BLOOMINGTON, Indiana — The recent spate of white policemen killing unarmed black men is an all too familiar narrative that accounts for the black-white racial divide in public opinion polling about these acts.
A recent survey undertaken by the Pew Research Center revealed stark racial divisions in reactions. According to the Pew poll, taken in the wake of Michael Brown’s shooting in Ferguson, Mo., 52 percent of whites surveyed had a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in the investigation by the police. Approximately three-quarters of blacks had little or no confidence in the investigations.
Part of this division may stem from the difference in each group’s lived experience. Blacks experience these killings as part of the ongoing assault on black bodies, especially black male bodies, who recall the Reconstruction and Jim Crow-era stereotypes about the black “brute.”
Most white Americans, having no such history and experiencing the police as a protective force, discount the black American narrative and blame blacks for “racializing” these too-frequent events. …
Addressing this dysfunction will not be solved by simply hiring more black police officers, although that must be done. Police culture has to change.
Departments must address the “macho” mentality of many officers by also hiring more women, including minority women. Studies have shown that the presence of women officers tends to de-escalate potentially violent encounters.
Departments must also become transparent in their actions and realize that communities of color want and need their protection, as partners, not as overlords.
To effectively change their attitudes and policies, police need to adopt routines that allow them to respond to African-Americans as potential victims of crime — citizens in need of protection, rather than just suspects.
Viewing African-Americans as a “threat,” irrespective of the circumstances, is a form of implicit racism, shared by the larger society. When practiced by heavily armed police, the consequences may be deadly.
If police feel a heightened sense of danger when they encounter young — and even older — blacks, they may be much more likely to use deadly force. We should welcome the Justice Department’s review of the Ferguson Police Department, along with other police departments suspected of violating citizens’ rights.
After all, black taxpaying citizens want the cops to arrest the bad guys, but they also want them to protect and serve all communities equally — under the law.
Audrey T. McCluskey is professor emerita of African-American & African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University, and Jeannine Bell is professor of law at its Maurer School of Law.