with a criminal record.</p>
<h2>Fear-mongering</h2>
<p>Scare tactics are another strategy. </p>
<p><a href="https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/winnipeg.police.service/viz/WPSCallsforServiceMap_10Week/Disclaimer">According to their own data</a>, only eight to 10 per cent of calls to police involve violence. Despite acknowledging that a large proportion of the calls they receive <a href="https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/city-hall/boards-committees-commissions/220117bopc1021.pdf">might be better managed by other kinds of workers</a>, police maintain that reducing officers <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/defund-police-toronto-1.5598285">would be “naïve” and undermine community safety</a>.</p>
<p>But which community is the police keeping safe? Instead of <a href="https://whitebirdclinic.org/cahoots/">diverting funding to organizations with expertise in gender-based violence, anti-racism measures</a> and mental health, police are demanding and receiving record funds to triage these programs themselves. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/local-news/regional-police-to-receive-over-12m-in-funding-from-provincial-government-5278608">The Waterloo Region Police recently got a $12.3-million boost</a> to run mental-health interventions while community organizations are starved through austerity and struggle to keep their doors open. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/encampment-protest-arrests-condemned-1.6265735">In Hamilton, Ont.</a>, activists from the Defund the Police Hamilton Coalition supported homeless people who were harassed daily by police and eventually violently evicted from their encampments. </p>
<p>The coalition demanded city council reallocate resources from police towards permanent housing, prioritizing the needs of the community over criminalizing homeless people. The organization’s antidote to scare tactics is to focus on prevention and the fight to protect people over property.</p>
<h2>Police culture as social problem</h2>
<p>Police suggest ostensible reforms, such as unconscious bias training and body cameras, as a promise to change the “culture of policing.” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10439460701718534">As criminologists have noted</a>, <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing">such reforms increase police funding without demonstrable change</a>, sidestepping the reality that <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/police-brutality/">policing is inherently violent</a>. </p>
<p>With growing attention to their record of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-year-end-police-shootings-1.6298888">extra-judicial killings</a>, systemic <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/432/SECU/Reports/RP11434998/securp06/securp06-e.pdf">racism and harassment in their own forces</a> and their <a href="https://fafia-afai.org/en/a-report-on-the-toxic-culture-of-misogyny-racism-and-violence-in-the-rcmp/%20and%20https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/wam/media/4773/original/8032a32ad5dd014db5b135ce3753934d.pdf">failure to address gender-based violence</a>, police are on the defence.</p>
<p>Take, for example, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F10575677221082070">aggressive response to criticism from police unions</a>. The police brass may have to mince their words when responding to politicians and the public, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azab043">police unions often reveal their true colours</a>.</p>
<p>In June 2020, the Regina Police Association defended a tweet suggesting that its cultural unit, which works with Indigenous people, would be the first to go should the police be defunded. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/regina-police-association-threatening-tweet-1.5607162">“Choose wisely,” it threatened</a>.</p>
<p>Also in June 2020, the Edmonton police chief similarly stated that defunding would <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/edmonton-police-chief-says-angry-voices-shouldnt-dominate-reform-discussion">harm diversity initiatives within policing</a>. This threat to the employment of Black and Indigenous officers positioned the police as a benevolent force in the struggle for racial justice, <a href="https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2020/08/10/an-indigenous-abolitionist-study-group-guide/">obfuscating the colonial foundation and systemic racism of policing</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the charge in Canada to defund the police is being led by Black and Indigenous leaders and is <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-half-of-all-women-inmates-are-indigenous/">explicitly focused on racial injustice in the criminal justice system</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Black man stands on a skateboard among people sitting on a city street during a protest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467796/original/file-20220608-22-khnh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467796/original/file-20220608-22-khnh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467796/original/file-20220608-22-khnh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467796/original/file-20220608-22-khnh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467796/original/file-20220608-22-khnh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467796/original/file-20220608-22-khnh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467796/original/file-20220608-22-khnh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands of people protest to defund the police in support of Black Lives Matter and social injustice in Toronto in June 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What decreases harm?</h2>
<p>The lack of “success” in police defunding is a sign of how vigorously police are fighting back, not a sign of a waning movement. </p>
<p>Over the past two years, police chiefs, police representatives and <a href="https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/parasitic-solidarity">police unions</a> have mobilized the public resources they have to fight against the defund movement. But <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7213811/defund-the-police-canada-ipsos-poll/">an Ipsos poll</a> found 50 per cent of Canadians under the age of 38 are interested in police defunding and abolition.</p>
<p><a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/disarm-defund-dismantle">Defunding the police is not radical or irrational</a>, contrary to what police might have the public believe. </p>
<p>What is radical and irrational is <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadian-cities-police-spending-ranges-from-one-10th-to-nearly-a/">continuing to spend 15 to 30 per cent of municipal budgets on public policing</a>. What is radical and irrational is continuing to use criminalization and criminal law to deal with social issues and interpersonal harms when we know that <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/21430892/defund-the-police-funding-abolish-george-floyd-breonna-taylor-daniel-prude">a punitive, carceral approach does not decrease harm or lead to more safety</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/07/over-past-60-years-more-spending-police-hasnt-necessarily-meant-less-crime/">in our neighbourhhoods</a>.</p>
<p>Instead, citizens need to think openly about ways to address harms in our communities and neighbourhoods and to <a href="http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/where-is-police-abolition-in-criminal-justice-studies/">reallocate funds from bloated police budgets</a> to <a href="https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/defund-the-police-means-re-fund-the-community">housing, mental health, addiction, employment, counselling, anti-violence education and more</a>. Then we might truly live in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-018-9400-4">a healthier, safer world</a>. </p>
<p>At a time when <a href="https://cwp-csp.ca/poverty/just-the-facts/">many people are struggling to make ends meet</a>, we must not let police tantrums get in the way of real safety and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003167914">fair share of resources for community and social development</a>. Nor can we accept the criminalization of poverty and inequality, which is the current alibi for how public police and the whole penal system stays in business.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shiri Pasternak receives funding from Social Science and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Walby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Has the defund the police movement had an impact in Canada? It depends on how you define success.
Shiri Pasternak, Assistant Professor of Criminology, Toronto Metropolitan University
Kevin Walby, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Winnipeg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183514
2022-05-24T22:41:22Z
2022-05-24T22:41:22Z
Public police are a greedy institution
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465130/original/file-20220524-20-s2rnf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C62%2C5955%2C3880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A photo from a demonstration calling for police accountability and an end to police brutality in Vancouver, in May 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ongoing <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/defund-the-police-canada-1.5605430">calls from communities to defund public police, that grew louder</a> following the police killings of <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/crime-law-and-justice/killing-of-george-floyd">George Floyd</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html">Breonna Taylor</a> in 2020, have raised several crucial questions. </p>
<p>As researchers of police work, we looked at some of the critical issues surrounding these calls in our new <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003167914">book on police, greed and dark money</a>. We examined the push by public police to accumulate more resources despite these calls and the rise of secretive or “dark money” in public policing.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305791.001.0001">criminologists have shown that social development leads to less street crime and healthier communities</a>, police departments seem unperturbed when social programs for housing, mental health and health care get cut to <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/defund-the-police-this-is-how-much-canadian-cities-spend-1.5018506">fund growing police budgets</a>. It is also <a href="https://prospect.org/justice/police-foundations-scrub-corporate-partners-board-members/">unclear whether a well-funded police institution leads to less transgression</a> or safer communities.</p>
<p>The greedy tendencies of police departments help illustrate the major problems with public police funding in Canada and the United States today. </p>
<h2>What is a greedy institution?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.asanet.org/about/governance-and-leadership/council/presidents/lewis-alfred-coser">American sociologist Lewis Coser</a> first spoke of greedy institutions in 1974. A greedy institution <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241608330092">demands loyalty and conformity to its culture</a>, worldview and politics. For example, the military is a greedy institution since it demands full loyalty to branches of the armed forces. </p>
<p>We are not the first scholars <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X8601300101">to apply the greedy institution concept</a> to public police and to suggest its officers must be loyal and not cross the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7392282/rcmp-directive-thin-blue-line/">“blue line.”</a> Our book extends this concept to show how the police institution seeks loyalty and conformity not just internally, it does so externally as well. </p>
<p>While the public police demands loyalty to its institution and conformity to its worldview, its challengers, within and outside the institution, tend to be shunned or neutralized.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Book cover" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new book, Police Funding, Dark Money and the Greedy Institution outline how public police departments demand loyalty and funds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Routledge)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The other meaning of greedy institution is literal. </p>
<p>Police greediness is evident in the quest for private sponsorship of police, especially through private police foundations. These foundations exemplify the attempt of police departments to extend their networks and social connections while accruing more financial resources.</p>
<p>Another example is paid duty policing, which we argue reveals the police managerial desire to control officers’ off-duty activities, while ensuring they receive significant extra money beyond their salaries.</p>
<p>In both instances, dark money is something that often involves secret or anonymous donations or income. The murky exchanges of dark money are mostly hidden to the public.</p>
<h2>Police foundations: a funnel for private capital</h2>
<p>Police foundations have emerged as entities that allow private corporations and individuals to donate to police. In our book, we show how foundations are <a href="https://policefoundations.org">being established at record pace</a>. In the U.S., there are hundreds of police foundations. In Canada, police foundations in Vancouver, Delta and Calgary, as well as a few others, have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azx055">funnelling corporate money to police for decades</a>.</p>
<p>Not many people know how prominent the police foundation has become, nor about the sources and levels of dark money it funnels into public police or the related conflicts of interest that arise. For example, Axon (makers of tasers and body-worn cameras) and other weapons companies <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10439463.2016.1251431?journalCode=gpas20">are major funders of police across North America</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photo of the Mobile Command Centre - a black van." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2156%2C1193&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Vancouver Police Department’s SWAT Mobile Command Centre costs $500,000 and is funded by the donors of Vancouver Police Foundation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5dzqnNFk0k">(Vancouver Police Department YouTube channel)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It usually works like this: Private entities give dark money to the foundation. <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/08/24/Private-Firms-Pour-Millions-Militarizing-Police/">Most foundation money ends up getting distributed to the police</a> rather than <a href="https://thebaffler.com/latest/giving-back-to-themselves-ramakrishna">local charities</a>. The police often spend those dollars on tactical units, surveillance devices and police dog teams, things often associated with <a href="https://theconversation.com/rise-of-the-swat-team-routine-police-work-in-canada-is-now-militarized-90073">militarization of the police</a>. </p>
<p>The foundation is the police institution’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2012.684019">shell corporation</a> through which other corporations and individuals <a href="https://readsludge.com/2020/06/19/corporate-backers-of-the-blue-how-corporations-bankroll-u-s-police-foundations/">can privately donate</a>. These donations continue despite already ample public police budgets and <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/defund-police-dominated-2020-what-happened-n1278506">even after wide public calls to defund public police</a>. </p>
<p>The foundation is also a communication vehicle for police, through which allies <a href="https://canadians.org/analysis/troubling-financial-connections-between-big-oil-and-police">such as powerful corporations</a> or folks from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1748895818794225">local companies and affluent individuals</a> are accrued. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2017.1341509">The foundation can advertise the police worldview</a>, garnering more loyalty and conformity. In this way, police foundations <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/do-cops-serve-the-rich-meet-the-nypds-private-piggy-bank">assemble allies and social and political capital</a> even amid loud calls to defund police. </p>
<h2>Paid detail policing as literal greed</h2>
<p>Paid duty or paid detail is another type of greediness. You may have noticed uniformed and armed police officers standing or strolling about at sporting events: chances are <a href="https://cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/3123/3436">those officers are working paid duty</a>. The sports team or corporation’s venue is paying the officer individually. </p>
<p>If you’ve ever seen police standing around at a construction site, movie shoot or retail outlet or outside a nightclub, chances are those uniformed officers are <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23640987">receiving handsome compensation from a private funder</a>.</p>
<p>Paid duty also reflects a greedy institution. </p>
<p>Officers are <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/07/07/high-demand-for-paid-duty-officers-is-putting-a-strain-on-toronto-police-and-event-organizers.html">making big money from these paid duty postings</a>. They receive up to $100 an hour extra from working paid duty and — where not legally required through obscure bylaws — loyal funders are expected to provide “easy gigs” such as standing around at construction sites or sporting events. Yet police administrators often restrict paid duty gigs where cannabis, alcohol, gambling or nudity is involved and that are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0964663918810375">assumed to taint officers’ loyalty</a>. </p>
<p>In Winnipeg, police were <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6277732/winnipeg-police-special-duty-theft-december/">criticized for paid duty guarding of groceries</a> after they <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/winnipeg-superstore-police-racial-profiling-1.5391157">engaged in racial profiling of Indigenous customers</a>. </p>
<p>Paid duty is a problem for professional, accountable policing and its connection with <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/investigations/bs-md-ci-police-foundation-20160827-story.html">police corruption</a> including in Jersey City, Seattle and <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_314863d6-48ca-11ec-a62e-fb326a0266e7.html">New Orleans</a>. In Toronto, officers sometimes miss court dates and exceed limits on paid duty hours worked during lucrative jobs provided by external funders, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/03/04/paid_duty_policing_costs_taxpayers_millions_audit_report.html">as reported by the <em>Toronto Star</em></a>. </p>
<p>Paid duty is also a problem because some funders are public, including government departments that operate road maintenance and construction, utilities and hospitals. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/paid-duty-police-work-does-it-cost-city-too-much-1.2640944">The public already pays for police operations</a>, with huge proportions of government budgets, but then are <a href="https://nationalpost.com/posted-toronto/motion-to-eliminate-65hour-paid-duty-officers-at-work-sites-to-go-to-council">asked by the police institution to pay again for paid duty</a>.</p>
<p>Both private sponsorship through foundations and paid duty channel dark money into police departments. This all suggests that public police need greater scrutiny so that their greedy influence and reach can be reigned in and this institution can be re-envisioned through a lens of the public good.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Walby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The greedy tendencies of police departments help illustrate why public police funding is a major problem today in Canada and the United States.
