What is the most effective way to ensure racial equality in the current

U.S police system?

Amira Aquarian

Senior Project Advisor: Ashley Carruth

Abstract

Racial inequality in all aspects of our criminal justice system is deeply rooted in our
history. These disparities are widespread, well-researched and documented in many ways. This
includes, but is not limited to, social psychology, sociology, criminology, public health, and
political science. This thesis starts by laying out the history behind the creation and formation of
our current U.S police system, using it as a leading path to how we got to where we are today.
There are a multitude of rooted factors behind the racial bias and discrimination in our policing.
The thesis concludes by proposing a selection of solutions that we should dedicate time, money
and resources to implementing throughout the U.S police forces. These include: a regular use of
BWC, practicing truth and reconciliation, reforming the police by training and screening for
implicit and racial bias, offering context to the public, and passing new policies to equalize our
system.

12th Grade Humanities

Animas High School
1 April 2021
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 Part Ⅰ: Introduction

U.S society is one in which it was never a question of crime but rather one of color

(Hamilton). A person is very rarely judged on the content of their character, and judged on the

harsh scale of stereotypes in our noncolorblind world. Since the first days that the Europeans

claimed the “New World'' as theirs, Black, Brown, and Indigenous people have felt the wrath of

systemic violence. The killings of Geroge Floyd and many others in the Black community of

America around the time of spring 2020 violently reminded our nation, and the world, that

racism is still alive. Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests grew rapidly and quickly became one of

the largest political movements in America. 10% of our country's population attended these

protests throughout all 50 states. These protests were effective at changing public opinion on

racism, as well as recent polls show 76% of all Americans now view racism as a “big problem”,

compared to only 50% in 2015 (Souli). With the depth of division within our country finally

coming to light, there is a nationwide call for change (Souli). However, we will require more than

a check, a “Black Lives Matter'' protest sign, slogans, and marches to overcome the historical and

generational trauma (Panne).

Equality is a right for all American citizens that should be honored no matter the

complexion of one’s skin. The discrimination that is deeply rooted in our system has created

distrust and divide in this country. Living in a society where inequality exists has countless

negative effects on all parties. As shown in Part 2, racism has countless damaging social,

environmental and economic effects on all citizens, regardless of race or ethnicity. However,

people of color certainly bear the brunt of these forces. The United States has the resources to

make the change, it is now just a question of political will.

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 Perhaps the most immediate impact that would cultivate significant change would be

within our criminal justice system, also known as the Prison-Industrial Complex. There are

endless amounts of inequality and injustices that run through the entirety of this system, but this

paper will focus on our police’s history and ways in which we have and need to continue to refine

the inner workings of the police system. Specifically, the most effective way to ensure racial

equality in the U.S police system is to increase training and resources around implicit and racial

bias in order to reduce the negative effects of racial bias. Additionally, police need to incorporate

regular use of body-worn cameras as well as work with the media to offer context about this

issue to the public. We also need a society wide approach to a regular practice of truth and

reconciliation.

Part Ⅱ: Historical Context and Background

The tension between the U.S. police and black communities that we see today is not a

new issue. The roots of racism were birthed and developed within our country’s police system

and are historically traced back to a multitude of conditions including the slavery era, Black

Codes and Jim Crow Laws, and how the police were formed.

A note on terminology:
Throughout this paper, the author will use the terms Black and African American
interchangeably. It is believed by some that solely using African American is too limited for
our current population. Although the numbers are diminishing in our country, descendants of
slaves were referred to as African Americans. This term allows the origins and history in the
African and American content to be recognized. We now have more Black people than African
Americans, but it is important to include both identities (Broaddus).

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Part 2.1 - Slavery Era: Police Slave Patrols

In the early 1700s, two of the more daunting building blocks of early policing arose in the

form of slave patrols and night watches (Walker). A platoon made up of white volunteers took

liberty to enforce slave related laws and control the institution of slavery and minorities by using

vigilante tactics in every state that had yet to abolish slavery. These patrols were used to maintain

economic order as well as recover and punish escaped “property” of the wealthy landowners.

