Racism and Police Violence

Cant you just shoot them? Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump in response to Black Lives Matter racial justice protesters exercising their lawful First Amendment rights, Summer 2020

The epigraph above reflects one prominent, old white mans longing for the good old days when white police officers in the United States could hurt or even kill minority members in general and African Americans in particular with impunity. Unfortunately, this view is still shared by far too many white Americans, including law enforcement authorities, who believe that the republic was founded on a white supremacist ideal that should remain firmly in place regardless of the Bill of Rights and Fourteenth Amendment. In order to determine the facts, the purpose of this paper is to 1) provide a review of the relevant literature to determine the antecedents of racism in general and among police officers in particular including statistical data, 2) to identify the current status of racism and police violence in the United States and 3) to describe what efforts are underway to address this nationwide problem. Finally, the conclusion of the paper is used to provide a summary of the research and key findings concerning the foregoing issues.

Antecedents of racism in the United States

It is impossible to completely erase the lingering legacy of 400 years of slavery in the United States or the Civil War that was fought to end the peculiar institution. Indeed, the Confederate States were founded on the fundamental belief that slavery was the proper station for black people, and many Southerners even maintained that slavery was good for them since it introduced them to Western civilization and the salvation in the afterlife that was promised by Christianity. Few black people, then or now, would agree with this view but the stereotypes that were forged during the early years of the American experiment would have long-lasting implications for the countrys race relations through the years.

In fact, enduring and powerful stereotypes about black people have led some authorities to believe that it is impossible for white people to grow up in America without being racist, at least to some extent, and white reaction to the introduction of critical race theory simply scares the bejabbers out them, even if they do not know exactly why. In this regard, Johnson and Lecci (2020) emphasize that, There is evidence that stereotype-related beliefs play a central role in the racist treatment of Black Americans (p. 753). While this observation is fairly intuitive, it does underscore the main antecedents of racism in the United States today.

Although some especially egregious stereotypes about black people have faded somewhat in recent years, these and other misguided beliefs among white people about blacks have resulted in generations of African Americans being subjected to second-class citizen treatment by the general population and law enforcement officers alike. For example, according to Johnson and Lecci (2020), Race identity theorists have shown that perceptions of acting Black include negative stereotypes such as talking Black, having a ghetto mentality, dressing Black (e.g., sagging pants), and...…addressing the use of violence by the countrys law enforcement authorities. In this regard, the statisticians at Statista note that, While Black Lives Matter has become a controversial movement within the U.S., it has brought more attention to the number and frequency of police shootings of civilians (People shot to death by U.S. police 2017-2022, by race, 2022, para. 6). Other national and international organizations that have been formed or have refocused their efforts on police violence in the United States include Amnesty International, the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund, Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, among numerous others (Organizations Addressing Police Accountability and Racial Justice, 2022). Taken together, it is clear that police violence has become an issue of concern for all Americans, and white supremacy- or stereotypically based racism has no place in the nations law enforcement community.

Conclusion

Hate and racism are not against the law, but when these beliefs are acted upon by the police in ways that involve violence, they become criminal acts. De facto segregation was practiced in the United States well into the second half of the 20th century, and some places in the country remain virtually white-only enclaves, even though sundown towns are no longer advertised as such. Against this backdrop, it is little wonder that racism and violence have infiltrated the nations law enforcement ranks since they are a sociological mirror of the larger population. Nevertheless, things are changing and some progress is being made; however, it is reasonable to conclude that it…