Kevin Walby, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Winnipeg
Randy K. Lippert, Professor of Criminology, University of Windsor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/180292
2022-04-25T12:11:26Z
2022-04-25T12:11:26Z
In age of racial reckoning, Ralph Lauren partners with Morehouse and Spelman grads on vintage Black fashion styles
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458932/original/file-20220420-24684-3krt3p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C20%2C979%2C478&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Screen shot of Ralph Lauren's homepage for its new Morehouse and Spelman fashions. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ralphlauren.com/morehouse-spelman?searchTerms=Spelman&redirect=true">Ralph Lauren</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prompted by <a href="https://corporate.comcast.com/stories/a-message-from-brian-roberts">George Floyd’s murder</a> on May 25, 2020, major retail companies touted their commitment to racial justice. Some publicly supported the <a href="https://twitter.com/nickelodeon/status/1267561600464162821">Black Lives Matter</a> movement. The Vermont-based ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s went further and issued a list of actions aimed at “<a href="https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/dismantle-white-supremacy">dismantl[ing] white supremacy in all its forms.</a>”</p>
<p>Popular clothing company Ralph Lauren launched its own initiatives in 2020 and most recently in March 2022 when it announced a partnership with two historically Black colleges to design a commemorative clothing line. The <a href="https://www.ralphlauren.com/morehouse-spelman?searchTerms=Spelman&redirect=true">Polo Ralph Lauren Exclusively for Morehouse and Spelman Colleges Collection</a> is the brainchild of two company staffers, Morehouse alum James Jeter and Spelman alum Dara Douglas.</p>
<p>In the words of company founder Ralph Lauren, the partnership with Morehouse and Spelman offers “<a href="https://corporate.ralphlauren.com/pr_220315_PRLMorehouseSpelman.html">a more complete and authentic portrait of American style and of the American dream</a>.” </p>
<h2>Selling Black style</h2>
<p>For a company that prides itself on what it calls a “<a href="https://corporate.ralphlauren.com/our-company">distinctive American perspective</a>,” Ralph Lauren’s image is still limited in this new collection to the most respectable and easily monetized Black people that animate the Black American story. </p>
<p>In my forthcoming book, <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/branding-black-womanhood/9781978829909">“Branding Black Womanhood: Media Citizenship from Black Power to Black Girl Magic”</a>, I explore the history of this practice of wooing Black consumers through commercial campaigns that use social movement rhetoric. </p>
<p>Then, as now, my research has shown how America’s household brands have appropriated affirming images and slogans and transformed them into advertisements designed to attract middle-class Black shoppers. </p>
<p>Companies that packaged such products believed that they could secure a new, loyal Black customer base simply by representing them glamorously.</p>
<p>As the costs of Ralph Lauren’s new line of clothing reveals, wearing the latest fashion trend comes at a premium to often overlooked communities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two black men are wearing business suits and neckties as they sit on a bench." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458937/original/file-20220420-20-fz70m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458937/original/file-20220420-20-fz70m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458937/original/file-20220420-20-fz70m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458937/original/file-20220420-20-fz70m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458937/original/file-20220420-20-fz70m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458937/original/file-20220420-20-fz70m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458937/original/file-20220420-20-fz70m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two men are seen in this screenshot of Ralph Lauren’s homepage for its new Morehouse and Spelman fashions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ralphlauren.com/morehouse-spelman?searchTerms=Spelman&redirect=true">Ralph Lauren</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Prices for the Morehouse collection start at $69.50 for a maroon ball cap and soar to $2,498.00 for a wool coat. The least expensive item in the Spelman collection is a $98 silk scarf, with a $998 wool coat in the college’s signature sky blue landing at the high end. </p>
<p>A purported $1 trillion in Black buying power – <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-42355-1.pdf">a number contested by some scholars</a> – is likely part of what draws Ralph Lauren to this project on Black history.</p>
<p>Yet, a <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/06/racial-wealth-gap-may-be-a-key-to-other-inequities/">racial wealth gap</a> where the average Black family claims just under $13% of the wealth that the average white family holds, reported as $188,200 in 2019, suggests that the value of such celebratory campaigns is limited.</p>
<h2>Racial reckoning</h2>
<p>Shortly after the George Floyd murder, Ralph Lauren joined the rush of corporations releasing public statements with an <a href="https://corporate.ralphlauren.com/pr_200610_AnOpenLetter.html?_ga=2.69024786.249240176.1649687856-653250313.1649687856&_gac=1.156975817.1649692184.CjwKCAjwo8-SBhAlEiwAopc9Wwmfu4L32UEMcsTpEXnLa4t7n35-9Ek92V1bKSXh7WsqrZy6crjXqBoCCLIQAvD_BwE">open letter</a> on racial equality on June 10, 2020. </p>
<p>The letter described systemic racism as “an American problem” and “a fashion problem” and summarized the company’s strategy for addressing its own failures. </p>
<p>In addition to expanding already established initiatives, such as dialogue groups, internal diversity training, and support for the United Negro College Fund, Ralph Lauren also promised to “interview at least one Black or African American candidate” for vacant senior leadership positions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A grayhaired white man is wearing a collared shirt underneath a sweater, blue jeans and high-top sneakers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458904/original/file-20220420-18-daydyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458904/original/file-20220420-18-daydyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458904/original/file-20220420-18-daydyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458904/original/file-20220420-18-daydyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458904/original/file-20220420-18-daydyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458904/original/file-20220420-18-daydyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458904/original/file-20220420-18-daydyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Designer Ralph Lauren receives applause from the crowd during the runway finale at his Fall 2022 Fashion Show on March 22, 2022, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/designer-ralph-lauren-waves-during-the-runway-finale-at-the-news-photo/1387185767?adppopup=true">Arturo Holmes/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since then, Ralph Lauren has unveiled its Morehouse and Spelman collection and explained that it has an even broader list of commitments. Among them is a $2 million pledge to the United Negro College Fund and “<a href="https://www.spelman.edu/about-us/news-and-events/news-releases/2022/03/15/polo-ralph-lauren-introduces-new-collection-that-builds-upon-its-historic-partnership-with-morehouse-and-spelman-colleges">dedicated internship offers for HBCU students</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An image showing black students dressed in sweaters and jackets." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458930/original/file-20220420-11-pwzlh5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458930/original/file-20220420-11-pwzlh5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458930/original/file-20220420-11-pwzlh5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458930/original/file-20220420-11-pwzlh5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458930/original/file-20220420-11-pwzlh5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458930/original/file-20220420-11-pwzlh5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458930/original/file-20220420-11-pwzlh5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot of Ralph Lauren’s partnership with Morehouse and Spelman colleges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ralphlauren.com/morehouse-spelman?searchTerms=Spelman&redirect=true">Ralph Lauren</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, Ralph Lauren produced a documentary film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKivVoCuBmA">“A Portrait of the American Dream,”</a> commemorating each institution’s legacy and the Ivy-esque style that students made their own from the 1920s through the 1950s. </p>
<p>The documentary is transparent about the brand’s intention to correct its limited framing of American style by “writing untold chapters” into the story of classic collegiate fashion. </p>
<h2>Hip-hop style</h2>
<p>Ralph Lauren’s belated recognition trails a long history in which Black communities have imbued American culture with a distinct aesthetic, especially in the realm of <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469636139/liberated-threads/">clothing</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, the move by Ralph Lauren to spotlight Black style before 1960 overlooks a more recent and direct connection between Ralph Lauren and members of the hip-hop generation. </p>
<p>A group of young African American and Latino New Yorkers glorified the brand in the 1980s, attaching it to what was then an emergent, urban subculture. The group called themselves the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/polo-ralph-laurens-complicated-streetwear-past">Lo Lifes</a>, a riff off the Polo name and a sarcastic admission that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/fashion/lo-lifes-fashion-hip-hop.html">despite their affinity</a> for the clothing, they were excluded from the brand’s white, upper crust, target customer. </p>
<p>Although Ralph Lauren initially resisted this less affluent fan base, the mostly one-sided <a href="https://www.complex.com/style/2018/02/polo-ralph-lauren-hip-hop-documentary-horse-power">love affair between hip-hop and Polo</a> persists.</p>
<h2>Still waking</h2>
<p>The idea of <a href="https://www.blackexcellence.com/why-black-excellence-is-a-mindset-not-jut-a-hashtag/">Black excellence</a> is nothing new. Nor is commercializing Black pride. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Some of the black women standing in front of a building are wearing white turtleneck sweaters with the letter 'S'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458938/original/file-20220420-25-krrb4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458938/original/file-20220420-25-krrb4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458938/original/file-20220420-25-krrb4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458938/original/file-20220420-25-krrb4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458938/original/file-20220420-25-krrb4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458938/original/file-20220420-25-krrb4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458938/original/file-20220420-25-krrb4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this screenshot of Ralph Lauren’s homepage for its new Morehouse and Spelman fashions, a group of Black women pose in front of a building.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ralphlauren.com/morehouse-spelman?searchTerms=Spelman&redirect=true">Ralph Lauren</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even retailers such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/opinion/juneteenth-emancipation-walmart.html">Walmart</a> are trying to cash in on <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/juneteenth-is-now-a-national-holiday-how-did-it-come-to-pass">Juneteenth</a>, the holiday commemorating June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers reached Galveston, Texas, and compelled slaveholders to free the enslaved. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>But questions remain on whether a new line of clothing can lead to a greater understanding of the spirit of <a href="https://www.blackexcellence.com/why-black-excellence-is-a-mindset-not-jut-a-hashtag/">Black excellence</a> that fueled the Black students at Morehouse and Spelman during the Civil Rights era.</p>
<p>One thing is clear: Ralph Lauren has at least increased the visibility of Black life and culture during this era of racial reckoning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180292/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timeka N. Tounsel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Long considered an arbiter of American fashion, Ralph Lauren has unveiled a clothing line targeting students at Black colleges.
Timeka N. Tounsel, Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Media Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/181376
2022-04-20T18:19:56Z
2022-04-20T18:19:56Z
Defunding the police is a move towards community safety
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458688/original/file-20220419-14894-1yqql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=116%2C0%2C2856%2C1935&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Police push back protesters during a demonstration in Montréal calling for justice for victims of police brutality.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Defund should not be a dirty word. </p>
<p>In fact, defunding public police is a step towards choosing real safety for communities across Canada. Defunding means taking funds from police budgets, while shrinking the size and operations of police. At the same time, it means granting more power to community groups and dedicating more resources to community and social development. Defunding police is a necessary step toward social and economic justice.</p>
<p>Taking the time to cut through intimidating police rhetoric can help reveal ways police actually create harm. </p>
<p>Police rhetoric and intimidation push people away from thinking through the costs of policing. The rhetoric can be so overwhelming that it often prevents us from exploring alternative possibilities of <a href="https://whitebirdclinic.org/cahoots/">non-punitive and community-led responses to transgression</a>. </p>
<p>I’ve recently helped to edit a collection of essays exploring <a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/disarm-defund-dismantle">the economic, political and social reasons for defunding, disarming and dismantling public police in Canada</a>. After reflecting on the arguments, I am convinced that larger police budgets and greater police deployments will cause more harm than good.</p>
<h2>Police are breaking the bank</h2>
<p>One major reason to defund police is economic. </p>
<p>In some Canadian cities, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadian-cities-police-spending-ranges-from-one-10th-to-nearly-a/">public police budgets now account for more than 30 per cent of municipal budgets</a>. <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/defund-the-police-this-is-how-much-canadian-cities-spend-1.5018506">The costs of policing</a> are expected to <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/10/28/police-budget-growing-and-higher-costs-for-notl.html">surge even higher in the next decade</a>. </p>
<p>These costs are creating structural deficits that municipalities will never escape from. On economic grounds alone, defunding police is an issue anybody interested in cities and public (and fiscal) policy should have at the front of mind. This money should be reinvested in social programs, community development, mental health, transportation and housing.</p>
<p>Still, it’s necessary to go beyond economic claims and look at the politics. The politics of police are another reason for defunding. </p>
<h2>Conservative police culture</h2>
<p>The politics of police forces are anti-democratic and contrary to social justice. </p>
<p>For example, this past February during the right-wing “trucker” protest, some police sided with the anti-vaccine convoy in cities like Ottawa, Winnipeg and Coutts, Alta. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/opp-cruiser-used-as-photo-booth-protesters-1.6348592">officers used their cars as personal photo booths for the occupiers</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/police-convoy-protesters-communication-1.6405434">acted as valet parking for the truckers</a>, revealing differential treatment for mostly white settler protesters compared to, for example, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/canadian-police-arrest-activists-blocking-gas-pipeline-indigenous-land-wetsuweten">Indigenous Wet’suwet’en land defenders and water protectors</a>. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/durham-police-lockdown-measures-1.6325983">Several officers</a> across the country <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/edmonton-police-reviewing-video-of-officer-urging-colleagues-to-disobey-unlawful-orders-regarding-trucking-protests">are under investigation</a> for either donating to the trucker convoy or posting social media alerts cheering on the occupation of Canadian cities that were hurtful, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/17/freedom-convoy-trucker-protests-worsened-us-supply-chain-issues.html">disruptive</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22926134/canada-trucker-freedom-convoy-protest-ottawa">disrespectful</a> to so many. </p>
<p>There are other examples of regressive police politics. Police have used public resources to support their own narrow, conservative political causes. In <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/edmonton-police-deny-keeping-list-of-critics-after-union-s-complaint-against-city-councillor/ar-AAUwRCl">Edmonton</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/lethbridge-police-meme-investigation-suspensions-mehdizadeh-1.5950266">Lethbridge, Alta.</a>, police have been caught spying on their critics and circulating negative social media posts. In Toronto and Winnipeg, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azab043">police unions have run attack ads against mayors</a> when those politicians suggested police costs should be reined in. </p>
<p>Recently, Calgary police have indicated <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/police-officers-will-defy-order-to-stop-wearing-thin-blue-line-patch-union">they will continue to wear thin blue line patches</a> that have been called fascist and racist in the United States and in Canada too. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cloth badge: Black and white Canadian flag with a horizontal thin blue line through it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458685/original/file-20220419-18-i4yqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458685/original/file-20220419-18-i4yqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458685/original/file-20220419-18-i4yqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458685/original/file-20220419-18-i4yqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458685/original/file-20220419-18-i4yqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458685/original/file-20220419-18-i4yqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458685/original/file-20220419-18-i4yqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ‘Thin Blue Line’ patch that has been called fascist and racist in the U.S. and Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some police like to suggest they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659019873757">the thin blue line holding back forces of chaos in the world</a>. This requires police to adopt an aggressive law-and-order ideology.</p>
<p>To mark their political stance and exceptional (some might call it extremist) posture, officers will adorn their uniforms with thin blue line patches or put blue line stickers on their cars.</p>
<p>These examples reinforce the idea that police are <a href="http://transformativestudies.org/wp-content/uploads/They-Have-Always-Been-Military.pdf">biased against left-wing political groups and embody a conservative political order</a>.</p>
<p>In this conservative political police culture, critics must be neutralized. Police <em>defunding</em> becomes a dirty word.</p>
<h2>Social harm</h2>
<p>A further reason to defund and abolish police is the violence they exact, especially on Black and Indigenous peoples. </p>
<p>Numerous studies and countless stories demonstrate the <a href="https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2020/07/15/police-brutality-in-canada-a-symptom-of-structural-racism-and-colonial-violence/">graphic violence police wantonly use against racialized people</a>. </p>
<p>There are other groups suffering from police violence in ways that have become commonplace. People experiencing mental health crises are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/most-canadians-killed-in-police-encounters-since-2000-had-mental-health-or-substance-abuse-issues-1.4602916">routinely shot to death by police instead of getting support</a>. </p>
<p>Medical doctors and nurses in the U.S. and Canada tired of seeing the results of police violence on the bodies of their patients have formed groups <a href="https://ricochet.media/en/3220/defund-the-police-for-public-health-say-doctors-and-nurses">calling for the defunding and abolition police</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CBBcDnIjoff","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/justice4eishia?lang=en">Other groups</a> are <a href="https://www.change.org/p/the-city-of-winnipeg-justice4blackliveswinnipeg-s-demands-to-make-winnipeg-safe-for-all-bipoc">mobilizing for abolition</a> and organizing workshops on alternatives to calling the police because they see <a href="https://winnipegpolicecauseharm.org/">police violence is causing tremendous harm</a>.</p>
<p>That immediate violence is in addition to the slow violence that criminalizing people does to entire neighbourhoods. Every arrest by police can affect access to education and employment opportunities, and have a lasting impact on families. <em>Imprisoning Communities</em> by U.S. criminologist Todd Clear is a book everyone should read: it reveals how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305791.001.0001">putting people in jail erodes social and familial bonds</a>. </p>
<p>It might seem counter-intuitive, but criminalization undoes community and creates conditions for more transgression. The more police criminalize people, the less healthy our communities are. When you understand that, you start to see the harm that police do everywhere.</p>
<h2>Alternatives for safety exist</h2>
<p>Do we want a society governed by a rock-‘em-sock-‘em mentality of reactive, violent responses to people in distress and need?</p>
<p>Or do we want to live in a generous society in which community development is the focus of government funding, and policing is no longer a major priority? </p>
<p>It is not a luxury to debate this for many people, especially Black, Indigenous and people of colour in Canada. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-018-9400-4">Police abolition is a matter of survival</a>.</p>
<p>For more discussions about defunding the police, check out the book <em>Disarm, Defund, Dismantle: Police Abolition in Canada</em> <a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/disarm-defund-dismantle">which confronts policing myths head on</a>. The ideas in the book build on the work of <a href="https://defundthepolice.org/canada/">many social movement groups calling for police defunding</a>. <a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/disarm-defund-dismantle">The book</a> examines the politics and economics of policing, the history of police violence, <a href="https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2020/07/15/police-brutality-in-canada-a-symptom-of-structural-racism-and-colonial-violence/">the colonial dimensions of Canada that public police continue to uphold</a>, the police targeting of sex workers and migrants, and the need to put defunding on the agenda in every jurisdiction. </p>
<p>Reading these arguments may help communities <a href="https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/city-hall/boards-committees-commissions/220117bopc1021.pdf">envision alternatives to police</a> while bolstering arguments to defund police and refund community. </p>
<p>We have decreased the power and scope or done away with harmful social institutions before. Continuing to accept the status quo by handing over massive budgets to public police institutions will not get us to a safe and healthy future. Bigger police budgets and greater police deployments are a recipe for more harm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181376/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Walby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The large budgets allotted for urban policing must be reconsidered so that communities can explore safer alternatives.