They were protected and encouraged to do this by the Fugitive Slave Laws that Congress had

passed in 1793 and 1850. There is a long list of historical events like forceful home entries on

account of suspicions of sheltered escaped slaves, lynch mobs prioritizing the hanging of

minorities before asking questions and the mistreatment of people of color, all of which led to the

progression of racism in our system and lent a hand in the creation and support of the Ku Klux

Klan (KKK) (Kappeler). Starting in the 1860s, this famous group of vigilante Americans were

known for the act of assaulting and lynching Black men for any petty infractions that wouldn’t be

considered a crime had a White man commited them. Although Congress prohibited “state actors

from violating the Civil Rights of all citizens'' (par.3) by passing the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871

(Kappeler), the de facto racial and ethnic abuse continued to persist into the 1960s. This

disastrous legacy has a deeply rooted presence in the police force as seen in the fact that even

after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Blacks continue to be heavily targeted and treated unfairly.

One of the most common ways in which Blacks are seen to be singled out reveals itself in

the form of police harassment. When it comes to police harassment, there are different levels of

cases. In some cases, Blacks were simply stopped and questioned more often than other races,

but other cases had more extreme outcomes including beatings and murders at the hands of white

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police. Connie Hassett-Walker, an Assistant Professor of Justice Studies and Sociology at

Norwich University asserts her stance on the factors that have caused police corruption and

violence as she writes, “In my opinion, these factors – controlling disorder, lack of adequate

police training, lack of nonwhite officers and slave patrol origins – are among the forerunners of

modern-day police brutality against African Americans” (par.13). When investigating the logic

behind this specific form of injustice, it is important to gain an understanding of our history with

the origin of Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws as it serves as one of the building blocks of our

modern day policing.

Part 2.2 - Black Codes/Jim Crow Laws

While the slave patrols were legally prohibited in 1865 after the Civil War, Black Codes

served as a new way to put in place restrictive laws that continued to limit African Americans’

freedom. Although Black Codes existed pre Civil War, southern state governments heavily

enacted them post Civil War. They functioned as a way to ensure African Americans as cheap

labor, when and where they were allowed to work, their voting rights, and how and where they

could travel and live (Walker). These codes often required yearly labor contracts to be signed by

Black people, and if refusals arose, the risk of arrests, fines and unpaid labor were increased.

Thankfully, Congress passed the 14th Amendment in 1868 making Black Codes illegal.

This allowed equal protection through the Constitution for previously enslaved Blacks. However,

it wasn’t long until this shield of African American rights was once again dismantled about 20

years later when the Jim Crow Laws surfaced. These laws legalized racial segregation through a

multide of state and local statutes and lasted from post Civil War until1968, about 100 years.

This included the mandation of separation in public spaces, namely schools, libraries, water

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fountains, parks, restaurants, theaters, waiting rooms in bus and train stations, restrooms,

elevators, building entrances, cemeteries, public pools, phone booths, hospitals, jails, etc. Whilst

being spread across the country, police enforced an abundance of these laws, and if Black men

and women violated said laws, they would endure extreme police brutality.

Interestingly enough, though unfortunately unsurprising, there is a stark contrast between

the ramifications for White crimes against Blacks vs. White crimes in general. In “The Racist

Roots of American Policing: From Slave Patrols to Traffic Stops'', Walker notes the difference in

punishment, or lack thereof, when crimes are committed towards Blacks by Whites: “[...]the

authorities didn’t punish the perpetrators when African Americans were lynched. Nor did the

judicial system hold the police accountable for failing to intervene when black people were being

murdered by mobs'' (par.18). The blunt indifference around these specific injustices displayed by

the judicial system lends itself to curious insight into how the police force itself was formed.

Part 2.3 - How the Police was Formed

As a modern institution in 1829, the police formed under the jurisdiction of Sir Robert

Peel in Metropolitan London. Prior to the “New Police”, the military was used to put an end to

considerable disturbances. With the goal being to avoid any association or similarities to the

military, including the color of their uniforms, Peel emphasized that the police were to be using

persuasion to prevent crime, partnered with his desire of keeping physical force as the last resort.

