The Mere Presence Of Black And White Faces

Like so many people, Brent Staples was judged based on ethnicity and gender. Brent Staples, an African American man, has been mistaken for a criminal countless times because of his race. The first time this happened, he scared a young white women when he turned the corner at night, and she ran off, convinced that he was “a mugger, a rapist, or worse.” Brent shares instances of people locking their car doors or crossing the street when he walked by, but he says he can’t blame them, as “young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of… violence.” He discusses his childhood in Chester, Pennsylvania where there is “gang warfare, street knifings, and murders” that many of his friends and family have gone to prison or been killed over. He mentions two extreme situations in which he is mistaken for a burglar and tells the story of a journalist mistaken for the killer he was reporting on. Brent Staples makes it clear that these occurrences are continuous and common, and so he has had to make changes to accommodate for these terrified white people in public places by, for example, whistling classic music at night. The point he is trying to make with this article is that Caucasians have some common misconceptions about African Americans, often assuming they are all criminals, even though Brent has clearly illustrated himself as “one of the good boys.”

Over the years, there have been numerous cases of African-American men being shot and killed by white police officers. According to many of these police officers, it was just a rapid decision to pull the trigger. Correspondingly, implicit biases have resulted in these ideologies, making African-American men seem more violent than white men. In fact, there are many studies that demonstrate how police officers are affected by implicit biases. For example, a study had college students play a computer game where the objective was to shoot dangerous armed

There are large racial disparities in incarceration and related detainments for African Americans. They are more likely to be under the supervision of the Department of Corrections than any other racial or ethnic group (H.West, Sabol, & Greenman, 2010). Institutional racism is believed to be the reason why African Americans, especially males, are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. On balance, the public believes that discrimination against black people is based on the prejudice of the individual person, correlates to the discrimination built into the nation’s laws and institutions (Pew’s Research Center, 2017). This belief is actually supported through several experimental studies that provide evidence that African Americans are to be seen as more criminal and threatening than others thus more likely to be arrested or even shot (Greenwald, Oakes, & Hoffman, 2003). Racism within the criminal justice system very much exists and is still relevant.

Stereotypes are born from fear and ignorance. They are used to wrongly judge an individual or group. Brent Staples, a black man, is no stranger to this. “Black Men and Public Space,” written by Staples, he discusses his experiences as a black man; often being mistaken as a criminal because of his appearance. Most people see his universal identity and not who he really is. Living in the city of Chicago as a black man, he is frequently categorized as a thug or aggressor. The purpose of his essay is to inform the readers about how it feels to be the one who is stereotyped, as well as to express his discontent of being type casted. As a result of the negative stereotypes involving black men, Staples has the capacity to negatively alter the space he is in by causing others to fear him. Equivalently, many people also fear cops because of the stigma they have. Because of this, the police negatively impact the space they are in. In the article, “What Happens When Black People Learn They Should Fear the Police”, Jesse Singal discusses how police brutality has affected the black community’s trust in the police.

Starting off, this will show a comparison between white and black crimes, based on facts from the website for the Federal Bureau of Investigations. All statistics throughout this research paper, are from 2012, and have been collected from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Department of Justice, and multiple news organizations. The data collected from these different agencies has been analyzed and put into it’s best format to fit what is being asked in this topic. All sources have been checked out, and found that they are not biased toward any of the races discussed in the article. Some crimes are committed by whites at a higher rate than other races, although these results that have been gathered to complete this paper could show that African

Another common negative stereotype, establishes the African American male as intellectually inferior. Studies directed by psychologist Claude Stale, indicate that African American teenagers are aware that they are stigmatized as being intellectually inferior and the go to school bearing what psychologist Claude has called a “burden of suspicion” Such burden can affect their attitudes and achievements. These shadows hang over stigmatized people no matter their status or accomplishments. These stigmas have the potential to roll them of their individually and debilitate their attempts to break out of the stereotypical roles. Blacks are the repository for the American fear of crime. Ask anyone, of any race, to picture a criminal and the image will have a black face. The linked between blackness and criminality it’s routinized by terms such a “black-on-black crimes” or “black crimes”.

The racial stereotyping of minority groups is a prevalent problem within the United State’s criminal justice system. It is a regrettable issue which permeates American society. The young Black male, in particular, is often portrayed as a criminal based on incorrect assumptions regarding who perpetrates crime. There are several components contributing to the criminal stigma of Blacks. The way crime is conveyed by American culture is possibly as important as how crime actually functions. The widespread belief that Black males commit the majority of crime skews the view society’s perception of Blacks. Typifications of Black males include a violent, threatening, thug-like character. The connection between race and crime is so deeply seeded in