Kevin Walby, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Winnipeg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/179986
2022-04-07T15:24:47Z
2022-04-07T15:24:47Z
The colour of someone’s skin doesn’t equate to definitive sameness
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455600/original/file-20220331-26-1kak5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1564%2C4992%2C1429&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Seeing the Black experience as homogenous hurts the community.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the highly publicized <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">2020 murder of George Floyd</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/09/us/george-floyd-protests-different-why/index.html">subsequent calls for change</a>, many people of non-African descent around the world have yet to consider the lasting impacts of anti-Black racism. </p>
<p>Anti-Black racism is rooted in the enslavement and historical experiences of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.201579">people of African descent</a>. It continues to harm Black people and communities, <a href="https://www.otheringandbelonging.org/the-problem-of-othering/">“othering” their existence</a> while creating and maintaining tensions between non-Black and Black people. </p>
<p>As a result of anti-Black racism, non-Black people remain ignorant about how <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-sociologist-examines-the-white-fragility-that-prevents-white-americans-from-confronting-racism">Black people experience discrimination</a> and how it acts as a barrier that suppresses the civic, political and economic success of <a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/race-and-well-being">Black communities in a dominant white society</a>.</p>
<p>Canadian scholars like Carl James and Johanne Jean-Pierre <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12307">explain anti-Black racism as both historical and contemporary race-based discrimination</a> that upholds white supremacy.</p>
<p>Although George Floyd’s murder was a reminder that anti-Black racism exists in western societies, it also illustrated that race-based discrimination is not homogenous among Black people. </p>
<h2>Not homogenous</h2>
<p>The murder of George Floyd resulted from anti-Black racism coupled with deep-rooted, <a href="https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/black-masculinity-in-the-united-states/">stereotypical notions of Black masculinity</a>. </p>
<p>In his book <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/CURTMR"><em>The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood</em></a>, philosopher Tommy J. Curry demonstrates that Black men are denied social spaces, defined and perceived as brute savages. And sociologist Tamari Kitossa reminds us that <a href="https://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/988-9781772125436-appealing-because-he-is-appalling">Black men and their bodies have been simultaneously hated and dominated</a> by non-Black people. This domination is rooted in a historical belief that Black men are uneducated and savages, which has been perceived as a social truth.</p>
<p>In the eyes of non-Black — especially white — people, George Floyd’s body was deemed unworthy. Black men and their bodies suffer from further discrimination when their <a href="https://ijp.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Ogungbure.pdf">gender is perceived as hypersexual, violent and savage</a>. In turn, white settler society responds by attempting to control <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/274392.Black_Skin_White_Masks">and “other” the existence</a> of Black men. This attempt leads to social, economic and political barriers, and the murdering of Black men.</p>
<p>Black men and women do not experience the same anti-Black racism. African American studies researcher Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor <a href="https://www.perlego.com/book/566613/how-we-get-free-black-feminism-and-the-combahee-river-collective-pdf">outlines the unique racial and gender-based oppression experienced by Black women in white capitalist societies</a> that challenges their survival and liberation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman presses her face up against a mural of George Floyd." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455330/original/file-20220330-5922-gymd2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455330/original/file-20220330-5922-gymd2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455330/original/file-20220330-5922-gymd2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455330/original/file-20220330-5922-gymd2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455330/original/file-20220330-5922-gymd2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455330/original/file-20220330-5922-gymd2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455330/original/file-20220330-5922-gymd2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman pays respect to George Floyd at a mural at George Floyd Square in April 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Black women <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/07/black-women-social-justice">continue to experience an upward battle to be recognized</a>. Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins contends that Black women’s social oppression is centred on the <a href="https://uniteyouthdublin.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/black-feminist-though-by-patricia-hill-collins.pdf">intersections of their Blackness, gender and social class</a>. Western societies maintain social inequalities where Black women have to experience more moments of struggle to assert themselves economically and politically in comparison to white women. </p>
<p>Black men do in fact share similar economic and political barriers but their social experiences lead to heightened sense of oppression. For instance, research has demonstrated that <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-it-means-to-be-black-in-the-american-educational-system-63576">Black men’s experiences in education have been more challenging than Black women’s</a>. And Black male youth are more likely <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/11/19/the-challenges-facing-black-men-and-the-case-for-action/">to continue to be marginalized as they enter adulthood in comparison to Black women</a>. </p>
<p>Interrogating the difference in social experiences between Black women and Black men can lead to an appreciation of intersectionality. Doing so can help us recognize the comprehensive ways to address social inequality on the axes of race, gender, social class, sexuality, disability and age, <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/intersectionality-as-critical-social-theory">which distinctively shape people’s lives</a>. </p>
<p>This all illustrates that anti-Black racism is intersectional and experienced differently by Black people based on various characteristics, including gender and socio-economic status. </p>
<h2>Settler-colonial ideology</h2>
<p>As a settler-colonial nation, Canada rests on a foundation of white settler-colonial ideology. Anthropologist Eva Mackey illustrates that this underlying ideology results in <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9780802084811/the-house-of-difference/">culturally diverse populations being governed under the confines of Canadian white superiority</a>. </p>
<p>As such, predominant Canadian discourse inevitably erases authentic diversity, offering a presumptive sense of inclusion in its place. This provides a sense of ambiguity that defines <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-52444-9">non-white Canadians as the “other”</a> under the colonial practices within Canada.</p>
<p>Anthropologists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13351">Aisha Beliso-De Jesús and Jemima Pierre</a> bolster this argument, suggesting that white colonial powers control and define racialized groups and normalize social understandings of race.</p>
<p>White supremacy serves as a far-reaching barrier, hindering the ability of Black, Indigenous and other racialized people in Canada to lead healthy lives, receive <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/asset/12451/1/9780774812375.pdf">equal employment opportunities and access suitable education</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this shared barrier, white settler ideology does not consider racialized people’s unique racial divisions. For instance, sociologist <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781442691520/exalted-subjects/">Sunera Thobani</a> outlines that racialized immigrants receive inclusion in Canada, albeit tenuous and conditional, while the Canadian government continues to strip Indigenous people of sovereignty. </p>
<p>Although racialized people share a <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/asset/12451/1/9780774812375.pdf">common sense of unbelonging in Canada</a>, their unique experiences of discrimination are based upon their cultural and ethnic associations. In order to understand the lived experiences of non-white Canadians equitably, these unique associations need to be prioritized.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman stands amongst people sitting, wearing a ribbon skirt as she drums." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455067/original/file-20220329-21-1i68ufx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455067/original/file-20220329-21-1i68ufx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455067/original/file-20220329-21-1i68ufx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455067/original/file-20220329-21-1i68ufx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455067/original/file-20220329-21-1i68ufx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455067/original/file-20220329-21-1i68ufx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455067/original/file-20220329-21-1i68ufx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Afro-Indigenous activist Mahlikah Awe:ri along with thousands of people demonstrate during a Black Lives Matter protest in Toronto in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Homogenized under one acronym</h2>
<p>The lived experiences of Black, Indigenous and other people of colour are continuously grouped together under one acronym — BIPOC. Homogenizing or grouping together racialized communities under any one term effectively omits the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/30/21300294/bipoc-what-does-it-mean-critical-race-linguistics-jonathan-rosa-deandra-miles-hercules">individuality and unique experiences of racialized people</a>. </p>
<p>This acronym treats all racialized people as a whole, erasing their unique, individual experiences. As a common acronym, BIPOC also assumes a bond and closeness between people of colour. The colour of one’s skin doesn’t automatically equal sameness, apart from white supremacy’s stranglehold and attempted dominance over people who are not white. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-bipoc.html">In a 2020 <em>New York Times</em> article</a>, art historian Charmaine Nelson writes that the use of BIPOC erases Black, Indigenous, Asian, Southeast Indian lived experiences and there needs to be distinctions drawn between racialized people. Arguably, homogenizing racialized people’s lived experiences erases their lived experiences.</p>
<p>The acronym BIPOC discourages consideration of the intersections of oppression that a racialized person can experience. This colonial way of understanding people invisibilizes racialized people and communities, sustaining ignorance about racism. Homogenizing people, particularly Black people, ignores the intersectional facets of anti-Black racism and sustains a non-understanding of the social oppression Black men and women face.</p>
<p>Solidarity must never be attempted through the erasure and homogenization of people’s experiences. Creating true solidarity among racialized people requires not only unity, but acceptance of, and respect for differences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179986/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Warren Clarke works for the University of Manitoba </span></em></p>
Solidarity must never be attempted through the erasure and homogenization of people’s lived experiences.
Warren Clarke, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Manitoba
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174485
2022-01-12T14:33:51Z
2022-01-12T14:33:51Z
Africans and African-Americans would honour Martin Luther King by rekindling their bonds
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440415/original/file-20220112-13-fulvzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bernice A. King, daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, at a recent press conference preview the King Holiday observance in Atlanta, Georgia.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Erik S. Lesser</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During an official visit to Washington DC in 1962, Cameroon’s founding President Ahmadou Ahidjo informed President John F. Kennedy of his <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/equality-noninterference-and-sovereignty-president-ahmadou-ahidjo-and-the-making-of-cameroonus-relations/20C7C112F4588FFA414E0E0572ECFCA7">displeasure over anti-black racism in the US</a>. Ahidjo met and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/equality-noninterference-and-sovereignty-president-ahmadou-ahidjo-and-the-making-of-cameroonus-relations/20C7C112F4588FFA414E0E0572ECFCA7">praised</a> the leadership of the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lift-Every-Voice-Making-Movement/dp/B0096EQTG0">National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)</a>, the oldest African American civil rights organisation, for its willingness to unite with Africa “in a world-wide movement to fight against the evils of racial discrimination, injustice, racial prejudices, and hatred”.</p>
<p>He later <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Contribution-national-construction-African-political/dp/B0007K7TL6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2Q1HLGGZVNUVF&keywords=ahmadou+ahidjo%2C+contributions+to+national+construction&qid=1639875012&sprefix=ahmadou+ahidjo%2C+contributions+to+national+construction%2Caps%2C75&sr=8-1">wrote that</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Each time a black man [and woman] is humiliated anywhere in the world, all Negroes the world over are hurt. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>President Ahidjo called for a united front between Africans and African-Americans to confront anti-black racism. </p>
<p>He was not the first postcolonial African leader to make such a request. Ghana’s founding President Kwame Nkrumah’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313574089_Kwame_Nkrumah_and_the_panafrican_vision_Between_acceptance_and_rebuttal">Pan-Africanism</a> was a message about black upliftment and unity, and his close ally, Sekou Touré of Guinea, <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/ahmed-s%C3%A9kou-tour%C3%A9-1922-1984">advocated similar objectives</a>.</p>
<p>Those calls for a crusade against anti-black racism were deeply rooted in the best of African nationalism. </p>
<p>On the other side of the Atlantic, calls for collaboration to end racism were also taking place. A leading proponent of that message was the <a href="https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/clayborne-carson/a-call-to-conscience/9780759520080/">Rev. Martin Luther King Jr</a>. He and many in his generation rejected the negative proscriptions of Africa, and called for Africans and African Americans to join forces in the anti-racism crusade.</p>
<p>They <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53360.A_Testament_of_Hope">spoke fondly</a> of their roots in Africa: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>we are descendants of the Africans…“our heritage is Africa. We should never seek to break the ties, nor should the Africans.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Africans and African-Americans must rekindle the spirit of collaboration and cooperation which existed among black nationalists over half a century ago to counter the rising tide of anti-black racism in the US. It was a relationship which came with mutual political, economic, and cultural benefits. </p>
<p>I am a scholar of modern African history with particular emphasis on Africa-US relations and have <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498502375/African-Immersion-American-College-Studen">published extensively in the field</a>. My <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/equality-noninterference-and-sovereignty-president-ahmadou-ahidjo-and-the-making-of-cameroonus-relations/20C7C112F4588FFA414E0E0572ECFCA7">latest publication</a>, on Cameroon-US relations, among other things, addresses the importance of the collaboration between Africans and African Americans to uplift Black people. </p>
<h2>King’s eyeopening visit to Ghana</h2>
<p>King’s knowledge of Africa evolved slowly, and was initially peppered with the usual beliefs of African backwardness. But a trip to Ghana was transformative. In 1957, President Kwame Nkrumah <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trip-newly-independent-ghana-inspired-074416217.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall">invited him to his country’s independence ceremony</a>. </p>
<p>King honoured the invitation. During the ceremony King ”<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trip-newly-independent-ghana-inspired-074416217.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIaZb_DR4jGxK6EFPgOGI9NAxQlgNssgDR1Urqw_22DKWDTH4oAwgLKZi3XDKQ8oeNxxG2BJHmkTuYPo5lJS8i79BcdCPlLceLsaiKj6syRmfTPgGwLugTIUkBOO_ABBsxQXXVcgUo4yFnCFViPTo31rBpDUaaZJ0kNuhVwpvVgL">started weeping… crying for joy</a>“ when the British flag was replaced with the Ghanaian flag. He spoke endlessly about the endurance, determination, and courage of the African people. The anti-colonial struggle in Ghana mirrored what was taking place all over Africa.</p>
<p>Later, King <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/birth-new-nation-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church">noted</a> that Ghana’s independence </p>
<blockquote>
<p>will have worldwide implication and repercussions — not only for Asia and Africa, but also for America. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This gave African Americans new insights about the anti-colonial struggle. </p>
<p>Increasingly, King saw parallels between the anti-colonial movement in Africa and the civil rights struggle in the US. In his sermon, ”<a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/birth-new-nation-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church">The Birth of a new nation</a>“, he stated that the Ghana example reinforced his belief that an</p>
<blockquote>
<p>oppressor never voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He added that nonviolence was an effective tactic against oppression.
European colonialism of Africa and segregation in America were both "systems of evil”, he wrote, and <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/birth-new-nation-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church">summoned all to work to defeat them</a>. </p>
<h2>African nationalism meets US civil rights movement</h2>
<p>While racial segregation remained entrenched in America, the tide of independence was changing quickly in Africa. In 1960, 17 African <a href="https://www.macmillanexplorers.com/national-and-regional-histories/history-of-africa/17078210">nations gained independence</a>. They took their anti-racism message to the United Nations, where they chastised the US for its failure to stop anti-black racism. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Marchers carry a poster demanding justice for George Floyd and another bearing his face." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The murder of George Floyd by policeman Derek Chauvin angered the African Union.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/ Craig Lassig</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>African representatives in the US were often victims of American racism. Given the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/strategies-of-containment-9780195174472?cc=us&lang=en&">Cold War</a>, US Secretary of State Dean Rusk stated that one of America’s major Cold War problems was the continuous anti-black racism in the country.</p>
<p>After Nigeria, King increasingly spoke of a sense of urgency. In his article, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1961/09/10/archives/the-time-for-freedom-has-come-this-belief-dr-king-asserts.html#:%7E:text=%27The%20Time%20for%20Freedom%20Has%20Come%27%3B%20This%20belief%2C,By%20Martin%20Luther%20King%20Jr.%20Sept.%2010%2C%201961">The Time for Freedom has Come</a>”, he praised the independence movement in Africa while blasting the slow pace of change in the US. He referred to the independence movement in Africa as the </p>
<blockquote>
<p>greatest single international influence on American Negro students.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>African nationalists such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tom Mboya, Hastings Banda were “popular heroes on most Negro college campuses”, King stated. He <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53360.A_Testament_of_Hope">urged</a> African governments to do more to support the civil rights struggle of “their brothers [and sisters] in the US”. </p>
<p>In addition, newspapers in several African nations used the treatment of African Americans to question the role of America as the <a href="https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2010/the-peace-corps-in-cameroon/">leader of the “free world”</a>.</p>
<h2>Ebb and flow</h2>
<p>King and his contemporaries took seriously the partnership with Africa. African American leaders, activists, and scholars alike turned to Africa for inspiration. For example, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/W_E_B_Du_Bois.html?id=-KkRAQAAMAAJ">WEB Du Bois</a>, whose credentials included being co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Pan-African movement, relocated to Ghana. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/us/stokely-carmichael-rights-leader-who-coined-black-power-dies-at-57.html">Stokely Carmichael</a> (Kwame Ture), who introduced the Black Power concept in the civil rights movement settled in Guinea. Many others immigrated to Africa. </p>
<p>Poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou was transformed by the African experience. <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/7921/maya-angelous-meeting-with-africa/">She wrote</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For it is Africa that struts around in our rounded calves, wiggles around in our protruding butts, and crackles in our wide and frank laugh. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The 1960s and 1970s were decades of remarkable collaboration and cooperation between Africans and African-Americans.</p>
<p>American political leaders took note of the collaboration between Africans and African-Americans. President John F. Kennedy, the first American president to treat Africa with respect, created a more informed US foreign policy towards African nations – in part <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cold-War-Black-Liberation-1948-1968/dp/0826204589/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1C1CIDK16G45D&keywords=Thomas+noer&qid=1639886835&sprefix=thomas+noer%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1">to woo the support of African-Americans in elections</a>.</p>
<p>Kennedy’s policy was later abandoned by his successors – some of whom reverted to referring to Africans as “<a href="https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=WsIIDJlKm6sC&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=Lyndon+Johnson+Africa+cannibals&source=bl&ots=bQBLUppsTF&sig=yZPq5JA4MdgbQH2LsdCke68rt3M&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Lyndon%20Johnson%20Africa%20cannibals&f=false">cannibals</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Enchanting-Darkness-American-Twentieth-Century/dp/0870133217/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LS3NS1GALRTI&keywords=an+enchanting+darkness%3A+the+american+vision+of+africa+in+the+twentieth+century&qid=1639879403&sprefix=an+enchanting+darkness+the+american+vision+of+africa+in+the+twentieth+century%2Caps%2C81&sr=8-1">genetically inferior</a>”.</p>
<p>Those new policies coincided with a deep level of ignorance about Africans by African-Americans and vice-versa. And little effort was made by each side to bridge the gap. African Americans increasingly saw Africans through a stereotypical lens invented by the western society to justify colonialism and slavery. </p>
<p>In turn, Africans accepted uncritically America’s <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498502375/African-Immersion-American-College-Students-in-Cameroon">mainstream society’s labels of African Americans</a>. The type of relations and advocacy forged by King’s generation had evaporated.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>But the tide may be changing. There was renewed interest following the release of the movie Black Panther which showed blacks as capable, determined, and <a href="https://apercu.web.unc.edu/2018/04/the-black-panther-to-african-american-society/">possessed civilisation</a>. Following the murder of <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyd-why-the-sight-of-these-brave-exhausted-protesters-gives-me-hope-139804">George Floyd</a> in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the African Union publicly condemned America for its continuous racism against blacks. </p>
<p>The spokesperson Ebba Kalondo <a href="https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20200529/statement-chairperson-following-murder-george-floyd-usa">issued</a> a strong condemnation of</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the continuing discriminatory practices against Black citizens of the United States of America.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kalondo demanded a full investigation of the killing. </p>
<p>This new position may rekindle the spirit of cooperation and collaboration which characterised the King era. A major part of ending anti-black racism in the US is to learn about the role Africa played in shaping the idea of the west and <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Born-Blackness-Howard-W-French/9781631495823">Africa’s contributions to global civilizations</a>. </p>
<p>That knowledge will implode centuries-old myths of Africa’s backwardness and incapability. It is up to African Americans to champion that conversation in university classrooms and many other public spaces. </p>
<p>Finally, what King said about Africa as full of “rich opportunities”, inviting African Americans to “lend their technical assistance” to a rising continent remains as true today as it was when he said it nearly 60 years ago. </p>
<p>The failure to do so has increasingly ceded the ground to other actors <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/03/07/the-new-scramble-for-africa">who continue to exploit the continent</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julius A. Amin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
King saw parallels between the anti-colonial movement in Africa and the civil rights struggle in the US.