The citizens came to accept the Metropolitan Police due to these standards he set. This model

system was planted into the U.S. in 1838 starting in Boston, with the additional intention of

protecting the wealthier class’s property. It then spread to New York City in 1845, Albany and

Chicago in 1851, New Orleans and Cincinnati in 1852, Philadelphia in 1855, and Newark, NJ

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and Baltimore in 1857. Municipal policing had found its place in every major city in America by

the 1880s (Potter). On account of still wanting to keep the departments civilian-oriented, they

remained unarmed until after the Civil War. The police then gained access to a surfeit of weapons

that they could use (Winright). Tobias Winright, a Professor of Theological and Health Care

ethics at Saint Louis University, acknowledges that although the U.S. police gained these

resources, there were still surrounding departments that remained under the original jurisdiction:

“Not all police in other nations are armed like American Police, and not all recruits are as

untrained in de-escalation techniques as their U.S. counterparts” (par.6). Unquestionably, our

system had started using different tactics and reasoning within their work.

Simultaneously, in his article “The History of Policing in the United States, Part 1”, Dr.

Gary Potter, a professor for the EKU School of Justice Studies asks the question, “what was it

about the United States in the 1830s that necessitates the development of local, centralized,

bureaucratic police forces?” (par.7). He explores an answer surrounding the idea that the

collection of small cities and rural hamlets were growing and urbanization was occurring. On

account of that, the informal “Watch” and communal “The Big Stick” (private-for-profit

policing) systems weren’t sufficient for overseeing disorder and controlling the frequent crime

and vice. Yet there was still the lack of evidence showing an increased wave of crime. So if not a

response to crime, what was the police force responding to? Disorder. As many other things

though, it is not that simple of an answer. The definition of order in social and public places

largely depends on who is defining the term. For instance, with the interest at hand being social

control rather than crime control, in the 19th century American cities, the mercantile interests

assisted the development of bureaucratic policing institutions through taxes and political

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influence. The commercial elites were in need of an apparatus that served the purpose of creating

a stable and orderly work force, environment for the conduct of business, as well as the

maintenance of the “collective good” (Potter).

Part Ⅲ: Injustices in the Police Systems

Our criminal justice system is one with many faults. As long as America dates back as a

country, so does racial inequalities within our country. The profiling and stereotyping of Blacks

can be seen through all sections of the justice system. But it is undeniable that the police system

is riddled with countless injustices as seen in traffic and pedestrian stops, as well as searches. The

collateral consequences that have settled upon targeted individuals and communities, along with

the police response to this issue has hefty roots. This section will argue that redlining, implicit

and explicit bias, shooter bias, and the ways in which the original police system were formed, are

the bonds linking our system to racial inequality. These factors have allowed for minority groups

to be unjustly controlled, and severely overlooked therefore resulting in the fostering of a

poisonous yet widespread belief and honoring of white supremacy within our society.

Part 3.1 -Racial Inequality within the System

There seems to be two police systems operating in the United States: one for the poor

and/or oftentimes people of color and one for the wealthy and/or white people. Whether it is

conscious or subconscious, our society still tends to see successful and/or wealthy people of

color as if they are less. There are countless blocks and stepping stones put in place that people

of color have to overcome in order to be seen as equals. For example, a rich black man in our

society will oftentimes be subject to the fact that color speaks louder than class. The system

alleges to protect each citizen and honor their constitutional rights, yet in practice, the system

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does otherwise. It is known in social psychology, sociology, public health, criminology, and

political science that many, if not all realms of the police exhibit inequality and the prevalence of

minorities rights (The Sentencing Project). This paper will highlight the disparities shown

through profiling and stereotypes, traffic stops, stop and frisks’ and searches, as well as the police

responses to these situations, and the overarching collateral consequences of crime control.

Section A - Profiling/Stereotypes

Racial profiling can be defined as the suspicion of an offence being commitied or

specifically targeting a person, based on characteristics such as race or ethncity. The act of

profiling and stereotyping a person can often be unintentional. Yet this does not lessen the impact

of linking together the “blackness” of a person's skin and the concept of crime, violence, threat,

and aggression. It is far simpler to stick with the status quo and mold opinions based on evidence

and statistics that fully support portraying Black men to be more dangerous and more likely to be

incarcerated. Hetey and Eberhardt provide the following analysis:

If learning that Black men are 6 times more likely than White men to be imprisoned

triggers the stereotype that Blacks are criminals and criminals are Back, then such

information is no longer concerning on its face. Rather, it becomes expected or even

justified. Motivated to maintain the status quo, people take evidence of what is (such as

the overrepresentation of Blacks in prison) and justify it as how things should be. (185)

The blind spot within these statistics and evidence arises in the deeper-rooted reasoning

for the higher likelihood that a Black man will be detained simply because of the color of his skin

and the stereotypes surrounding it.

