The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

It is undoubtedly apparent that today’s topic is injustice and police oppression of Black American males in our society. I feel so blessed that I was not born a Black male.

In the United States, stereotypes have a long and complicated tradition, with African-American males being the most visibly stereotyped ethnic group (Harpalnai 2017 as cited in Taylor, Guy-Walls, Wilkerson & Addae 2019). If African-American males do not have a personal experience with racism, they often witness it on television, social media, or by hearing the stories of other African-Americans who have had experienced as a result of racism. For me watching these events on television is disturbing and heartbreaking. I often have to change the channel because it gets so unbearable to watch the media coverage of another episode of police brutality.

Since slavery, African-American male stereotypes have been a source of contention in the United States. Race continues to influence how African descendants in the United States are treated by law enforcement (Edwards, 2016). African Americans around the country are aware of and concerned about race-based discrimination of this segment of the population by some members of the police department (Edwards, 2016).

The police practices developed by slavery and the Black Codes in the Deep South shaped the underpinning conceptions of how African-American males should be treated (Bleausa, 2014, as cited in Taylor, Guy-Walls, Wilkerson & Addae 2019 ). During the Civil Rights era, it became public knowledge that African-American males were victims of police brutality, and yet the mysterious uninvestigated deaths “in the line of duty” were publicly acceptable.

The media also plays a role in perpetuating stereotypes of African-American males as violent criminals. Reality-based TV shows demonstrate that White police officers are more likely to employ force against Black and Latino suspects than toward White suspects (Oliver 2003 as cited in Taylor, Guy-Walls, Wilkerson & Addae 2019 ). Although there is often bias in the way in which African-American males are depicted in the media, these reality TV recordings are congruent with what is happening in many communities across the USA. African-American men are the target of mistakenly placed police aggression, which confirms that race plays a role in false assumptions of dangerous individuals (Oliver 2003 as cited in Taylor, Guy-Walls, Wilkerson & Addae 2019).

Until recently with the use of cell phones to capture on the moment harassment such discrimination was not documented. The advent of cell phones with camera and recording capabilities now permits a witness to police-citizen confrontation to quickly capture and disseminate unedited deception of such incidents via social media. This has prompted major media outlets to broadcast questionable police actions and behaviors that otherwise would have gone unreported. Today’s trend of unarmed African American males being killed by police is newsworthy because of videos and public awareness of the real incident.

These prejudices are deeply embedded in American culture, and they often lead to systemic racism. Individuals must begin the process of recodification of stereotypes that are explicitly linked to the unconscious thoughts associated with ethnic groups, particularly African-American males, in order for society to move beyond the subconscious or unawareness of implicit bias.

There is no one intervention that can magically eliminate derogatory perceptions about African-Americans or racism in schools, the workplace, or the legal system. Cultural competency training, on the other hand, maybe a first step toward reducing negative stereotypes and, as a result, certain forms of institutional prejudice. While cultural competency training alone will not be enough to solve the more than 200 years of slavery, oppression, discrimination, and injustices that have contributed to the traumatization of African-American males, it is the first step toward reducing stereotypes and improving sensitivity and cultural awareness. Increasing awareness about the negative impacts of stereotypes on African-American males is an essential first step to increasing social equity.

Other strategies used by some law enforcement departments are not training their officers to see themselves as superheroes attacking bad guys, but a community-rooted police force, and have moved them out of their cars and back to walking the beats (Brooks, 2020).

I think that what most people want is for police to treat them with dignity and give them a voice, an opportunity to clarify their situation before taking action. People really want to know that police officer are genuine, concerned for their community's well-being, and behave in a fair and consistent manner.

References

Brooks, D. (2020, June 16). The culture of policing Is broken:

Brutality and dehumanization are deeply embedded in many departments. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/how-police-brutality-gets-made/613030/

Edwards, C. (2016). Race and the police. Retrieved from https://www.policefoundation.org/race-and-the-police/

Taylor, E., Guy-Walls, P., Wilkerson, P. & Addae, R. (2019, May 7). The historical perspectives of stereotypes on African-American

males. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, (4), 213–225 Retrieved from

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-019-00096-y