Julius A. Amin, Professor, Department of History, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/172120
2021-12-09T21:48:35Z
2021-12-09T21:48:35Z
Rethinking police reform: From defunding to promoting sustainability
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433768/original/file-20211124-27-ml9azc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5160%2C3445&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rethinking what we mean by police sustainability, how we measure it and how we hold the police accountable for outcomes, may create the opening for a more viable path to reform. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/us/derek-chauvin-sentencing-george-floyd/index.html">Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd</a> on June 25, 2021. Since then, calls for police reform haven’t been as loud. </p>
<p>One explanation might be attributed to the language of “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/05/19/7-myths-about-defunding-the-police-debunked/">defund the police</a>.” This slogan <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/25/us/defund-police-crime-spike/index.html">has been polarizing</a>, alienating police and other stakeholders from crucial conversations about change.</p>
<p>The never-ending pandemic and an increased focus on climate change may also have helped stall talks; however, the issues that led to the many calls for change have not gone away, nor are they new.</p>
<h2>Calls for reform</h2>
<p>Since the 1980s — and throughout my 24 years of policing experience — recruitment of diverse officers and diversity training have been consistently identified as key to improving police-minority relations. </p>
<p>For instance, in 1989, the <a href="https://novascotia.ca/just/marshall_inquiry/_docs/Royal%20Commission%20on%20the%20Donald%20Marshall%20Jr%20Prosecution_findings.pdf">Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr. Prosecution</a> (an Indigenous man who was wrongly convicted), recommended the police establish recruitment targets to reflect the general population, develop policies on racial stereotyping and deliver cultural sensitivity training to their members. </p>
<p>Recently, a <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/432/SECU/Reports/RP11434998/securp06/securp06-e.pdf">House of Commons committee</a> also recommended enhanced training and diversity hiring as part of a response to reports of systemic racism in policing. </p>
<p>Similarly, President Barack Obama’s 2015 <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf"><em>Task Force on 21st Century Policing</em></a> called for the creation of a diverse law enforcement workforce to improve understanding and effectiveness in working with communities, along with the adoption of a police culture of accountability and transparency and efforts to proactively promote public trust through non-enforcement engagement activities.</p>
<p>While a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53309-4">seemingly impenetrable police culture</a> has been consistently cited as a barrier to reform, from my related academic research, I propose that an equally problematic issue is the continued reliance on outdated indicators of police performance. In short, these indicators reinforce conventional ideas of police sustainability rather than align with the concerns of “defund the police” advocates.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of police officers stand together wearing helmets with faceshields above their heads." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recruitment of diverse officers and diversity training have been consistently identified as key to improving police-minority relations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sean Lee/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sustainability now</h2>
<p>Traditionally, police sustainability has been associated with police effectiveness and demonstrations of value, which have often been linked to <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248476.pdf">crime stats, crime clearance rates and arrests</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these metrics provide no information about the experiences of Black, Indigenous and other racialized people. They also fail to provide information on public perceptions of fair and equitable treatment by police. </p>
<p>Internally, limited attention has been paid to assessing the experiences of women and racialized officers. Therefore, it is no surprise that their <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00015-eng.htm">representation within the police</a> is lower than in the general population. </p>
<p>Women and racialized officers are also continually subjected to <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/proposed-class-action-lawsuit-led-by-former-constable-alleges-racism-in-rcmp-1.5022934?cid=ps:localnewscampaign:searchad:ds:calgarycrawl">discrimination </a> and <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/06/28/women-in-policing-share-stories-of-harassment-ask-why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-justice/">harassment</a> within their own departments.</p>
<p>Additional problems with traditional indicators of success were highlighted in a session on <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248654.pdf">policing and public safety</a> at the Harvard Kennedy School. A summary report from this session noted that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Just as we measure internal organizational success by employee adherence to rules, we measure external operational success through crime rates and arrest statistics. We do both to the detriment of building trust and legitimacy, because they ignore what the research tells us and what the public and the rank and file tell us. Both the public and rank-and-file officers want to be treated fairly by those in authority. We should not be surprised that we end up with poor morale among our officers echoed by the lack of trust from the community.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Studies show a promising link between fair treatment and several positive outcomes, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370813491898">increased openness of officers to change</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/13639511311329732">improved attitudes about community policing</a> and increased support for more <a href="https://asu.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/justice-from-within-the-relations-between-a-procedurally-justorga">democratic forms of policing</a>. </p>
<p>My own research also suggests that treating officers fairly and with dignity and respect may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOTB-11-2019-0132">counter harmful aspects of police culture</a>. </p>
<p>Clearly, it’s time to rethink how we approach police reform as well as how we define and assess police sustainability. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person wearing a face mask carries a sign that reads 'defund brutality'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A key outcome of police sustainability is enhanced legitimacy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Redefining police sustainability</h2>
<p>In the book, <a href="https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/policing-for-sustainable-development-goals/"><em>Policing for Sustainable Development Goals</em></a>, the authors advocate for a more human-rights oriented style of policing that focuses on: protecting the vulnerable, working within the rule of law and being representative of a transparent, effective and accountable public organization. </p>
<p>Consistent with the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">UN sustainable development goals</a>, police sustainability should also be concerned with providing a safe and secure workplace.</p>
<p>Repositioning police sustainability as creating public value while also ensuring a positive societal impact means paying attention to policies and practices that promote a safe and healthy working environment on top of police actions that benefit communities. </p>
<p>Under this new interpretation of sustainability, indicators of success pertain to both the internal and external environments. Internally, these indicators include positive assessments of interactions that may also act as early warnings of possible misconduct. </p>
<p>Externally, a key outcome of police sustainability is <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7419&context=jclc">enhanced legitimacy</a>, which can be measured through citizen perceptions that the police act lawfully, treat community members fairly and with respect and keep them safe. </p>
<p>Rethinking what we mean by police sustainability, how we measure it and how we hold the police accountable for outcomes, may create the opening for a more viable path to reform. </p>
<p>Such actions call for examining police reform through the lens of sustainability rather than “defunding.” In the end, we may just achieve the same goal of meaningful change without alienating key stakeholders in the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Workman-Stark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The continued reliance on outdated indicators of police performance reinforce conventional ideas of police sustainability rather than align with the concerns of “defund the police” advocates.
Angela Workman-Stark, Associate Professor, Organizational Behaviour, Athabasca University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171460
2021-11-16T13:18:51Z
2021-11-16T13:18:51Z
The concrete effects of body cameras on police accountability
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430901/original/file-20211108-17-t9x7xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C80%2C2914%2C1544&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Police officers wear body cameras in Oakland, California, on Dec. 4, 2014.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-officers-wearing-body-cameras-form-a-line-in-east-news-photo/459970458?adppopup=true">Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Without video evidence, it’s unlikely we would have ever heard of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/george-floyd-87675">George Floyd</a> or witnessed the prosecution of his killer, a Minneapolis police officer.</p>
<p>The recording of Floyd’s killing echoed the documentation in the deaths of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/14/us/michael-brown-ferguson-video-claims/index.html">Michael Brown</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/04/i-cant-breathe-eric-garner-chokehold-death-video">Eric Garner</a>, two Black men who were killed at the hands of police.</p>
<p>The circulation of such videos – witness cellphones, dashcams and police body-worn cameras – have helped awaken a protest movement centered on police accountability and systemic racism in the United States.</p>
<p>They have also diminished trust in law enforcement, which has dipped to its lowest level since 1993, according to a <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/352304/black-confidence-police-recovers-2020-low.aspx">2020 Gallup Survey</a>. Nineteen percent of Black Americans said they trust police, compared to 56% of white Americans. And a majority of those polled, 56%, called for major reforms in policing, including 88% of Black people and 51% of white people.</p>
<p>Much discussion on police reform revolves around <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2020/07/08/meaningful-police-reform-requires-accountability-and-cultural-sensitivity/">police officer recruitment</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/17/988331517/former-police-officer-says-training-methods-for-cops-need-to-change">training processes</a> and re-budgeting or <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2020/06/what-does-defund-the-police-mean-the-phrase-explained.html">“defunding” the police</a>.</p>
<p>But another way to reform policing is to make police services more transparent and officers more accountable. Over the past decade, the implementation of body camera technology has rapidly expanded across major metropolitan police departments, including Washington, New York and Chicago.</p>
<p>We are <a href="https://www.american.edu/spa/faculty/suat.cfm">criminologists</a> and <a href="https://www.american.edu/spa/faculty/tekin.cfm">economists</a>, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w29019">our recent study</a> has found that providing police officers with body cameras has a substantive effect on investigations of police accountability. The cameras have also helped reduce racial bias against citizen complainants.</p>
<h2>Increased fairness in investigations</h2>
<p>The vast majority of U.S. public complaints against police officers are dismissed.</p>
<p>Only 2.1% of the citizen complaints filed in Chicago between 2010 and 2016 resulted in a disciplinary action against police officers, according to the <a href="https://invisible.institute/press-release">Invisible Institute</a>, a journalism organization that “collects and publishes information about police misconduct in Chicago” in its Citizens Police Data Project. This rate is about one-third lower when complainants are African Americans.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611115613320">a similar pattern</a> in cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Portland, Oregon.</p>
<p>Traditional strategies to address police misconduct have focused on internal affairs divisions in police departments, which investigate possible law-breaking incidents and professional misconduct within police forces, or citizen oversight review boards, which investigate citizen complaints. But both of these have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd.html">criticized for being biased</a> against citizens.</p>
<p>Such investigations of police misconduct have relied heavily on eyewitness accounts, often producing “he said/she said” patterns of flawed evidence and, thus, inconclusive results.</p>
<p>This has changed, however, with the introduction of body camera technology.</p>
<p>While there have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12412">dozens of studies</a> on the impact of body cameras on police behavior – with some promising outcomes in the reduction in police wrongdoings – their effect on the resolution of citizen complaints has been relatively understudied.</p>
<p>We recently studied an eight-year period – 2013 to 2020 – of citizen complaint data from Chicago’s <a href="https://www.chicagocopa.org/">Civilian Office of Police Accountability</a>. During that span, the Chicago Police Department assigned these cameras to its officers in a staggered fashion, district by district across a 17-month period, from June 2016 to December 2017.</p>
<p>This allowed us to conduct the first study to estimate their effect on the outcomes of citizen complaint investigations across multiple time frames.</p>
<p>We found a significant effect on police accountability following the implementation of body cameras. Police officers were 64% more likely to be subject to disciplinary action after a complaint investigation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426566/original/file-20211014-21-1gizuu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protestors gather in North Carolina." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426566/original/file-20211014-21-1gizuu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426566/original/file-20211014-21-1gizuu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426566/original/file-20211014-21-1gizuu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426566/original/file-20211014-21-1gizuu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426566/original/file-20211014-21-1gizuu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426566/original/file-20211014-21-1gizuu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426566/original/file-20211014-21-1gizuu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protestors gather in Elizabeth City, N.C., as elected officials discuss the possible release of police body camera footage from the shooting death of Andrew Brown Jr. on April 21, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-gather-outside-a-government-building-during-news-photo/1232487956?adppopup=true">Sean Rayford/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Consistent with the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cico.12388?casa_token=alnq4Qzi-yAAAAAA%3ACesmSC_ojtKpD079bx530g843DUg9_HH0ph1Vrfu5MyFLzvi_1KX6Bsn-LpIH4Rrlo4FhcSDBF8avxg">existing studies</a>, we identified a considerable degree of racial disparity in the resolution of citizen complaints prior to the implementation of police body cameras. Complaints from Black people were more likely to be dismissed – 53% vs. 38% – and less likely to be sustained – 10% vs. 21% – than those of White people.</p>
<p>But following their widespread implementation in Chicago, body cameras largely eliminated such racial disparities, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w29019">according to our study</a>.</p>
<p>Complainants from all racial groups benefited from body cameras, with a greater overall rate of disciplinary action. We found that the percentages of dismissed citizen complaints were reduced to 16%, 18% and 15% for white, Black and Hispanic complainants, respectively.</p>
<p>Our findings initially illustrated the existence of racial bias in the dismissal of police complainants. They subsequently show that the introduction of body cameras can change this. And the continued implementation of such cameras is likely to continue reducing the disparities that play a large role in mistrust of law enforcement by people of color.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 115,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Many policymakers see this technology as a potential game-changer in police-citizen relations. It can protect officers from spurious complaints and make them more accountable for actual misconduct.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/legislatures-require-police-body-camera-use-statewide-magazine2021.aspx">Seven states</a> – Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Carolina – have already mandated the use of body cameras.</p>
<p>Because body cameras produce an objective accounting of the interactions between police and citizens, they have the potential to overcome previous weaknesses in the quality of evidence</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171460/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suat Cubukcu is affiliated with Orion Policy Institute, an independent non-profit think tank. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erdal Tekin, Nusret Sahin, and Volkan Topalli do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Police body-worn cameras increase disciplinary action against officers and reduce racial bias against citizen complainants, according to a recent study.