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 While the most recent legal effort to encourage racial profiling was the enactment of The

Patriot Act in October of 2001, which worked to discourage and punish terrorist acts, this issue

dates back to its roots within the desires of white slave-owners to control their “property”

(Staples 32). Our history of Whites viewing Blacks as property has created a foundation of

perceived white power and negative racial profiling of people of color as inferior. Robert Staples,

the author of “White Power, Black Crime, and Racial Profiling” centers his agrument around the

idea that “Racial profiling, then, has endured as a tool of white power, systematically activated

and codified into law, and not merely a collection of individual offenses” (32). He then goes on to

discuss racism being partnered with the majority of the white public and criminal justice system

having the willingness to look past logic and focus on racist accusations.

In alignment with these ideologies, studies have shown that the media articulates the

same mindset. It sends a perpetual shower of images out into the public that conveys the

illustration of black criminals and white victims, resulting in the stereotypes already planted in

people's thinking being reinforced. Media can take many forms including, printed media

(newspapers and magazines), television and social media. Individual’s reasoning for viewing

each media can range from wanting to receive news on what is happening locally, statewide and

nationally to wanting entertainment. Yet, it has been proven that no matter the original purpose

behind media consumption, “it has the power to influence public perception on crime, race, and

fear of crime and the way individuals feel about themselves, others, and the world” (Hatter 1). In

her article “How Crime-Based Media Affect Perceptions of Crime, Race, and Fear of Crime”,

Sharonda Hatter analyzes the data from her study to find common themes from all participants:

“The three crime-based media consumption themes were (a) distrust in police officers and law

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enforcement, (b) injustice and inequality, and (c) fear of governmental control. The four personal

lived experience themes were (a) guilty until proven innocent, (b) protect and serve, (c)

community-police relationships, and (d) discrimination” (88). These themes empower the fiction

that the media portrays to reshape people's orientation and behavior. It perceives images and

messages as reality in our society. These reinforced views of color being connected to crime isn’t

subject just to police interactions, it prevails throughout the general public.

When interracial encounters occur, especially with strangers, the treatment Blacks receive

is oftentimes based on negative assumptions solely because of the way we are programmed to

see Black people within our society. Scripts, roles, and stereotypes are fallen back on instantly,

and the doubts of this Black person's claim to decency and middle class status arise (Ray et al

1034). This raises the question of why one should need to claim innocence when others don’t.

And even more importantly, why that Black man who is a total stranger, is crime-prone or a

criminal until proven otherwise. When found in split-second interactions, why and how should

one go about proving themselves in order to avoid racist treatment.

Section B - Traffic Stops, Police Force, Stop and Frisk, and Searches

There are many effects of split second racial profiling, and some are shown through traffic

stops. The veil of darkness hypothesis is an analysis that highlights the proof that traffic stops are

commonly based on race and not the violation of any laws:

An analysis of traffic stops in Connecticut revealed that the disproportionate stopping of

Black and Hispanic drivers was more likely to occur during daylight than intertwilight

hours, suggesting that officers’ racial biases were more likely to affect their actions when

they could better discern the race of drivers. (Kovera 1141)

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 However, this issue is not just confined to the state of Connecticut. Data from 20

additional states from 2011-2015 establishes that racial disparities shown in police stops are not

restrained to a small selection of locations (Kovera). Within the population of people who are to

legally drive, Black drivers are stopped more often than White drivers based on their appearance

and for “investigatory stops” instead of “traffic-safety stops” (The Sentencing Project 5). In

addition to being stopped for such minor offenses, being stopped and frisked on a regular basis is

another common occurrence among the black community.

The stop-and-frisk program was used in the New York Police Department to briefly

detain, question and occasionally search suspects for weapons and other contraband. Stop and

Frisk data and reports of unjustified police force are key for providing evidence that police see

through a lens that is not colorblind. Staples has written extensively about a study conducted by

the Center for Constitutional Rights surrounding the statistics of stop and frisks and brutality

towards Black and Latino people in New York:

[…]more than 80 percent of those stopped and frisked in New York were black or Latino.

