CRIMINALIZATION AND "SOCIAL ABUSE" OF LOWER INCOME AND BLACK AMERICANS
BY BD
Lower
income and Black Americans are two groups that have been consistently focused
on in academic research on crime as harmful and detrimental to the American way
of life - they did not represent the ideal American, with high standards of
living, well-educated and wealthy. These groups are not appreciated like middle
to upper class whites, and are treated poorly by government organizations and
other civilians. Low income Blacks have had it especially bad. A recent example
of this abuse is found nearby in Ida J. Yarbrough Homes in Albany. An
unannounced police drill near these occupied homes caused outrage among the black
residents (Stanforth 2013). This event will be analyzed in this blog post, but
it will be up to the reader for a final decision on what to make of it. Are low
income Blacks being "abused by society," or are issues being exaggerated
and exploited - in essence, is the reverse happening? Are these groups taking
advantage of government groups and the media while their past abuse still
lingers in the publics' mind?
First, we
need to briefly touch on the legacy of this prejudice toward black people in
the U.S. Frederick L. Hoffman's 1896 work Race
Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro started a tirade against
Blacks. Hoffman used statistics to analyze black crime (Muhammad: 35) - mostly
in erroneous ways. Statistics and data analysis were relatively new fields of
the time, and it is difficult to tell if the data were manipulated to show what
Hoffman wanted, or if he truly believed what he produced was 100% accurate.
Statements were made, such as - Blacks having "proclivity to disease and
death," higher death rates, and younger average age of death (Muhammad:
44) - which led to further hatred.
Now that
we know about some of the data that fed discriminatory behavior against Blacks,
we can take a closer look at the Ida J. Yarbrough incident. This is a low
income, majority-black area (Coopercenter 2013). Residents brought up the issue
of hosting an unannounced police drill in their neighborhood during a community
meeting. Families were woken up to shattering glass, flash grenades, and blank
ammunition shots. Fake blood and spent shell casings were left behind at the
exercise site. Thurston Gross even claims police threatened to arrest him for
trespassing when he attempted to return home during the drill (Stanforth 2013).
These police drills are unarguably necessary in order to save lives, and it is
brought to question whether that justifies the inconveniences this neighborhood
went through. Both sides of this issue seem to agree on one point - there
should have, at the very least, been a notification this was happening. Was
this area chosen because of the group that lives there? Personally, I think the
area was picked based on vacancy, and when officials saw the surrounding residents,
they approved the drill. Blacks are no longer considered a race inherent to
crime, as Franz Boas' 1905 article mitigated that argument (Muhammad: 99).
Perhaps now the lingering memories of a time when the general population
believed them to be sub-human cause these judgment lapses. The social norm is
anti-racism, so I believe if racism was any part of this, it was unintentional
and stemmed from our culture's history.
Stanforth,
Lauren. 2013. "Anger over unannounced police drill." Times Union. March 26, 2013. Accessed September 23, 2013. http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Anger-over- unannounced-drill-4382297.php.
Stanforth,
Lauren. 2013. "Police training exercise draws criticism." Times Union. March 25, 2013. Accessed September 23, 2013. http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Training- exercise-draws-criticism-4379839.php
Muhammad,
Khalil Gibran. 2010. The Condemnation of
Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of
Modern Urban America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Coopercenter.
2013. "The Racial Dot Map: One Dot Per Person for the Entire U.S."
Accessed September 2013. http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html.
This was a very interesting read and I am definitely a little surprised that this happened. This drill may have been necessary in order to save lives, but as you said, the residents should have been notified. Why would the police run this huge drill without having the courtesy to tell the people that lived there that it was going to happen? I am not sure that race played any part in this. It seems like that may be a little bit of a stretch to assume that that would be the case. However, it is possible that race played a role in the police's decision because even in today's world, there is still plenty of racism and discrimination that occurs in everyday life. Although this police drill was unfair to the people that lived in these homes, it is unlikely that the police were intentionally discriminating.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you used the statistics presented in "The Condemnation of Blackness" in order to prove your point about race no longer being an automatic link to crime like it once was. What I got from reading the Times Union articles about the Ida J. Yarbrough incident was that there had to have been a massive judgement on the part of the Albany Police Department and some sort of breakdown in communication to allow for the drill to be executed in such a fashion. I would like to believe that there is no longer racial tension between police forces and African Americans, but incidents like this one make me question that belief. However, at the end of the day I do not think the location was chosen based on who was living near the building as opposed to the fact that there was an abandoned building that could be utilized for vital training.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this incident was troublesome for many surrounding residents, the widespread criticism and response to the police drill fills me with optimism for the direction society is headed toward. The fact that minority residents were able to publicly complain and condemn the situation reflects the anti-racism social norm you mentioned because the media allowed and encouraged their voices to be heard. One hundred years ago, I do not believe this event would have received the same magnitude of publicity simply because the majority of society would not find it unusual or troubling. Now that this minority group has both an outlet to speak in and an audience that will actually listen, I am confident that we can continue to move towards greater equality.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading about the unannounced police drill near the Ida J. Yarbrough homes, a few similar questions were raised as to whether the police chose to inconvenience the residents of this neighborhood due to their race or their low socioeconomic status. Even though doing these drills is imperative, I think that the location was chosen with the knowledge taken into account that a) the people living in this neighborhood are poor and b) they are indeed African American. A rich White suburban neighborhood would never be inconvenienced like this. At the end of this article the author points out that it is not racism that caused this particular place to be chosen, but it is the lingering memories of history that cause these "judgment lapses". Although this may be true, it is also a bit contradictory, because if their judgment is still being influenced by history, then there is still prejudice and racism.
ReplyDelete