Suat Cubukcu, Professorial Lecturer, American University
Erdal Tekin, Professor Department of Public Administration and Policy, American University
Nusret Sahin, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Stockton University
Volkan Topalli, Professor of Criminal Justice, Georgia State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171183
2021-11-04T12:25:26Z
2021-11-04T12:25:26Z
Why voters rejected plans to replace the Minneapolis Police Department – and what’s next for policing reform
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430106/original/file-20211103-23-n2v7oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C0%2C6192%2C4106&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Precincts around where George Floyd was killed voted in favor of disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jordan-and-royal-pacheco-learn-of-george-floyds-murder-at-news-photo/1325462666?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Voters in Minneapolis <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/02/1051617581/minneapolis-police-vote">rejected a measure</a> that would have transformed the city’s policing 18 months after the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">killing of George Floyd</a> thrust the city into the forefront of the police reform debate.</em></p>
<p><em>By a <a href="https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-election-results-2021-st-paul-mayor-police-city-council-charter-amendments-rent-control/600110186/">56% to 44% margin</a>, voters said “no” to a <a href="https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-supreme-court-minneapolis-policing-measure-stays-on-ballot/600097750/">charter amendment</a> that would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety focused on public health solutions.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/phelps">Michelle Phelps</a> at the University of Minnesota leads a <a href="https://www.michellesphelps.com/research/policing">project looking at attitudes toward policing</a> in the city. The Conversation asked her to explain what happened in the Nov. 2, 2021, vote and where it leaves both Minneapolis’ beleaguered police department and police reform movements nationwide. An edited version of her responses are below.</em></p>
<h2>What have voters in Minneapolis rejected?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Minneapolis,_Minnesota,_Question_2,_Replace_Police_Department_with_Department_of_Public_Safety_Initiative_(November_2021)">wording of the amendment</a> was quite complicated.</p>
<p>In essence, the amendment would have eliminated the existing police department in the city charter and replaced it with a Department of Public Safety charged with delivering “a comprehensive public health approach” to public safety, with the details of the new department to be determined by the mayor and city council.</p>
<h2>So this was a ‘defund the police’ bill?</h2>
<p>The proposed amendment itself didn’t require police numbers be reduced, but it removed a barrier to defunding. It was a chance for a new approach to policing.</p>
<p>The amendment would have eliminated a city charter requirement that Minneapolis maintain a <a href="https://www.startribune.com/by-requiring-a-minimum-force-minneapolis-charter-poses-obstacle-to-defunding-police/571120052/">minimum number of officers</a> based on population size. And it would have shifted some of the power for policing matters from the mayor to the city council, which could have required the new department to focus resources on alternatives to uniformed police, such as unarmed community officers or mental health specialists.</p>
<h2>Why did the amendment fail?</h2>
<p>The vote should not be seen as evidence that Minneapolis residents are content with city policing. Polls have shown that the Minneapolis Police Department is <a href="https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-poll-public-safety-minneapolis-police-crime-charter-amendment-ballot-question/600097989/">viewed broadly unfavorably</a>, especially among Black residents. And 44% of voters did vote in favor of the amendment, so it is very much a mixed signal.</p>
<p>The reasons people voted against the amendment were complex. Yes, there was an element of resentment among white, more conservative Minneapolis residents who saw this as a radical attack on law and order. But it failed to get enough support among precincts with majority Black residents too.</p>
<p>One possible reason: As well as being <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/blacks-whites-police-deaths-disparity/">more likely to face police brutality</a>, Black Americans are also more likely to ask for the assistance of officers due to neighborhood violence. This bled into concerns over the impact that the amendment would have on police officer numbers.</p>
<p>As a result, the Black community <a href="https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-police-ballot-question-divides-black-activists-leaders/600110965/">was divided</a> over the amendment. At the same time that some Black activists and city leaders were calling for dismantling or abolishing the Minneapolis Police Department, other Black residents in North Minneapolis were <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/judge-orders-minneapolis-hire-more-132100293.html">suing the city to hire more officers</a>.</p>
<h2>Who voted against the amendment?</h2>
<p>We don’t have a full breakdown of the vote yet, but we have <a href="https://www.startribune.com/how-minneapolis-voted-on-the-police-charter-amendment/600104740/?refresh=true">precinct heat maps</a> that give a rough indication of who voted “yes” and who “no.” </p>
<p>Support for the amendment was high in some parts of South Minneapolis, especially the multiracial communities around George Floyd Square. There was also strong support in some gentrifying neighborhoods where there are a lot of young white voters.</p>
<p>In the southwest precincts – where there are clusters of wealthy, white residents – there was very strong opposition to the amendment. But most precincts in North Minneapolis, which has the highest proportion of Black voters, also voted “no” on average. When looked at through the lens of race, the story of the amendment is complicated.</p>
<p>Initial poll results also suggest age was an important a divide, if not more so than race.</p>
<p>In sum, both support for, and opposition against, question 2 in Minneapolis highlights the complex racial politics around both fear of police violence and fear of crime.</p>
<h2>Are those fears supported?</h2>
<p>Certainly opponents of the amendment have tried to argue that efforts to reimagine policing has left Minneapolis less safe. It is true that a <a href="https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/05/16/former-minneapolis-police-officer-talks-about-his-decision-to-leave/">lot of officers have left the force</a> since the summer of 2020 – many have left to go to departments outside the city, while others are on medical leave for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).</p>
<p>And there is a perception among the public that fewer officers results in greater community violence. But the truth of the matter is trickier. The city has not defunded the police – the <a href="https://www.police1.com/funding/articles/minneapolis-mayor-unveils-plan-to-boost-police-funding-closer-to-previous-levels-HUFv3sitMVg0CekA/">budget for 2021</a> was roughly in line with 2020. So the drop in officer numbers is not a result of the city defunding the department. Instead, officers are leaving the force. And there’s some evidence too that the officers that remain have at times shirked their duties to the public or “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-policing-minneapolis/">pulled back</a>” in proactive activities.</p>
<p>It is too simple to say that the reduction in police numbers has resulted in the increase in violent crime. We also <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-guns-pandemic-stress-and-a-police-legitimacy-crisis-created-perfect-conditions-for-homicide-spike-in-2020-168823">have to factor in</a> the economic and social impacts of the pandemic, along with the fact that the courts were also shut down during that period. </p>
<p>At the same time, there has been an intense scrutiny on police violence in Minneapolis since George Floyd’s murder, and this has changed how officers and citizens interact – 911 calls have declined, relative to the rate of shootings, and trust is at a low. Meanwhile the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/31/us-gun-sales-rise-pandemic">uptick in gun sales</a> likely contributed to the increase as well. So there are a lot of factors beyond the number of police, or what they do, that can fuel violence or promote safety.</p>
<h2>What is next for police reform in Minneapolis?</h2>
<p>I’m not convinced this is the end of the amendment – it could return in some form. Yes, it failed this time, but there is a core of residents, organizers and activists who want to move away from the status quo when it comes to law enforcement.</p>
<p>The immediate concern for the city will be <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/judge-orders-minneapolis-hire-more-132100293.html">hiring officers to comply with a court order to comply with the minimum officers standard in the city charter</a>, in addition to continuing to work to reform the department. So we will likely see more officers, not less, in the immediate future.</p>
<p>But there is real momentum for transformations in policing beyond reform. It is still possible that Minneapolis gets a Department of Public Safety, but through city ordinances rather than amendment and without disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department. And the city is continuing to onboard new mental health professionals to respond to some 911 calls.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, we have an <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/trial-over-killing-of-george-floyd/2021/04/21/989446758/doj-to-investigate-minneapolis-police-for-possible-patterns-of-excessive-force">ongoing federal Department of Justice investigation</a>. That could well end with a consent decree or memorandum of understanding that would mandate some of the changes that activists and community members are looking for.</p>
<h2>How will this vote affect the wider police reform movement?</h2>
<p>After George Floyd, what happens with policing in Minneapolis is no longer just about Minneapolis.</p>
<p>For advocates of the type of transformative changes envisioned by the amendment, it is a mixed result. While some may argue that the failure of the amendment to pass confirms that police defunding or abolition is politically toxic, close to half of the electorate voted for it – momentum has never been higher, despite the loss.</p>
<p>And had it been followed by <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/minneapolis-bloody-summer-puts-city-on-pace-for-most-violent-year-in-a-generation/">continued increases in shootings</a>, the danger would have been that the amendment would have been held responsible. The silver lining for those pushing for a “yes” vote is that perhaps the city now has the chance to develop alternative public health models without as much national scrutiny.</p>
<p>One thing is sure: This is not the end of the conversation.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 115,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle S. Phelps does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Minneapolis residents voted 56% to 44% against an amendment that would have transformed the city’s police. The reasons they did so are complicated, an expert writes.
Michelle S. Phelps, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Law, University of Minnesota
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167932
2021-10-14T15:30:15Z
2021-10-14T15:30:15Z
How the experience of Black people freed from slavery set a pattern for African Americans today
<p>The Black Lives Matter movement and the harrowing events that gave rise to it have ensured that global attention remains focused on the enduring legacy of African American slavery. There are numerous ways its continued relevance persists in the public eye, from debates over <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/19/slavery-reparations-from-where-things-stand-to-how-much-it-might-cost.html">reparations for Black people</a> in the US and how slavery’s history is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/apr/30/senate-republicans-black-history-schools-1619-project">taught in schools</a>, to a number of recent <a href="https://www.searchlightpictures.com/12yearsaslave/">big Hollywood films</a> and popular <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/may/14/the-underground-railroad-review-barry-jenkins">TV shows</a>.</p>
<p>The legacy of racism and violence that originated in slavery, and which continued throughout the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws">Jim Crow period</a> of segregation, also survives in many forms today, from persistent inequality to <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/how-you-start-is-how-you-finish">police brutality</a> and the denial of Black people’s democratic rights. </p>
<p>What often gets lost in the discussion of slavery are the experiences of free Black people who co-existed throughout the entire period of enslavement. Of the <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-african-slave-ship-arrives-jamestown-colony">20 Africans first traded to British settlers</a> in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, some served out their indentures and became free.</p>
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<h2>A parallel experience</h2>
<p>Granted, the numbers of free Black people were always significantly smaller than those who were enslaved, but there were communities all over what would become the United States. On the eve of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war">American Civil War in 1860</a> – a conflict fought over slavery – free Black people numbered <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kSFwAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=on+the+eve+of+the+american+civil+war+there+488,000+free+black+people&source=bl&ots=99N9ao-Kqa&sig=ACfU3U16Auwc7h_7pR16ZLM5WOCiuNE1_A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiXieG26MnzAhVM-aQKHXmjDYgQ6AF6BAguEAM#v=onepage&q=on%20the%20eve%20of%20the%20american%20civil%20war%20there%20488%2C000%20free%20black%20people&f=false">488,000</a> in the US compared to 4 million enslaved – not an insignificant number.</p>
<p>A parallel and often intertwined experience, freedom and was not always a permanent condition, but one marked with permeable boundaries between enslavement and liberty. As well-known figures like <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/frederick-douglass#:%7E:text=Frederick%20Douglass%20was%20an%20escaped,and%20during%20the%20Civil%20War.&text=His%20work%20served%20as%20an,of%20the%201960s%20and%20beyond.">Frederick Douglass</a> and <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth">Sojourner Truth</a> – both escaped slaves who became abolitionists and reformers – demonstrated, one could be born into slavery and eventually gain one’s freedom.</p>
<p>In my <a href="http://generationsoffreedom.com/the-book/">book</a> Generations of Freedom: Gender, Movement, and Violence in Natchez 1779-1865, I distinguish between those who were born into the system of slavery and later freed – the foundational generation – and those who were born free, known as the conditional generations.</p>
<p>Regardless of which generation they belonged to, a free Black person’s ability to exist within this ambiguous state of liberty was not guaranteed. Although they were technically free – not legally owned – there were limitations on their freedom.</p>
<p>Just like <a href="https://www.biography.com/writer/solomon-northup">Solomon Northup</a>, whose experiences are related in his autobiography Twelve Years a Slave, some people in Natchez, Mississippi, had been born into freedom only to be kidnapped and illegally enslaved. Others lost their freedom for being prosecuted for crimes like living without a proper licence as a free person of colour or incurring jail costs for being held as a runaway. </p>
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<h2>Becoming – and staying – free</h2>
<p>Free Black people lived complicated lives and had to work to ensure their survival in Natchez on the Mississippi River, one of the wealthiest cotton-growing areas in the South. In 1860, Mississippi had one of the <a href="https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/a-contested-presence-free-blacks-in-antebellum-mississippi-18201860">largest enslaved populations</a> (436,631), but a relatively tiny number of free Black people (775). Natchez contained the <a href="http://generationsoffreedom.com/">biggest free Black community in the state</a> with 225, dwarfed by the 14,292 who were enslaved. </p>
<p>People became free in a variety of ways. Some families’ origins derived from enslaved women who were in sexual relationships with white men. A number of these women gave birth to children in slavery and then worked for the liberty of themselves and their families.</p>
<p>In some cases they inherited property in addition to their freedom or worked to save money to purchase themselves out of slavery. Others were promised their future freedom and entered into contracts to work for a number of years before they were freed, all of which different paths to independence. </p>
<p>But however freedom was acquired, it was often limited and contested. Free Black people lived under a different justice system with a higher level of scrutiny by the local police board and state. They had to prove themselves of “good character”, “industrious” and “lawful” or they could be imprisoned or ordered to leave the state.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Original book cover reproduction of 12 Years A Slave by Solomon Northup" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426419/original/file-20211014-21-1opk0ee.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426419/original/file-20211014-21-1opk0ee.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426419/original/file-20211014-21-1opk0ee.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426419/original/file-20211014-21-1opk0ee.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426419/original/file-20211014-21-1opk0ee.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426419/original/file-20211014-21-1opk0ee.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426419/original/file-20211014-21-1opk0ee.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Twelve Years A Slave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/solomon-northup/twelve-years-a-slave/9781329794641?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqp-LBhDQARIsAO0a6aLghkGKgIE3GtVJPKHEbL-lmwBX4-c-SpkcwFEtKbadgFzjYxRORzIaAuZBEALw_wcB">World of Books</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Legislation was passed to prevent free Black people from voting, from serving on juries and on commissions, and engaging in certain occupations such as selling alcohol, operating houses of entertainment or printing establishments – even though they were taxpayers. Their movements were monitored, and suspicion inevitably fell upon them for crimes or during times of slave insurrection.</p>
<p>Despite these challenges, free Black people managed to create community through friendships and kin networks, buy property, build businesses, educate their children and use the court systems to protect their freedoms – in short, to survive and thrive.</p>
<p>Along with the enslaved, their experiences laid the foundation for the development of the uneven colour-conscious system of democracy and criminal justice in the US. The end of slavery did not result in unconditional freedom in 1865. Ever since, people of African descent have had to contend with severe disparities in employment, health, education, voting rights, wealth and countless other factors persisting to this day.</p>
<p>Black people live under a dual criminal justice system that subjects them to heavier policing, racially biased stops, searches and seizures, imprisonment, violence, and even death at the hands of the state. In so many ways, the experiences of free Black people during the era of slavery provided a blueprint for the way future generations would have to negotiate the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nik Ribianszky is affiliated with the Enslaved: People of the Historical Slave Trade project. </span></em></p>
Escaping slavery did not result in unconditional freedom.