Whenever those two groups were stopped, 45 percent were searched compared to 29

percent of whites despite the fact that white suspects were 70 percent more likely than

black suspects to have a weapon. This is mild in comparison to the deaths of an unarmed

black man celebrating on the night of his wedding, another one sitting on a doorstep, a

young black man preparing to attend college, all killed at the hands of police in New York

City(…)Probably the most revealing statistic is, in the same city, twenty black police

officers have been shot by their white colleagues when they were working undercover or

off duty. (Staples 35)

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 Moreover, police officers tended to profile suspects differently depending on which

neighborhood they were patrolling or if they fit a certain demographic profile. As stated through

The Sentencing Project research, “[...] while there is a higher black rate of involvement in certain

crimes, white Americans overestimate the proportion of crime committed by blacks and Latinos,

overlook the fact that communities of color are disproportionately victims of crime, and discount

the prevalence of bias in the criminal justice system” (2-3). This along with the statistic of more

than one in four arrested suspects for drug violations being Black, although rates of drug use are

the same throughout race and ethnicity, provides an example where Blacks are profiled as

suspects to a crime based on race and not evidence.

Even with this information, the highest officials in NYC continued to turn a blind eye to

the exhibition that officers were stopping people in a racially discriminatory manner, until finally,

the NYPD had officially declared their stop-and-frisk policy unconstitutional in 2013 (The

Sentencing Project). From 2003 to 2013, around 100,000 stops were made yearly. Reaching the

highest number yet, of 685,724 stops in 2011, this program finally became a racial profiling

controversy. In 2017, the data indicated that 90% of people stopped were either African

American or Latino. And under further analysis, it was found that 70% of those were later found

innocent (NYPD). Comparatively, “54.1% of the population of New York City in 2010 was

African-American or Latino; however, 74.4% of individuals arrested overall were of those two

racial groups” (NYPD). Data collected about stop-and-frisks shows that Blacks are often more

targeted, yet whites are more likely to produce a result. Therefore, searches of minority groups

are often unsupported.

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 If a police officer has reason to suspect that there is inherent danger, or a weapon is

hidden, some believe that they should be able to conduct searches. This includes patting a

suspect down on the streets, or looking through one's car. The disproportionate rates of innocent

and empty handed blacks pulled over or stopped on the street stands as evidence that officers'

suspicions are often simply based on profiling. If these searches warranted an extreme difference

in minority groups being in possession of contraband or illegal items in comparison to Whites,

there would be fruitful reasoning for them, but there is not, so it in turn, is racial bias (Kovera

1142).

Similarly, racial bias along with bad temper, insecure masculinity and other individual

characteristics have been identified factors of why excess force is used by police officers (Peeples

par.10). There are five elements of force that can be used: weapons, weaponless tactics,

restraints, motions, and voice (Garner and Maxwell 35). The following example presents

excessive use of weapons against Blacks compared to Whites, “Based on information from more

than two million 911 calls in two US cities, he concluded that white officers dispatched to Black

neighbourhoods fired their guns five times as often as Black officers dispatched for similar calls

to the same neighbourhoods” (Peeples par. 9). When taking into consideration why there is a

higher chance of police using force against minorities compared to whites, there are multiple

competing hypotheses. Kovera considers the following proposition: “Blacks are more likely than

Whites to live in racially segregated, impoverished neighborhoods with higher crime rates, which

could lead to more aggressive policing in their neighborhoods, Yet, racial disparities in use of

force are greater in racially segregated than desegregated communities” (1142).

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 In some cases the physical location of a suspect or crime can be used as an alibi for

excessive police force. However, this is not always the circumstance. The correlation between

police force and location is a viable argument in some cases, but this same force is demonstrated

in other areas where your location can not be used as an excuse for the excess amount of

differences in racial treatment. Statistics from upstate New York lend a hand in proving that

location can not be used as an excuse for racial disparities in policing: “Hispanics were five times

more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession in New York City than were Whites. Rates of

drug offending, nondrug offending, or residence in neighborhoods in which the police focus on

drug offending did not explain racial disparities in arrests for drug-related offenses'' (Kovera

1144). However, additional experimental studies have shown that there is, yet again, a similar

situation where the risk of an unarmed Black man being shot by mistake is much higher than an

unarmed White man, therefore, introducing the phenomenon of the shooter bias (Kovera 1143).

