Arguments Against Racism Today

There is no question that police brutality, when it occurs, is one of the most egregious violations of public trust that a public servant can commit. Police officers, those individuals taxed with protecting the public from danger, should never be in a situation where they pose a threat to the public. Furthermore, there is no question that police brutality occurs. Moreover, generally when there are allegations of police brutality, there has been some type of underlying violent incident. In addition, while issues of brutality may seem clear-cut to a disinterested observer, it is critical to keep in mind that law enforcement officers are not presented with textbook examples of the appropriate or inappropriate use of force, but real-life scenarios involving quick decisions. There are many arrest and non-arrest scenarios where officers need to use force to protect self or others; and the degree of force required may be greater than what a disinterested observer would assume. Another recurrent issue in debates about police brutality is that racial bias appears to be a motive behind police brutality. When one considers that minorities are disproportionately likely to be arrested and convicted of crimes, one would expect to find a disproportionate number of minorities among those alleging police brutality. Therefore, while acknowledging that police brutality, when it occurs, is a serious problem, the reality is that most

The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)

Chapter 4 in The Color of Justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America, was about the relations between society and law enforcement officers. This has been a major topic, especially in the United States for a long time. The unfortunate statistic that minorities are more likely to encounter being killed, arrested, and victimized by excessive physical force; has been a real issue even in today’s society. However, police departments are trying to combat the way police officers interact with the community; especially those of color. Although steps have been takes there are still some instances where police aggression happens. With all of the issues that arise between certain minority populated community’s police it is evident that conflict

Racism and police brutality in America” by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson touch upon racism and brutality in America. Their article talks about respecting the cops but they also mention police brutality through stories from people that experienced this. Although Satzewich and Shaffir reached out to people to cops to write about their personal experiences and thoughts about racial profiling, Chaney and Robertson’s article is a stronger source because they used several sources and focus on both sides of the situation.

Police brutality and racial profiling have become one of the most common topics of discussion in the United States today. Both of these things have had a huge impact on the African American population’s everyday lifestyle. There have been many controversial examples of this in just the past two years. Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown and Walter Scott, were all killed during an encounter with a caucasian police officer. Was there a valid reason for the police encounter? Was the victim holding/carrying a weapon? Was the police officer threatened verbally or physically?

It has been many decades since the end of enslaving African-Americans in the United States of America and the laws – since then – have tried to impede discrimination of all kinds especially racial profiling. The debate of racism has never stopped even in January 20th, 2009 when the American nation elected its forty-fourth president of the United States who was the first African-American president in the entire American History. “Racism is over,” many people became very excited and delighted, “America had chosen a black man to lead the nation, there is no more racism.” However, a lot of undesired incidents that occurred after that in many states between white police officers and young African-American individuals have made this concept questionable that it might be tightly related and connected to racism, or in other words, racial bias. In his article “The New Threat: Racism without Racists,” This article was published on the official webpage of the CNN to target a group of people who do not believe that racism still exists, and that it is the main reason behind many crimes committed by police officers against minorities specially the incident of Ferguson, Missouri and the murder of Michael Brown the eighteen-year-old African-American. John Blake enumerates much evidence and quotes many researchers and activists in order to insist that racism has become more natural and impulsive rather than an intended behavior towards minorities. Moreover, this article might target other

In the book, The Color of Guilt and Innocence, the authors compare racism to fear. The authors ponders if “[…] fear [can] cause one to do things he or she would not normally do, for example, fire several rounds from a gun when the first shot undoubtedly incapacitated the suspect […]” (Holbert and Rose 19). This gives support that police brutality is prompted by racism and fear. The officers who have a racist background, stereotype African American citizens and it prompts his or her trigger happy fear. This fear effect acts in an opposite way. African American citizens fear the police with racial actions and cause them to have hatred toward the police. Salim Muwakkil uses William Geller statement when he impeccably says, “‘[r]acist assumptions are built into the very foundation of American policing’ ” (Muwakkil 2). Policing is America is dangerous for both the officers and the minority citizens, especially when the officers lack

An individual who has no knowledge of racism in America may think that once African Americans were given the same privileges as whites, racism would be extinct. This, however, is incorrect because racism is not only alive but thriving. The oppression of the African American community is still relevant today and happening everywhere. Where slavery and Jim Crow laws were banned, the war on drugs and mass incarceration of African Americans were created. It is evident “in the inner cities that the vast majority of young black men are either under the control of the criminal justice system or branded criminals for life” (Graff 126). The problem of mass incarceration ties into one of today’s other most pressing ethical issues concerning the African American community - police brutality. Mike Brown, Freddie Gray, and Tamir Rice are just a few of the many names that come to mind when one thinks of police brutality and the African Americans. The ethical issue of police brutality is very muddled because each case must be treated singularly, thus to not automatically blame the incident on racism. Although the “police are meant to protect and serve all United States citizens, for too many minority communities, police have become a source of fear, quick to resort to physical violence” (Onyemaobim 162). It may be, however, that with an increasing number of these incidents in recent years,