Nik Ribianszky, Lecturer in US History, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165297
2021-09-29T12:22:25Z
2021-09-29T12:22:25Z
Francis Scott Key: One of the anti-slavery movement’s great villains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420031/original/file-20210908-25-2ouw6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=287%2C188%2C4315%2C2668&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A painting depicting Francis Scott Key aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant viewing Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on Sept. 14, 1814. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/painting-depicting-american-lawyer-francis-scott-key-aboard-news-photo/482796651?adppopup=true">Ed Vebell/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-fog-of-history-wars">history wars</a> – the battle over how we teach our country’s past – are raging.</p>
<p>The United States is confronting the legacies of slavery as never before. This national reconsideration has been prompted by <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-americas-social-justice-activists-can-learn-from-past-movements-for-civil-rights-165233">police killings of unarmed Black men</a> and The New York Times’ “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html">1619 Project</a>,” which reexamines the history of slavery in the U.S.</p>
<p>Outcries from conservatives over legal scholarship known as <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/07/02/why-are-states-banning-critical-race-theory/">critical race theory</a>, the premise that racism is systemic in U.S institutions, have also added fuel to the national debate. </p>
<p>And that is revealing some of the deepest contradictions in our history.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://history.yale.edu/people/bennett-parten">U.S. historian</a>, I think few people embody those contradictions like the author of the country’s national anthem, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/wheres-debate-francis-scott-keys-slave-holding-legacy-180959550/">Francis Scott Key</a>. </p>
<h2>Key’s complicated legacy</h2>
<p>Like his idol <a href="https://www.monticello.org/thomas-jefferson/jefferson-slavery/">Thomas Jefferson</a>, Key – the man who wrote about the “land of the free” – was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/reckoning-with-slavery-toppled-francis-scott-key-statue-replaced-by-african-2021-06-11/">a slaveholder</a> who opposed slavery in principle. He even viewed himself as an anti-slavery reformer.</p>
<p>But he also couldn’t fathom the idea of abolition. And the arc of his career as a Washington-area attorney reflects just how ingrained slavery was in early American life. </p>
<p>Born in Maryland in 1779, Key was too young to remember the American Revolution. But he came of age in its aftermath, a time when ideas of liberty and equality were practically sacrosanct in the minds of most Americans. He also came of age at a time when <a href="https://connecticuthistory.org/gradual-emancipation-reflected-the-struggle-of-some-to-envision-black-freedom/">various Northern states abolished slavery </a> and passed their own emancipation laws.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420032/original/file-20210908-19-12s61yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Francis Scott Key." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420032/original/file-20210908-19-12s61yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420032/original/file-20210908-19-12s61yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420032/original/file-20210908-19-12s61yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420032/original/file-20210908-19-12s61yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420032/original/file-20210908-19-12s61yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420032/original/file-20210908-19-12s61yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420032/original/file-20210908-19-12s61yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Francis Scott Key.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/francis-scott-key-was-an-american-attorney-and-poet-he-news-photo/615288766?adppopup=true">Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a result, Key was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/opinions/star-spangled-banner-criticisms-opinion-clague/index.html">never completely comfortable with slavery</a>.</p>
<p>As a young, D.C.-based lawyer, he argued against the <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2015/07/18/dark-places-earth-the-voyage-slave-ship-antelope-jonathan-bryant/F8WnpwJRce2dMGIN9Xtr1M/story.html">international slave trade</a> and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2015/07/11/%E2%80%9Cby_the_law_of_nature_all_men_are_free%E2%80%9D_francis_scott_key_and_the_case_of_the_slave_ship_antelope/">defended enslaved people in court</a>, including those suing for freedom. </p>
<p>Yet Key wasn’t an abolitionist. </p>
<p>Instead, he channeled his anti-slavery views through the <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/the-american-colonization-society-200-years-of-the-colonizing-trick/">American Colonization Society</a>. Founded in 1816, the group, run mostly by Southerners, supported the migration of freed people to Africa. Key was an original member, and he would later become one of the organization’s staunchest defenders.</p>
<h2>Enemy of anti-slavery movement</h2>
<p>As Key evolved into a strong supporter of colonization, the American Colonization Society fell under attack. Free people of color <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/african-america-s-first-protest-meeting-black-philadelphians-reject-american-colonizati/">denounced the organization</a> as serving the interest of slaveholders. And most Black leaders scoffed at the idea of leaving the U.S.</p>
<p>Moreover, opposition to the American Colonization Society in the 1820s and ‘30s gave rise to a new and more radical form of “immediatist” abolitionism. This was the abolitionism of activists like William Lloyd Garrison – publisher of “<a href="https://transcription.si.edu/project/11766">The Liberator</a>,” America’s leading anti-slavery newspaper – and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/frdo/learn/historyculture/frederickdouglass.htm">Fredrick Douglass</a>, the escaped slave and renowned activist and orator who would become the most famous abolitionist in the country. They wanted abolition to happen quickly.</p>
<p>It was also the abolitionism of the <a href="https://lostmuseum.cuny.edu/archive/the-constitution-of-the-american-antislavery">American Antislavery Society</a>, formed in 1831. Their goal was the immediate end to slavery, not the tepid and undeniably racist gradualism of the American Colonization Society. </p>
<p>Key did not find a home in this new movement. He never left the American Colonization Society. </p>
<p>When hit with the winds of change, he moved in the opposite direction. He became more conservative, and he eventually began <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/francis-scott-key_b_1645878">attacking abolitionists as rabble-rousers</a> intent on sowing the seeds of rebellion.</p>
<p>By the 1830s Key had become an open <a href="https://www.salon.com/2012/07/04/francis_scott_key_on_trial/">enemy of the anti-slavery movement</a> and of anti-slavery publishers in particular. Abolitionists responded by making him a villain, often mocking the “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/10/18/star-spangled-banner-racist-national-anthem/">Star-Spangled Banner</a>” by adding the words “in the home of the free and the land of the oppressed.” </p>
<h2>A final gesture</h2>
<p>The 1836 trial of <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu:8443/first-amendment/article/1606/trial-of-reuben-crandall">Reuben Crandall</a> was Key’s final public performance.</p>
<p>In a case that made national headlines, Key, then district attorney for Washington, charged local botanist Rueben Crandall with trying to <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1606/trial-of-reuben-crandall">foment rebellion among area slaves</a>. The evidence was skimpy: Police had found an assortment of anti-slavery pamphlets in Crandall’s office with instructions to distribute.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Key took this as his chance to make an example of abolitionism once and for all. </p>
<p>In the courtroom, Key defended the right of people to own slaves and built his case around the idea that anti-slavery activism fomented rebellion among enslaved people and was thus a matter of public safety. </p>
<p>Then he let his true colors show. While trying to fend off allegations from Crandall’s defense that he himself had called slavery a “great moral and political evil,” <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/31010419/">he said</a>:</p>
<p>“The 'great moral and political evil’ of which I speak, is supposed to be slavery – but is it not plainly the whole colored race? But if I did say this of slavery, as I am quite willing to say it, here and on all fit occasions, do I not also in the same breath speak of emancipation as a far greater evil?” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.salon.com/2012/07/04/francis_scott_key_on_trial/">In his closing statement</a>, Key continued this line of attack by arguing that to not prosecute abolitionists would be to hand the country over to those who wish to amalgamate the races and offer equal citizenship to people of color.</p>
<p>It was an open appeal to white supremacy masking the fact that Key didn’t really have a case. He could never prove that Crandall intended to foment rebellion. </p>
<p>Moreover, several of the pamphlets apprehended in Crandall’s apartment attacked the American Colonization Society directly, which made it seem to the jury as if Key, a known supporter of the group, was out to settle scores rather than to seek justice.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Crandall was found not guilty, though it wouldn’t do him much good. He contracted tuberculosis in jail and died shortly after being released.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>With his courtroom defeat, Key practically sealed his legacy as one of the anti-slavery movement’s great villains. </p>
<p>And he never repented. Despite opposing slavery, his prejudices prevailed, leaving him the infamy of being one of the most notorious anti-abolitionists in American history.</p>
<p>Nearly 200 years later, the U.S. is left with the task of trying to tell this history – of trying to explain how the author of the national anthem could hold slaves and defend his and others’ right to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165297/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bennett Parten does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Few people embody the contradictions of U.S. history like the author of the Star Spangled Banner, someone who denounced slavery as a moral wrong but rejected racial equality.
Bennett Parten, Ph.D. Candidate in History, Yale University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168823
2021-09-27T19:48:37Z
2021-09-27T19:48:37Z
More guns, pandemic stress and a police legitimacy crisis created perfect conditions for homicide spike in 2020
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423422/original/file-20210927-23-c08mfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3489%2C2321&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What role did the pandemic play in the hike in murders in 2020?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-walks-past-police-tape-near-the-scene-of-a-shooting-news-photo/504027776?adppopup=true">Mark Makela/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Homicides in the U.S. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/27/politics/uniform-crime-report-2020/index.html">spiked by almost 30%</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>That was the main takeaway from <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2020-crime-statistics">figures released on Sept. 27, 2021, by the FBI</a> that showed almost uniform increases across America in the murder rate. </p>
<p>The fact that big cities, small cities, suburbs and rural areas – in both blue and red states – experienced similar increases in homicides suggests that nationwide events or trends were behind the rise.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic would be one obvious explanation given its pervasiveness in 2020. But <a href="https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-public-affairs-and-community-service/criminology-and-criminal-justice/about-us/justin-nix.php">as a criminologist</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_Jr8r8UAAAAJ&hl=en">I know that</a> homicide rates are affected by a number of factors. And what happened in 2020 was a confluence of events that created the perfect conditions for a spike in murders.</p>
<h2>Stress and a lack of support</h2>
<p>COVID-19 likely did have an impact. People were under increased psychological and financial pressure during the pandemic. Criminologists have long pointed to “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2001.tb00915.x">strain theory</a>” to explain criminal behavior. Stressors – such as unemployment, isolation and uncertainty about the future – can lead to increased frustration and anger. People experiencing these negative emotions are more prone to turn to crime when they lack access to more positive coping mechanisms. And previous research has shown how financial stressors and a lack of social support <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2003.tb00999.x">work together to influence the overall homicide rate</a>.</p>
<p>But the pandemic wasn’t the only major event of 2020 that likely contributed to the increased homicide rates. In May of that year, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd.html">George Floyd was murdered</a> by a police officer in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>Floyd’s murder and the large-scale protests that followed sparked a <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2021/02/24/denver-crime-rate-homicide-shooting-property-crime-police/">police legitimacy crisis</a>. In short, this means citizens’ trust in police <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000460">was diminished</a>.</p>
<h2>The ‘Ferguson effect’</h2>
<p>When trust in the police <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/08/12/americans-confidence-police-falls-new-low-gallup-poll-shows/3352910001/">falls as dramatically as it did</a> following Floyd’s murder, the general public may become less likely to call 911 to report crimes or otherwise engage with the criminal justice system. Indeed, research by Desmond Ang at Harvard University suggests that after Floyd’s death, <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/ang/files/abbd_crimereporting.pdf">911 calls dropped significantly</a> in the eight cities he and his colleagues studied. </p>
<p>High-profile cases of police brutality are also associated with what has become known as the “Ferguson effect,” in which police officers <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3715223">make fewer stops</a> that occasionally <a href="https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/hall-police-enforce-traffic-laws.pdf">result in illegal guns being taken off the streets</a>. </p>
<p>Research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0783-y">a small number of people are disproportionately involved in violent crime</a>. If this small group felt <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0011-1348.2005.00014.x">emboldened as a result of the legitimacy crisis</a>, then it might help explain the increase in homicides.</p>
<p>Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, cited the “Ferguson effect” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/06/15/482123552/murder-rate-spike-attributed-to-ferguson-effect-doj-study-says">as a factor</a> in the 17% hike in homicides <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/249895.pdf">recorded in U.S. cities</a> after Michael Brown was shot by a police officer in the Missouri city in 2014.</p>
<h2>More guns = more gun homicides</h2>
<p>There is also <a href="https://www.vox.com/22529989/2020-murders-guns">evidence that gun carrying increased</a> in 2020.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Crimealytics?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Crime analyst Jeff Asher</a> and <a href="https://www.robarthurwriter.com/about.html">data scientist Rob Arthur</a> found that in 10 cities, although police made fewer arrests in 2020, the number of gun seizures went up. This suggests more people were illegally carrying guns in 2020. And research has long confirmed that gun ownership is <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301409">linked to higher rates of firearm homicides</a>.</p>
<p>When there are more guns in the hands of emboldened offenders, then the likely result is more attempted and completed murders. That this all happened during the height of a pandemic means 2020 was a perfect storm of factors that proved capable of producing the largest single-year homicide spike on record. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168823/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Nix does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
FBI statistics recorded a 30% rise in homicides in 2020. A criminologist helps break down what was behind the spike.
Justin Nix, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska Omaha
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156084
2021-08-05T12:48:12Z
2021-08-05T12:48:12Z
Tracking anniversaries of Black deaths isn’t memorializing victims – it’s objectifying them
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407057/original/file-20210617-23-axhj05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=245%2C122%2C5095%2C3202&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mural depicting Breonna Taylor is seen being painted at Chambers Park on July 5, 2020 in Annapolis, Maryland. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-an-aerial-view-from-a-drone-a-large-scale-ground-mural-news-photo/1254442984?adppopup=true">Patrick Smith/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>National <a href="https://nationaldaycalendar.com/march-13-2020-national-good-samaritan-day-national-blame-someone-else-day-national-k9-veterans-day-national-jewel-day-national-open-an-umbrella-indoors-day/">Good Samaritan Day</a> fell on March 13 and commemorates those who have helped a person in need. This year, March 13 also marked one year since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html">Louisville police officers killed Breonna Taylor</a> during a botched raid on her apartment. </p>
<p>And in 2020 former Minneapolis police officer <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/trial-over-killing-of-george-floyd/2021/04/20/987777911/court-says-jury-has-reached-verdict-in-derek-chauvins-murder-trial">Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd</a> on Memorial Day, when we honor Americans who died while serving in the U.S. military. </p>
<p>As an aspiring opinion writer, I’ve been taught to track such anniversaries because they are news pegs, an event that can be used as a reason to do a story that capitalizes on public attention. </p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://www.geneseo.edu/communication/lee-pierce">scholar of rhetoric and race</a>, I have a competing perspective. </p>
<p>If the way people write and speak about the world creates a sense of good and bad, right and wrong, then the concept of tracking these tragedies is already complicit with what <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/dark-matters">the writer and educator Simone Brown calls</a> “the surveillance of Blackness” – the disproportionate monitoring and punishing of Black Americans. </p>
<p>Those stories routinize systemic violence through their repetition. It’s what the political philosopher Hannah Arendt <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/02/16/eichmann-in-jerusalem-i">called</a> “the banality of evil.”</p>
<h2>Systemic violence made ordinary</h2>
<p>If someone is writing about the best gifts for Mother’s Day, I see no problem with tracking news pegs.</p>
<p>But if they’re writing about the deaths of people at the hands of police, perhaps a different approach is needed.</p>
<p>The pressure is understandable for writers to capitalize on the public attention that swells on the anniversaries of the deaths of Taylor, Floyd and hundreds of others. </p>
<p>One alternative to the news hook approach is just to take the word “new” more seriously. Instead of news hooks, writers could aim for what rapper Kid Cudi calls “dat new new,” something fresh and unanticipated. In the wake of Taylor’s killing, for example, a pro-gun control opinion piece might be reinvented as the idea that <a href="https://www.essence.com/op-ed/black-women-bearing-arms/">gun reform is a double-edged sword for Black America</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Find a dock’</h2>
<p>I admit to perpetuating the news hook, not only in my own attempts at public writing but in my teaching as well. </p>
<p>I was just following the advice that I had received. </p>
<p>“Your story is a ship,” I’ve been told, “and news pegs are potential ports for that ship. Keep sailing your ship until you find a dock.” Translation: Keep pegging your story to an anniversary until you get published. </p>
<p>The ship metaphor operates on the assumption that an idea precedes the occasion that it describes and, therefore, that ideas exist apart from the concrete events that they are supposed to explain.</p>
<p>By that logic, the idea of police reform as a story focus exists before and outside of Taylor’s death. Taylor is the hook, just another example of why police reform is important.</p>
<p>When the specific “hook” that is Taylor’s death doesn’t have a chance to prompt a story on its own, Taylor is objectified on the anniversary of her death just as she was on the day of her death. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Marchers walk by a mural of George Floyd." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marchers walk past a mural of George Floyd painted on a wall along Colfax Avenue on June 7, 2020, in Denver, Colorado.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/marchers-walk-by-a-mural-of-george-floyd-painted-on-a-wall-news-photo/1248065134?adppopup=true">Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Imagining otherwise</h2>
<p>The language of ships also calls to mind the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Middle-Passage-slave-trade">Middle Passage</a>, the leg of the Atlantic voyage through which ships trafficked stolen Africans for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html">enslavement</a> in America. During the trip, countless slaves were thrown overboard into the ship’s wake or chose to jump to escape torture. </p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/in-the-wake">In the Wake: On Blackness and Being</a>,” literary scholar Christina Sharpe uses the slave ship as a metaphor for the present-day condition that is being Black in America. </p>
<p>Sharpe describes that condition as “wake work.” Wake work means looking backward to keep vigil for the death lying in the wake and looking forward to the ship’s destination with hope and despair. Hope because the ship might be headed somewhere better, and despair because it almost certainly is not. </p>
<p>Wake work, Sharpe writes, is not only about the hard emotional, physical and mental work of vigilantly tracking and defending the dead. It is also about the equally exhausting work of imagining “otherwise from what we know now in the wake of slavery.” </p>
<p>Imagining otherwise is that new new. It’s a different interpretation about what tragedy means. </p>
<p>So what does imagining otherwise look like in the journalistic context? </p>
<p>There are stories that refused to use a news peg – that produced a new idea about the tragedies befalling Black Americans.</p>
<p>Consider a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/5/14/1384734/-If-Trayvon-Martin-had-lived-Meet-Monroe-Bird-Shot-paralyzed-by-his-own-neighborhood-security">2015 story about Monroe Bird</a>, a Black man shot in Oklahoma by a white security guard, Ricky Stone, while sitting in a car with a white woman. </p>
<p>To justify the shooting, Stone claimed that Bird had a gun and was having sex in public, and that Bird tried to run him over with his car. No evidence was found to support those claims.</p>
<p>Bird did not become a news peg because he did not die during the incident. But life as Bird knew it did end. <a href="https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/monroe-bird-was-shot-by-a-security-guard-then-he-died-in-silence/">He was paralyzed from the waist down</a> and racked with <a href="https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/20/illegal-activity-fine-print-leaves-some-insured-but-uncovered/">medical debt</a> that health insurance didn’t cover. </p>
<p>A few months later, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/7/8/1400310/-The-devastating-death-of-Monroe-Bird-is-an-indictment-on-all-of-America">Bird died</a> from a blood clot because he was not being moved frequently enough, a simple preventative measure for paralyzed patients that Bird didn’t have access to.</p>
<p>The title of a news report on Bird? “<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/5/14/1384734/-If-Trayvon-Martin-had-lived-Meet-Monroe-Bird-Shot-paralyzed-by-his-own-neighborhood-security">If Trayvon Martin had lived: Meet Monroe Bird</a>.”</p>
<p>The story is one way to imagine otherwise. </p>
<p>The story took the familiar idea of Black Americans who have survived anti-Black violence and turned it on its head. The story shows that to not die is not to live. Then that idea morphs into a different idea: health care inequality.</p>
<p>Another version of imagining otherwise appeared in a self-published <a href="https://www.mninjustice.org/op-ed">op-ed column</a> written by an anonymous Minneapolis public defender. In the piece, the writer considers what would have happened to George Floyd if he had lived. </p>
<p>The answer is an imagined litany of underfunded and failed legal battles, the continued authorization of excessive force in police training manuals and another rotation of the cycle of violence in the American criminal justice system. </p>
<p>Tracking anniversaries is not wake work, it is not keeping vigilant watch, unless every time the next anniversary arrives it becomes an occasion to not only comment on the past but attempt to imagine otherwise, even if that otherwise is still without a happy ending.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand key political developments, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s politics newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee M. Pierce is a volunteer for various liberal and leftist organizations and political candidates.</span></em></p>
When there is nothing new to say, pegging news stories to the anniversaries of the deaths of Black Americans objectifies the victims and helps make violence ordinary.