Kristin Dukes and Kimberly Kahn, in their article “What Social Science Research Says

about Police Violence against Racial and Ethnic Minorities”, examine the impact of “police

personality” surrounding this issue. With the centralization around the right-wing

authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), Dukes and Kahn make a

correlation between these two traits, racial bias, and their relation to force used by police officers.

RWA and SDO can be defined as such:

RWA is a tendency to adhere to authority figures, engage in aggression toward out-group

members when sanctioned by authority figures, and support traditional values endorsed

by authority figures. Relatedly, SDO is the degree to which a person desires to see their

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 in-group as dominant over other out-groups, combined with a willingness to endorse

beliefs that support the subjugation of out-groups. (Dukes and Kahn 693)

Dukes and Kahn argue that police officers that present these types of personality traits

have the odds of being more prone to violently targeting racial minorities (693).

Section C - Collateral Consequences of Crime Control

While the odds that police with the specific personality traits tending to be more violent

are high, the addition of policing within segregated black communities oftentimes fortify

instances of racial profiling and excessive police force. This combination cultivates an extremely

difficult experience in a variety of ways for those that live in segregated neighborhoods. The

effects of race and poverty disricmination is heavily felt by the population of the poor, young,

and hyper segregated black communities. Smith claims, “for blacks, everyday life achievements

take longer, require more effort, and impose greater financial and psychic costs'' (472).

Unlike imprisoned whites who experience the individual effects, the stigma placed on

incarcerated blacks spread to entire communities. The fear of crime on account of the revolving

door of prison has settled within. This has caused family relations to be detached, a lack of felt

justice from the system, and the sense of social exclusion from things such as schools (Smith).

The Sentencing Project encompassed a similar idea, but with the additional observation

around the difficulties surrounding the reentry into society for people with criminal records.

These obstacles include: securing steady employment, housing, having access to the social safety

net along with federal student aid, and exercising their right to vote. Even with the statistic that

employers are often 50% less likely to call back an applicant who is white and has a history of

incarceration than those without, is it proven in the research conducted by Devah Pager that

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whites who have a criminal record are favored over blacks who do not have any criminal records

(9-10).

These impacts have caused negative consequences on minorities' overall health. There

have been proven links to physical health issues including: hypertensions and increased risk of

cardiovascular disease, in addition to risky behaviors such as smoking and alcohol use. Similarly,

it can also cause higher levels of psychological distress, depression, and overall lower levels of

happiness and life satisfaction (Dukes and Kahn 693).

Section D - Police Response

While the government relies on the police force to take care of problems surrounding

poverty and racism, they have inadvertently become the main source of racial tensions as well as

the governing force behind the ways in which the law is enforced. In other words, they have been

given the power to enforce the law in whichever way they see fit regardless of the inclusivity of

corruption, manipulation or a bad moral compass. A multitude of departments have officers

overlook certain crimes in addition to demanding money in return for protection of businesses as

well as taking money and drugs seized from criminal suspects (Staples). Using the example of

Henry Louis Gates Jr., Staples argues that instead of the reasonable expectation for police to

screen for potential bias, the 911 transcript of this scenario proposes that the Cambridge police

did the opposite. Similar to many cases, their initial reactions were to interpret and steer the data

received from the witness to support a thesis of black crime. He then concludes:

Gate’s arrest punctuated the episode in the same way so many of the police brutality and

profiling cases above ended: with police power and excessive force controlling and

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 suppressing not an actual crime or threat, but a black man’s resistance to being profiled

and his questioning the judgement of the police. (Staples 37, 38)

As multiple instances have shown, the police force as a whole is almost guaranteed to see

a case involving a black suspect through a tainted lens. A lens that is purposefully blind to the

idea that racial bias is a problem that needs to be addressed within themselves but rather a

problem that is subject solely to the black existence.