Racial Bias and Automatic Response in the Misidentification of WeaponsOn March 18th, 2018 Sacramento police officers shot and killed 22-year-old Stephon Clark in the backyard of his grandmother’s house after mistaking his cellphone for a gun. The fatal shooting of Stephon Clark is just one of many incidences where unarmed black men have fallen victim to implicit racial biases. When police officers are pressured to make split second decisions their unconscious biases toward black men becomes present and influences their judgement against black men whom they suspect to be armed with guns but are in fact unarmed. With today’s technological advancements and the media’s ability to reach a large population of people there is greater awareness of

Imagine being an African American and you see the police in your rearview mirror, is your first reaction fear and anxiety? Imagine being a Caucasian and you see an African American hooded male walking quietly behind you. Is your first reaction fear and anxiety? In both of these cases, the person who is targeted is African American. An understanding of where these feelings stem from could change the feelings in the future. Due to the stigma that black men are all thieves, robbers , and criminals, they are more likely to be targeted by the police. If that stigma was magically erased and people stopped viewing Blacks as criminals, the world would be much more peaceful. This can be done merely through education,telling the truth about blacks and less assumptions. This idea derives from Brent Staples’ “Black Men and Public Space” (Revelations 167) and Meta Carstarphen’s “Black Versus Blue: Time for a Cease-Fire?” (Revelations 185).

The incarceration rate for African Americans is higher than that of Caucasians and has been that way for years. The Blumstein study conducted in 1982, found a disproportion between black and white incarceration rates of seven-to-one (Hawkins & Hardy, 1989). The inequality of incarceration rates within criminal justice lingered. Authors of State and County Incarceration Rates: The Direct and Indirect Effects of Race and Inequality, Thomas Arvanites and Martin Asher, stated that the white majority feels threatened by nonwhite minorities because they believe they are more involved in crime. Blacks were seven times more likely to be incarcerated than whites in 1993. Due to these facts, “cultural conflict theorists argue that law enforcement

In the television show The First 48, which is promoted as being an authentic form of reality television, the depiction of blacks as criminals is evident. In most cases, it is a black person who is suspected, accused and arrested for a crime; although, one might argue the show does its job to follow along with the calls received and crimes reported, the overrepresentation of blacks relative to the population numbers is evident. Ardis C. Martin, in an Academic Psychiatry Journal, writes, “People develop conceptions about the world as a result of repeated exposure to consistent and repetitive images in the media.” In watching The First 48, it is no surprise why a white consumer would come to the realization that all blacks are deviant criminals, while a black consumer would be susceptible to being a criminal because of a media that has already defined him or her by the color of his or her skin.

White Americans, who make a big share of policymakers, criminal equity professionals, the media, and the overall population, overestimate the extent of felonies perpetrated by ethnic minorities and the extent of racial minorities who carry out unlawful acts. Indeed, even people who condemn bigotry regularly harbor unconscious and accidental racial inclinations. Researchers before 2010  focused their studies on a how African Americans were perceived and how they were treated differently . Maxwell in his work entitled “The Impact of Race on the Adjudication of Sexual Assault and Other Violent Crimes” focuses on how white Americans are treated fairly compared to black litigants and Brennan’s work entitled “Depictions Of Female Offenders In Front-Page Newspaper Stories: The Importance Of Race/Ethnicity” depicts how black offenders  have a negative image. Whereas the research that was conducted after 2010 focused on actual cases , how  the legal system is stacked up against them and uses those cases to show the flaws of the system and what needs to be fixed. The works of  Morrison, Mike, Amanda DeVaul-Fetters, and Bertram

Differential involvement among African-Americans for violent crimes accounted for over 40% of prison populations and 80% of the disproportionality between black and white incarceration rates (Bloom, 1982). Blumstein (1982) further identified that the exploitation of crime-type specific racial distributions at arrest and in prison indicates, that as the seriousness of the offense decreases, blacks are disproportionately represented in prison (p. 1280). Blumstein (1982) suggested that racial disproportionality alone does not suggest discrimination but rather the life conditions that contribute to the different involvement between the races in serious person crimes (Harris, et. al, 2009).

When examining the crime rate amongst white and black Americans, the latter usually tends to receive negative connotation, yet the article “In Search of White Crime” challenges that notion. The article presents a valid argument that creates an alternative to the mainstream idea that black is deemed tainted and white pure. Though it is believed by the majority of Americans that crime in the black communities is highest when compared to whites, crime and incarceration rates for whites are exceptionally higher than the black population. The article explains the major differences in numbers between whites and blacks in correlation to crime and makes it clear that the world’s perception on black crime is highly

African American Criminological Thought was published September 15, 2000 by Helen Taylor Greene and Shaun L. Gabbidon. In this book, there is ten African American criminologists presenting different research studies in regards to many different reasons and possible conclusions as to why crimes are committed by African Americans. For the most part, the criminologists all take an approach on how racism plays a huge role in the criminal activity of African Americans. However, they all have different perspectives on why and how criminal acts come about, but mainly are having the same conclusions from their evaluations at the end of their research and studies. In addition, they try to find ways to decrease blacks’ criminal activity. For