Lee M. Pierce, Assistant Professor Rhetoric and Communication, State University of New York, College at Geneseo
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161334
2021-07-14T12:23:16Z
2021-07-14T12:23:16Z
From the labor struggles of the 1930s to the racial reckoning of the 2020s, the Highlander school has sought to make America more equitable
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407988/original/file-20210623-19-holujg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=56%2C50%2C3713%2C2255&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Highlander founder Myles Horton (right) with civil rights leader Rosa Parks and labor leader Ralph Helstein in 1957.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.library.nashville.org/research/collections/civil-rights-collection">Nashville Banner Collection, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During this <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/americas-racial-reckoning">period of racial reckoning</a>, many Americans are seeking to make the United States more equitable and just. Many new organizations and coalitions are arising out of a new wave of engagement, but they don’t need to start from scratch. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41674667">Highlander Research and Education Center</a>, a training ground for civil rights activists founded nearly 90 years ago, offers a useful model. As a <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469661445/shelter-in-a-time-of-storm/">social movement historian</a>, I am intimately familiar with how this school and similar engines of grassroots engagement have transformed America’s social and political landscape by inspiring generations of leaders seeking to end institutional racism.</p>
<p>Located outside of Knoxville in the eastern Tennessee mountains, Highlander is among the hundreds of organizations that the billionaire philanthropist and author <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">MacKenzie Scott</a> has funded to combat systemic inequity. It’s also playing a critical role in attracting and distributing philanthropic support to lesser-known Southern grassroots organizations.</p>
<p>Together with <a href="https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/song">Southerners on New Ground</a>, another activist training group, it helped launch the <a href="https://www.laughinggull.org/southern-power-fund">Southern Power Fund</a> in 2020. The initiative had <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/how-a-14-million-fund-for-black-led-grassroots-groups-in-the-south-is-upending-traditional-grant-making">raised US$14 million by mid-2021</a> to make it easier for grassroots organizations to address local needs with <a href="https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/unrestricted-grant">no-strings-attached</a> grants.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dAUCZH-r3KQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Myles Horton created the Highlander school to help poor people find solutions to their ‘common problems.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Myles Horton vs. the color line</h2>
<p>Highlander was the brainchild of <a href="https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/myles-horton">Myles Horton</a>, a white Southerner who grew up under the crushing weight of poverty in rural Tennessee in the early 20th century. As his parents scratched out a living doing odd jobs, Horton grew increasingly bitter regarding the social and economic system that produced such stark contrasts between the privileged few and the struggling masses. He also became an avid reader.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407981/original/file-20210623-19-1mc2v9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A clean-cut man in a white shirt smiles at the camera" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407981/original/file-20210623-19-1mc2v9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407981/original/file-20210623-19-1mc2v9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407981/original/file-20210623-19-1mc2v9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407981/original/file-20210623-19-1mc2v9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407981/original/file-20210623-19-1mc2v9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407981/original/file-20210623-19-1mc2v9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407981/original/file-20210623-19-1mc2v9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Myles Horton in 1957.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.library.nashville.org/research/collections/civil-rights-collection">Nashville Banner Collection, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the Great Depression, Horton went to graduate school at <a href="https://thesocietypages.org/monte/2014/08/24/remembering-myles-horton-a-man-who-left-academic-sociology-behind-in-order-to-change-society/">Union Theological Seminary in New York and the University of Chicago</a>.</p>
<p>There, he was <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520302051/education-in-black-and-white">mentored by John Dewey</a>, a philosopher who believed in the need for education aimed at “correcting unfair privilege and unfair deprivation.” American social movements at that time, when the nation’s economic and racial divisions were becoming deeper, were intensifying their critiques concerning the wealth gap and the color line that violently threatened and undermined the lives of millions of African Americans.</p>
<p>Subsequently, Horton founded the <a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/alliances-relationships/highlander/">Highlander Folk School</a> in 1932. Nestled in the tiny backwoods town of Monteagle, Tennessee, it aimed “to educate rural and industrial leaders for a new social order.”</p>
<p>For Horton, the economic crisis was the perfect moment to achieve the unthinkable: bridging the color line to create synergy between Black and white Southerners.
Within Highlander’s welcoming walls and in its outdoor classes, segregation or any pretense of hierarchy was nonexistent. </p>
<p>Groups of Southern labor organizers and civil rights activists would gather at Highlander to read and discuss. Its library was stocked with books by progressive intellectuals, including not just Dewey but the theologian <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-comey-learned-from-theologian-reinhold-niebuhr-about-ethical-leadership-95330">Reinhold Niebuhr</a> and the educator and activist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-S-Counts">George S. Counts</a>.</p>
<p>Participants would learn even more from their community-building. Horton sought to create a space where people of all backgrounds could be exposed to history and literature that enlightened them about their common struggles. Highlander also fostered the creation of music and art that built communion and solidarity, while inculcating the radical notion among trainees that they could transcend racial and class divisions.</p>
<p>In sharing a common space for an extended period, participants in Highlander’s training program could begin to build a truly democratic society as a “<a href="https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/996/">circle of learners</a>.” </p>
<h2>Empowering civil rights leaders</h2>
<p>Today’s training center is the successor to Horton’s original civil rights movement incubator. In 1957, <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/highlander-folk-school">Martin Luther King Jr. praised Highlander’s “noble purpose and creative work”</a> with having “given the South some of its most responsible leaders.”</p>
<p>Four months before her historic act of dissent against Montgomery’s segregated buses, for example, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/rosa-parks-in-her-own-words/about-this-exhibition/the-bus-boycott/highlander-folk-school/">Rosa Parks</a> attended a Highlander workshop on one of several trips she would make there. </p>
<p>And as student sit-ins rocked America’s social and political foundations in the spring of 1960, it was Highlander that served as a retreat for many of the Nashville students, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/john-lewis-traded-the-typical-college-experience-for-activism-arrests-and-jail-cells-143219">John Lewis</a>, the future congressman. </p>
<p>Because of unrelenting attacks by prejudiced politicians who <a href="https://www.gale.com/c/fbi-file-on-the-highlander-folk-school">alleged that Highlander was spreading communism</a>, Tennessee authorities <a href="https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2018/01/school-for-subversives-and-communists.html">forced the school’s closure and revoked its charter in 1961</a>. The staff then reincorporated as the Highlander Research and Education Center and moved, first to Knoxville and then to New Market, a small town about 25 miles away.</p>
<p>Under its barely changed name, the nonprofit school would keep forging some of the most unlikely coalitions at the height of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lynching-preachers-how-black-pastors-resisted-jim-crow-and-white-pastors-incited-racial-violence-129963">Jim Crow South</a> and beyond.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407984/original/file-20210623-21-1y3x6u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A classroom full of adults in the 1950s" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407984/original/file-20210623-21-1y3x6u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407984/original/file-20210623-21-1y3x6u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407984/original/file-20210623-21-1y3x6u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407984/original/file-20210623-21-1y3x6u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407984/original/file-20210623-21-1y3x6u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407984/original/file-20210623-21-1y3x6u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407984/original/file-20210623-21-1y3x6u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Highlander’s workshops brought Black and white people together, even at the height of U.S. segregation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.library.nashville.org/research/collections/civil-rights-collection">Nashville Banner Collection, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Septima Clark</h2>
<p>One of Horton’s most influential hires was a South Carolina schoolteacher named <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/clark-septima-poinsette">Septima Clark</a>. A graduate of two historically Black colleges, she first arrived in 1954 out of curiosity because she wanted to see for herself the one place she had heard of where “<a href="https://africaworldpressbooks.com/ready-from-within-septima-clark-and-the-civil-right-movement-a-first-person-narrative-edited-by-cynthia-stokes-brown/">blacks and whites could meet together and talk over the problems</a>” that defined the Jim Crow South.</p>
<p>She returned a year later after being fired from her teaching job in Charleston for belonging to the NAACP. At Highlander, Clark developed and led workshops on leadership. Parks was among her first students, six months before an <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott">eventful act of dissent aboard a bus in Montgomery</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407992/original/file-20210623-13-1opsvsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An elderly woman holds an award" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407992/original/file-20210623-13-1opsvsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407992/original/file-20210623-13-1opsvsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407992/original/file-20210623-13-1opsvsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407992/original/file-20210623-13-1opsvsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407992/original/file-20210623-13-1opsvsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407992/original/file-20210623-13-1opsvsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407992/original/file-20210623-13-1opsvsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Septima Clark in 1974.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CivilRightsPioneerClark/dea21193332348258743b1133d5dae6a/photo">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Clark became a full-time staffer in 1956. She later implemented her Highlander lesson plans in what she referred to as <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/septima-clark-was-the-teacher-of-the-civil-rights-movement/CZSM4IT56RC4FFMMLD7L53YLPA/">Citizenship Schools</a> in Johns Island, South Carolina.</p>
<p>Horton’s and Clark’s methods of empowering and training local folks in political literacy became staples of organizations such as the <a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/the-story-of-sncc/">Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee</a>, or SNCC.</p>
<p>SNCC later emulated the concept of Clark’s Citizenship Schools during the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-summer">Freedom Summer campaign of 1964</a>, which sought to register scores of Black voters who had been barred from registering in Mississippi – under the threat of white terrorism as well as Jim Crow laws.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>SNCC activists also created Freedom Schools throughout the Mississippi Delta region that exposed <a href="https://www.civilrightsteaching.org/exploring-history-freedom-schools">Black residents to an education that most had been deprived of</a> as <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sharecropping">impoverished sharecroppers</a>.</p>
<h2>Building new coalitions</h2>
<p>After the school’s organizers relocated, twice under its new name, Highlander redoubled its efforts to address systemic poverty. In recent years, <a href="https://highlandercenter.org/our-story/mission/">while upholding its original mission</a>, Highlander has begun to tackle issues such as environmental racism, xenophobia and human rights abuses while advocating for intergenerational and multicultural coalition-building.</p>
<p>Tragically, there are those who still regard such efforts as a threat.</p>
<p>The Highlander Research and Education Center’s main office building in New Market, Tennessee, burned down in 2019. The subsequent identification of a white power symbol raised <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/highlander-attack-arson-racism/">suspicions of arson</a>, but <a href="https://www.wbir.com/article/news/community/we-are-survivors-one-year-after-the-highlander-center-fire/51-7fdf920b-929f-4ee4-b8e5-da0dba4f308f">the case</a> apparently remains under investigation.</p>
<p>Although the blaze engulfed the building, it didn’t raze the spirit and mission of the center that in my view has served as a citadel for democracy and justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161334/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jelani M. Favors does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The training center, which welcomed Rosa Parks and John Lewis before they became famous, still empowers and inspires marginalized Americans to use their own voices and talents.