Part 3.2 - Root Cause Analysis

Perhaps the most rampant complication that fosters the maltreatment of the Black

community by our policing system can be tied to the blocks that we have built upon. Think of it

this way, when growing a tree, you start not just from the ground up but with its very roots. The

issues that have risen in our current U.S policing system are deeply rooted and have stemmed

from decades upon decades worth of racism and discrimination towards minority communities.

Racism and discrimination serve as the roots of our unjust system and although they have grown

into different branches, they all tie into the same tree trunk. The evidence that racial disparities

not only exist in our system but also carry a significant amount of weight in our society is clear to

anyone willing to look closely.

Section A - Crime Rates and Redlining

Some people might ask if the treatment that Blacks receive is considered fair based on

their supposed high amounts of crime compared to Whites. Evidence can quickly oppose this

argument and prove that the issue is rather one of unequal racial differences in treatment. For

instance, Ray el al. provide the following study results:

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 Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation demonstrates that the reason for blacks’

higher likelihood of being killed by police is not due to a higher tendency of blacks to

commit crime. First, violent crime has significantly decreased since the 1990s despite

police killings increasing. Second, data shows that blacks, compared to whites, are less

likely to be fighting the police or have a gun at the time they are killed by police. (1034)

This allows us to draw the conclusion that black people aren’t simply more prone to crime.

Similarly, class can also be a factor. Our system focuses on imprisoning the poor and powerless.

The difference in who goes to jail and who doesn’t because of petty crime such as “littering,

vagrancy, substance abuse, writing a bad check,” etc., sets aside the category of crime and

highlights the race and class of a person (Staples 34).

Our country’s history of redlining, which has played a leading role in residential

segregation in communities, also contradicts the idea that Blacks are more inclined to commit

criminal acts than Whites. Redlining can be described as the decades-long denial to grant people

of color, usually in urban areas, mortgages in order to prevent them from purchasing homes in

certain neighborhoods. It also interfered with their ability to access loans in order to renovate

their house. Once this practice was being backed by the government starting in the 1930s, banks

and mortgage companies often rejected loans from credible askers solely based on race and place

of residency. Black families have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars due to their homes being

redlined (Brooks). Along with the unequal wealth gap, black-white residential segregation also

often blocks black students from receiving the same high-quality education, among other things.

This divide is far from natural, it is the result of public policies working to “subjugate black

people and promote white supremacy” (Quick and Kahlenberg par.1).

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Section B - Implicit and Explicit Bias

Some may debate the true definition of implicit bias, but Kovera characterizes it as “a set

of negative beliefs or associations about a particular racial group that is held without awareness

and would not be consciously endorsed but results in discriminatory behavior” (1151). Even

through the examination about whether implicit bias explains racial disparities better than explicit

bias, it still plays a key role in our history. Explicit bias can be defined as “intentional racial

discrimination based on conscious beliefs that groups should be treared differently” (1151).

Stereotypically, Blacks are associated with the idea of criminality and violent behavior. For

instance, the results received when white judges take the Implicit Association Test point towards

their implicit bias associating the color white with good and black with bad. This in turn has

derived said judges to hand out harsher sentences in studies where words associated with black

were used (Kovera). Similarly, Kovera notes that often people who maintain implicit mindsets,

correlate Blacks with guilt, and if their associations are strong enough, they will decipher unclear

evidence as evidence of guilt. Nonetheless, implicit racial bias is not the cause for all racial

disparities. Kovera refers to the book The New Jim Crow when formulating her argument around

the idea that “racial disparities in incarceration rates are the result of explicit and intentional

policies to focus policing on crimes that are disproportionately committed by Black” (1152). She

also adds that both implicit bias and intentional policing are needed when it comes to racial

disparities in arrests. However, the overall conclusion many have come to is implicit bias is rife

and associated with bias against minority groups, especially African Americans (Staples).