There has always been a common assumption from the police and society that minorities, primarily African Americans, are associated with criminal activity, in turn causing police brutality today. When the news report shows a police officer hitting a black man who was suspected of a crime, there are many people quick to point out police officers as racists. Usually, the police officers would say something along the lines of, “He attacked first and would not comply,” or “I thought he had a gun.” Now in some scenarios, this may be true as the suspect might have tried to fight back but most of the time, it is not. Many police officers in these cases try to make up lies to get out being known as a racist. Thankfully, there are many witnesses and

Numerous people claim that many police brutality cases, such as the Michael Brown case, the Trayvon Martin case, or the Tamir Rice case, are the result of racist officers. It is true that in some police brutality cases, racism towards the victim is apparent. Especially earlier in the 20th century and before, when many people were prejudiced against blacks, and other ethnic minorities. But more often than not, police brutality cases are not racist, even if the officer is white and the victim is a minority. Every case of police

Do you still think that racism is a thing of the past? In August of 2012, The New York Times did brief audio interviews with NYC residents across the five boroughs, asking them for their views on the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy.In 2009, more than half a million New Yorkers were stopped, and 87% of them were Black and Latino and in almost 36% of stops, officers did not list an acceptable suspected crime. Finally,In 2010, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that African Americans receive 10% longer sentences than whites through the federal system for the same

These people are correct in a sense; loud and public acts of racism are no longer prevalent in the US as they were in the past. However, today racism is stealthy and unspoken, and often deftly covered up with fabricated cover stories to legitimize the discrimination. This new breed of racism is perhaps even more difficult to fight against than its more egregious past self; its subtlety allows its perpetuators to claim ignorance of any discrimination, and its lack of media attention lulls Americans into complacence and acceptance of the current system. Further disturbing is the prevalence of “covert racism”, also commonly called “subconscious racism”. Many white Americans may actively stereotype and discriminate against blacks without even being aware of their actions and thought processes (BlackYouthProject). This phenomenon is a sad consequence of being raised a subtly racist society which perpetuates discrimination, even if never openly. Many subconscious racists may also be unwittingly subscribing to “symbolic racism”. In J.H. Moore’s book Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, Henry Sears characterizes symbolic racism as the endorsement of four specific beliefs:

Over 200 Africans Americans have been assassinated by police officers in the year 2016, and this year isn’t even over yet. But, despite all of the protests, America still hasn’t done enough to stop this injustice. Athletes, including NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, have found a new protest that might bring attention to the discrimination by refusing to stand for the national anthem. This is what we must do to show America the abuse and realize that we need to do better as a nation. African American people have been oppressed for hundreds of years and although it has gotten better, they are still being discriminated against to this day. One of the amendments was ‘all men should be treated equal’ and we are not living up to that amendment. Even veterans and military personnel believe that if this is what we must do, then we should do it. Therefore, these athletes should continue their protesting.

Racism is a prominent social issue that has existed for decades. However, incidents such as the shooting of Michael Brown, the deaths of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice have brought the issue of racism back into the light. Today, this issue is a national focus among both black and white communities. In the midst of these massacres, many white people argue that segregation no longer exists and that the life of an unarmed twelve year old African American boy was not lost because of his skin color. Yet, those who are constantly experiencing redundant confrontations with the police because of their race argue differently. It is often voluntary ignorance that causes a white person to argue that it’s okay for a black person or Latino to get stopped by the police if they look “suspicious”.

As the 2008 presidential election proceeded to break racial barriers in America, many people have come to believe that racism in America no longer exists since we now have a Black president. However, This could not be anything further from the truth. When many people think of racism, they think of blunt discriminatory actions made against people of color. Thoughts of segregation and the Ku Klux Klan probably come to mind when people envision what racism may look like. Since many of this is now considered illegal or less evident in today’s society, many people may believe that racism is no longer a major issue. Racism in today’s society, however, is constructed differently. Robert M. Entman notes that American society has changed from “traditional to modern racism” (206). Modern racism is more complex within our political and social systems. So how does racism still exist you ask? Racism still exists in our society because minorities remain to be the largest group of people who are unemployed, disadvantaged in their ability to obtain a decent education, and misrepresented by the media.