Jelani M. Favors, Associate Professor of History, Clayton State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161052
2021-07-06T12:09:40Z
2021-07-06T12:09:40Z
‘Landmark’ verdicts like Chauvin murder conviction make history – but court cases alone don’t transform society
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408423/original/file-20210625-26-14oudjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=76%2C0%2C5017%2C3428&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It takes generations to know whether a major court ruling has actually changed society.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/social-security-law-royalty-free-image/961411540?adppopup=true"> wildpixel via Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>American courts in 2021 have already handed down several potentially historic rulings, from the Supreme Court’s recent decision <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/02/politics/voting-rights-supreme-court-arizona/index.html">restricting voting rights in Arizona and potentially nationwide</a> to a Minnesota jury’s conviction of police officer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/20/derek-chauvin-guilty-verdict-george-floyd-analysis">Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd last year</a>. </p>
<p>Cases like these are often called “landmark” cases, because they set forth ideas and ideals that may bring about significant changes in the political and legal landscape. </p>
<p>Many analysts considered the Chauvin trial, in particular, to be a landmark. In it, police officers actually testified <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/10/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-trial-testimony/index.html">against one of their own</a>, which is rare, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/us/george-floyd-chauvin-verdict.html">the jury held</a> a white police officer criminally accountable for killing a Black man. On June 25, 2021, the judge <a href="https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/derek-chauvin-sentencing/index.html">sentenced Chauvin to 22.5 years in prison</a> for murdering Floyd after he attempted to use a counterfeit bill to buy cigarettes. </p>
<p>People all over the world have followed the Chauvin trial closely, as the culminating event after a year of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-george-floyds-death-reignited-a-worldwide-movement/a-56781938">global protests</a> against police brutality and racism.</p>
<p>Landmark trials may go down in history, but as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x6EfwM8AAAAJ&hl=en">law professor</a> specializing in alternative dispute resolution, I know that they do not instantly transform the social order. </p>
<p>Courts are limited in the kinds of disputes they can hear and the sorts of relief they can provide. Moreover, major court cases and other moments of reform in American history often result in legislative backlash and a “recalibration,” as my colleague Stuart Chinn <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/recalibrating-reform/E464D8BCA94559ED9DEA8D6EB5D04D92">has argued</a>. Those reactions may slow or even undermine the momentum for social change. </p>
<p>And even famously “just” verdicts haven’t necessarily pushed U.S. society in a linear direction toward its constitutional ideals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408404/original/file-20210625-23-aowztg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black woman in a face masks cries on a city street, with a hand over her mouth" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408404/original/file-20210625-23-aowztg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408404/original/file-20210625-23-aowztg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408404/original/file-20210625-23-aowztg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408404/original/file-20210625-23-aowztg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408404/original/file-20210625-23-aowztg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408404/original/file-20210625-23-aowztg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408404/original/file-20210625-23-aowztg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman in New York weeps after the guilty verdict was announced in the Derek Chauvin murder trial on April 20, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-weeps-in-response-to-the-verdict-in-the-derek-chauvin-news-photo/1232424977?adppopup=true">David Dee Delgado/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Big verdicts, slow change</h2>
<p>A well-known example is <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/347/483">Brown v. Board of Education</a>, in which the Supreme Court held unanimously that the doctrine of “separate but equal” in public schools violated the 14th Amendment. </p>
<p>The 1954 Brown decision, which ended legal segregation in the nation’s schools, inspired civil rights activists, drew broader attention to the struggle for racial equality and <a href="https://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/landmark-brown-v-board-education/">was instrumental</a> in enforcing and encouraging racial desegregation. </p>
<p>But the main objectives of Brown – integrating public schools and leveling the educational playing field – <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-the-civil-rights-era-white-americans-failed-to-support-systemic-change-to-end-racism-will-they-now-141954">have not been realized</a>.</p>
<p>Many schools are <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/schools-are-still-segregated-and-black-children-are-paying-a-price/">still effectively segregated</a>, in part because of ongoing legal and practical challenges associated with integration. In the 1974 case <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/418/717">Milliken v. Bradley</a>, for example, the Supreme Court limited the ability of federal courts to compel integration across school districts. That decision, handed down 20 years after Brown v. Board of Education, has made it difficult if not impossible to fulfill Brown’s promise of integration.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408419/original/file-20210625-25-1jp0y79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black journalists read papers touting decision in Brown v. Board" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408419/original/file-20210625-25-1jp0y79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408419/original/file-20210625-25-1jp0y79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408419/original/file-20210625-25-1jp0y79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408419/original/file-20210625-25-1jp0y79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408419/original/file-20210625-25-1jp0y79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408419/original/file-20210625-25-1jp0y79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408419/original/file-20210625-25-1jp0y79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brown v. Board of Education made front-page headlines seven decades ago, but school segregation remains a problem nationwide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/william-gordon-managing-editor-of-the-african-american-news-photo/514957734?adppopup=true">Bettmann / Contributor via Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another instructive example from the same era is <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/372/335">Gideon v. Wainwright</a>. In the Gideon case, the Supreme Court held that under the Sixth Amendment, the state must provide attorneys to criminal defendants who could not otherwise afford them. </p>
<p>Following through on this constitutional mandate has proven difficult. Many parts of the country allocate grossly <a href="http://fordhampoliticalreview.org/overworked-and-underpaid-americas-public-defender-crisis/">inadequate resources</a> to the defense of indigent defendants. New Orleans’ 60 public defenders, for example, handle approximately 20,000 cases each year, according to a <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2017/11/21/public-defenders-fight-back-against-budget-cuts-growing-caseloads/">2017 report</a>.</p>
<p>Without timely access to legal counsel, many low-income defendants languish in <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/article237131144.html">jail for prolonged periods</a> before their case gets to trial, while waiting to be assigned a public defender. Others are pressured into <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/innocence-is-irrelevant/534171/">unwanted or unjust plea bargains</a> by lawyers buried under crushing caseloads.</p>
<h2>Necessary but not sufficient</h2>
<p>Law students learn by the end of their grueling first year that trials alone are not effective mechanisms for addressing complex social and political problems. </p>
<p>Yet landmark trials are important. Legal proceedings are opportunities to articulate and reinforce American ideals around equality and justice and to expose bias and unfairness. They calibrate and restrain state power, test the merit of legal claims and create a public record. </p>
<p>Trials are an official public rendering of guilt or liability. Without them, the United States would lose much of the law’s ability to inspire and call attention to social change.</p>
<p>But as the Brown and Gideon cases show, legal decisions grounded in constitutional ideals of equality and justice do not automatically lead to an individual or collective moral reckoning.</p>
<p>Implementing the aspirational ideals set forth in landmark verdicts requires legislation, systems design, negotiation, collaboration, dialogue, activism and education. </p>
<p>Legal alternatives, too, such as restorative justice – which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/opinion/metoo-doesnt-always-have-to-mean-prison.html">provides both perpetrators and victims with alternative routes to accountability and healing</a> – increasingly are recognized as crucial tools for managing individual disputes and moving society toward
greater justice.</p>
<h2>Assessing the Chauvin trial</h2>
<p>The legal proceedings around George Floyd’s murder aren’t actually over yet. </p>
<p>Still to come are the prosecution of the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/grand-jury-indicts-four-former-police-officers-george-floyds-death-2021-05-07/">other Minneapolis officers present at Floyd’s killing</a> and a federal civil rights case against Chauvin and his fellow officers. There will likely be an appeal process, too; legal verdicts can be overturned. </p>
<p>Ultimately, however, the meaning of the Chauvin murder trial within the larger context of the struggle for racial justice will depend, in part, on how people outside the courtroom respond to calls for reform. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408424/original/file-20210625-24-c55j62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large crowd celebrates the Chauvin verdict outside Cup Foods in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408424/original/file-20210625-24-c55j62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408424/original/file-20210625-24-c55j62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408424/original/file-20210625-24-c55j62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408424/original/file-20210625-24-c55j62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408424/original/file-20210625-24-c55j62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408424/original/file-20210625-24-c55j62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408424/original/file-20210625-24-c55j62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minneapolis residents celebrate the Chauvin guilty verdict at the site of George Floyd’s murder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/large-crowd-celebrates-in-george-floyd-square-following-the-news-photo/1232428939?adppopup=true">Nathan Howard/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This explains why so many <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/trial-over-killing-of-george-floyd/2021/04/20/989335036/finally-america-reacts-to-chauvin-guilty-verdict">people reacted</a> to the Chauvin verdict with relief and also something akin to dissatisfaction. They realized that one guilty verdict, standing on its own, is not enough to address persistent and systemic inequities in the United States.</p>
<p>Police departments and officers, city officials, activists, community members, business owners, state and federal actors – all of these people share collective responsibility for defining George Floyd’s legacy in <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-george-floyds-death-reignited-a-worldwide-movement/a-56781938">modern American history</a>.</p>
<p>Landmark cases are moments in time; legacies unfold over generations. If Americans want safer communities and more ethical policing, the work starts now.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Reynolds does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Even famous Supreme Court rulings like Brown v. Board of Education haven’t necessarily pushed US society forward in a linear direction.
Jennifer Reynolds, Professor of Law, University of Oregon
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/163820
2021-07-03T22:57:32Z
2021-07-03T22:57:32Z
With support for Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad becomes just one of several deans to tweet themselves into trouble
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409536/original/file-20210702-23-unqsqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C6%2C4082%2C3028&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students at Howard University are already calling for Phylicia Rashad's resignation as dean. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/phylicia-rashad-attends-david-makes-man-clips-and-news-photo/1124931798?adppopup=true">David Becker/Getty Images for The Blackhouse Foundation</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For acclaimed actor Phylicia Rashad, July 1, 2021 was the <a href="https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/static/14391/howard-university-announces-legendary-actress-alumna-phylicia-rashad-dean">official first day</a> on the job as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University. But some hoped it would also be her last.</p>
<p>The day before, Rashad had sent out a <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/howard-university-phylicia-rashads-cosby-tweet-lacked-sensitivity/">controversial Tweet</a> in support of her onetime “TV husband,” Bill Cosby, after a court <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/arts/television/bill-cosby-conviction-overturned-why.html">overturned his sexual assault conviction</a>. “FINALLY!!!!” Rashad wrote in the Tweet. “A terrible wrong is being righted — a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” This prompted <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/phylicia-rashad-bill-cosby-howard-university/">critics</a> and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9748435/Howard-Students-call-Bill-Cosbys-former-star-Phylicia-Rashad-FIRED-supporting-him.html">Howard students</a> to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/phylicia-rashad-faces-calls-step-down-dean-after-bill-cosby-support-1605961">call for her resignation</a>.</p>
<p>Here, George Justice, an English professor and author of “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/how-be-dean">How to Be a Dean</a>,” offers insights on the controversy surrounding Rashad.</p>
<h2>Does Phylicia Rashad have the credentials to be a dean?</h2>
<p>Phylicia Rashad does not have the typical credentials of an academic dean. Most deans have served anywhere from 10 to 30 years as full-time faculty members. They also tend to have served as chair of their department or as an associate dean first.</p>
<p>But Rashad has a wealth of relevant professional experience, which can be as important as academic credentials for a school of fine arts.</p>
<p>Perhaps best known for her role on “The Cosby Show” as Clair Huxtable, Rashad’s Huxtable character was once <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2004/may/09/on-the-tube-she-was-the-mother-of-all-mothers/">voted in a poll</a> as “<a href="https://www.starnewsonline.com/article/NC/20040504/News/605090029/WM">TV mom closest to your own mom in spirit</a>.” Rashad is also <a href="https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/phylicia-rashad">no stranger to college campuses</a>. She has <a href="https://www.drama.cmu.edu/2015/02/20/phylicia-rashad-teaches-master-classes-school-drama/">taught master classes</a> at colleges and universities <a href="https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phylicia-Rashad/">throughout the country</a>. She also served as the <a href="https://news.fordham.edu/inside-fordham/denzel-washington-endows-fordham-theatre-chair-scholarship/">first Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre at Fordham University</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/dean-of-fine-arts-college-of-fine-arts-at-howard-university-2243951620">job description</a> for her current role as dean calls for 15 years of progressively responsible experience in management as well as “political adeptness” and “good judgement.” It also calls for “excellent oral and communication skills,” the ability to “relate well to the college’s diverse constituencies,” and the “inclination to be a visible spokesperson for the college.”</p>
<p>It’s hard to square that with the controversy in which she finds herself enveloped as dean of Howard’s <a href="https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/static/14391/howard-university-announces-legendary-actress-alumna-phylicia-rashad-dean">recently re-established</a> College of Fine Arts. The college is to be <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/howard-university-names-fine-arts-college-after-chadwick-boseman-n1268666">named after Chadwick Boseman</a>, the late “Black Panther” star who is also an alumnus of the school. </p>
<h2>Does your book cover anything close to this controversy?</h2>
<p>My book opens with the famed <a href="https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/higher_education/racial-climate-at-mu-a-timeline-of-incidents-in-fall-2015/article_0c96f986-84c6-11e5-a38f-2bd0aab0bf74.html">2015 campus protests at the University of Missouri</a>, where I taught from 2002-2013 and served as graduate dean from 2011-2013. In that instance, the deans <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-missouris-deans-plotted-to-get-rid-of-their-chancellor/">teamed up</a> to help oust the campus chancellor and university system president for what was seen as their <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/09/the-incidents-that-led-to-the-university-of-missouri-presidents-resignation/">weak response to student protests</a> regarding racism on campus.</p>
<p>Since deans represent the academic aspirations – and integrity – of their faculty and students, they need to speak up on matters of grave importance to the colleges they oversee. Typically, when deans themselves create controversies, particularly those associated with race, gender, sexuality or religion, they resign or are fired.</p>
<p>For example, Sonya Duhe, the newly appointed journalism dean at my home institution – Arizona State University – was fired shortly after she accepted the position in 2020. Her undoing came after she <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/new-asu-journalism-school-dean-under-fire-over-alleged-racist-incidents">Tweeted support for “the good police officers who keep us safe”</a> on “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/arts/music/what-blackout-tuesday.html">#BlackOutTuesday</a>” – a day of protest on June 2, 2020 that followed the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57618356">police murder of George Floyd</a>. The Tweet prompted scrutiny that led to revelations that she had been accused of <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/new-asu-journalism-school-dean-under-fire-over-alleged-racist-incidents">demeaning students of color</a> at her previous institution. Specifically, it was alleged that she would tell them their hair was too curly or their complexion was too dark for them to be “camera ready.” Duhe is reportedly <a href="https://www.wdsu.com/article/former-director-of-loyola-universitys-communication-program-sues-school-paper-university/36468746">suing Loyola and its campus newspaper</a> for publishing a series of articles that portrayed her as racist.</p>
<p>In 2007, the University of California-Irvine withdrew an offer to have Erwin Chemerinsky serve as law dean. Chemerinsky wrote that the offer was rescinded after then-university chancellor Michael Drake told him he was “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/news/la-oe-chemerinsky14sep14-story.html">too politically controversial</a>” for an op-ed he wrote <a href="https://www.latimes.com/la-oe-chemerinsky16aug16-story.html">criticizing a federal regulation for death row inmates</a>.</p>
<p>And Ronald Sullivan, the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/ronald-sullivan-was-fired-harvard-does-it-matter/589471/">first black faculty dean to preside over a dorm at Harvard</a>, was <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/ronald-sullivan-was-fired-harvard-does-it-matter/589471/">fired as dean</a> over his work as a lawyer on behalf of disgraced filmmaker Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein is currently serving <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51840532">23 years in prison</a> for rape and sexual assault. Sullivan retains his position as a <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10870/Sullivan">tenured faculty member</a> in the Harvard Law School.</p>
<h2>Are there any other comparable cases?</h2>
<p>Two recent cases that made national news are those of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/05/18/yale-dean-placed-on-leave-after-writing-about-white-trash-and-other-insulting-comments/">Dean June Chu at Yale</a>, who was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/us/yale-dean-yelp-white-trash.html">suspended and never resumed her position</a> over writing Yelp reviews that suggested “white trash” would particularly like a certain restaurant. Dean Leslie Neal-Boylan of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell was fired, allegedly for an email <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2020/07/02/university-of-massachusetts-nursing-dean-fired-for-saying-everyones-life-matters/">stating “everyone’s life matters”</a> – a variation of a slogan meant as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-so-offensive-to-say-all-lives-matter-153188">critique of the Black Lives Matter mantra</a> – in the wake of the George Floyd murder.</p>
<h2>Do deans have to play by a different set of social media rules?</h2>
<p>Absolutely. Howard released a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CQxLAM-oBBh/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=3ebcb06f-09a0-422e-9dc1-f0edf93d5070">statement</a> after Rashad’s supportive tweet of Cosby saying that “personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University’s policies.” In my experience, that is a highly unusual statement and indicates deference to Rashad that might not be shown to other high-level administrators by their employers. Research has shown that college presidents use social media <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/university-leaders-reach-out-through-social-media/">to bolster their institutions but are afraid of making mistakes</a>.</p>
<p>After backlash to her Tweet, Rashad sent out <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/howard-university-students-and-alumni-are-furious-with-phylicia-rashads-support-of-bill-cosby">another Tweet</a> that stated: “I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth.” Rashad also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/cosby-rashad-apology/2021/07/03/1181d1ec-dc0d-11eb-9bbb-37c30dcf9363_story.html">issued an apology on July 2 for her initial Cosby Tweet</a>, but it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/cosby-rashad-apology/2021/07/03/1181d1ec-dc0d-11eb-9bbb-37c30dcf9363_story.html">has not been enough to assuage some of her critics</a>.</p>
<p>Most deans and other university administrators that I follow have bland social media accounts. Their postings are mostly filled with praise for their institutions and self-praise for the great job they do with students, faculty and the community.</p>
<h2>How does Title IX come into play here?</h2>
<p><a href="https://sites.ed.gov/titleix/">Title IX</a> of the Educational Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination in American higher education. This includes sexual harassment and assault. Most universities, <a href="https://www2.howard.edu/title-ix/officers">including Howard</a>, employ Title IX administrators who advise campus leadership and conduct investigations on campus. <a href="https://dailynorthwestern.com/2020/05/10/sports/new-title-ix-regulations-no-longer-require-mandatory-reporting-in-colleges/">Until 2020</a>, federal law required leaders to be “mandatory reporters” who must pass along any information about possible incidents of harassment. Howard’s policy includes deans in the category of “<a href="http://dev.www2.howard.edu/title-ix/home">responsible employees</a>,” who are “expected” to report incidents to the Title IX office. Many of these incidents at universities relate to sexual matters among faculty and students, often with complicated power dynamics. As a “responsible employee,” and as leader of the School of Fine Arts, Rashad practically and symbolically represents the university’s compliance with Title IX. To her critics, her support of Cosby calls into question her ability to carry out that role.</p>
<p>This is a particularly important issue at Howard, where in 2016 students protested against the university’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/22/howard-u-students-protest-saying-victims-of-sexual-assault-deserve-better-treatment/">perceived inaction over sexual assault on campus</a>.</p>
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<h2>What factors will affect Rashad’s fate?</h2>
<p>As my book describes, her role as dean will involve hiring faculty, attracting students and working with the community. This includes raising funds to support the work of her school and the university at large. Prior to the Cosby controversy, Rashad may have been well-positioned to do these things based on her experiences and stature. But amid <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/phylicia-rashad-draws-critics-and-dismissal-calls-for-defending-bill-cosby/3136773/?amp">calls for her ouster</a>, it remains to be seen whether the strengths she brings to the position will outweigh this controversy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Justice is Principal in Dever Justice LLC, a higher education consulting firm.</span></em></p>
A single Tweet the day before she took over as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University has led to calls for Phylicia Rashad’s ouster. A scholar on college deans weighs in on what’s next.
George Justice, Professor of English, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.