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Section C - Shooter Bias

Shooter bias is a contributing factor to implicit bias. As stated before, it is confirmed that

the chances of a Black person being shot is higher than the chances for a White person. Kovera

introduces this case study focusing on the levels of shooter bias within the participants:

In these studies, participants viewed a series of photographs on a video monitor. Each

photograph depicted a man holding a gun or an innocuous object like a cell phone or a

wallet. Participants were tasked with pressing a “shoot” button when the man was holding

a gun and pressing a “don’t shoot” button when the man was unarmed. Half the targets

were Black and the other half were White. A meta-analysis of 42 studies investigating

shooter bias confirmed that participants were more likely to shoot unarmed Black than

White men and were more likely to fail to shoot armed White than Black men. Both

White and Black participants exhibit shooter bias. (1143)

Kovera concludes her analysis of this data by stating that this shooter bias found within

the participants is not intentional towards Blacks, it is due to the cultural racial stereotypes that

link Black’s, particularly Black men, with dangerous and aggressive criminal activity. These

biases are not limited towards Blacks. Studies have also shown the same results towards Latinos,

Muslims wearing a turban or hijab, and darker skinned minorities (Dukes and Kahn).

When officers took part in this same activity for the study, it was found that although they

were overall more accurate with their decisions than the civilian participants, they shared a

similarity of shooter bias within their quick responses. But when these officers had additional

conditions such as a high cognitive load and/or less sleep the prior night, they exhibited similar

levels of this bias to the civilians (Kovera). There are proposed solutions, such as trainings to

21
decrease these levels, but depending on the conditions officers are facing when on the job, the

usefulness of those trainings may often reduce.

Section D - Original Police System and Police Codes

As hinted at in Winright’s writing, there will always be some bad apples, but sometimes

we need to consider if the tree itself is deceased (par.11). Where we stand today is because of

how the police system was created, and allowed to continue as such for decades upon decades.

Starting in the beginning of the 1970s and taking place around Chicago's South Side, as

many as 200 black men were tortured by police officers under Jon Burge. After about 20 years of

the continuation of these tortures, Burge was fired in 1993 and later convicted of obstruction of

justice and perjury in 2010. Unlike the victims of this abuse who lost generations of their lives,

Burge only served three and a half years in prison, which is even more than most of the officers

who were involved. Many of them didn’t receive any substantial punishment for their actions

(Hamilton and Foote 400). “Given the racial, socioeconomic, and professional disparities in

status between the police and their suspects, claims by the tortue victim were easy to ignore or

deny'' (Hamilton and Foote 405). This introduces the concept of Deny, Defend, and Deflect that

many departments adopted. Burge and his co-workers used this as a layer of protection that

prevented any backlash from their lawless activities. They were able to label and isolate their

selection of regions as crime-ridden, forming a blanket of deniability for the tortue they inflicted.

They used the fact that no one would believe a claim of police assault made by a profiled

criminal/gangster from the South Side to make it so that most unsustained chargers were from

blacks, and most sustained ones were from whites. Combining all of this, with the added

complications that arise when making a complaint against the police department

22
 (...)helped to reinforce what had been termed the “blue wall of silence,” “blue code,” or

“blue shield,” the unwritten conventions among police officers in Chicago and other

departments not to report mistakes, misconduct, crimes, or violence. This means that, if

questioned about such incidents, police officers deny or claim that they were unaware of

any wrongdoing (Hamilton and Foote 407).

Nonetheless, all of these problems built within the structure of our current policing can be

traced back to the original formation of our criminal justice system as well as the Jim Crow Era

where the Court passed laws permitting the practice of disproportional targeting of minorities

(Staples).

Part Ⅳ: Solutions

Part 4.1 - Existing Solutions

As Winright states, “it is time to ‘eradicate this Jim Crow system of public safety” and

“policing as we know it’” (par.2). There have been some efforts to battle this cultural and

systemic issue including creating some policies, some funding for body-worn cameras, and a

selection of departments looking into reexamining their protocols.

In some countries, regulations have been put in place within law enforcement agenices to

contest discrimination in the direction of certain races and ethnicities. One representation of this

is the Race Relations Act 2000 that the United Kingdom passed. Dukes and Kahn refer to “The

Guardian” when explaining the hopes behind this Amendment, “It “outlaws race discrimination

in public authority functions not covered by the original Race Relations Act 1976” and “places a

general duty on specificed public authorities to promote race equality”” (694). Similarly, they

23
mention The Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibility Act of 2006 that had made

inequity towards “race, religion, and other characteristics'' illegal (694). Even though we have not

seen total effectiveness with these legislations, their presence has still been absent in the U.S. by

2017. More recently, in the beginning of 2020 the American system had started to move in the

right direction. Louisville passed a new law named after Breonna Taylor. This law banned any

use of no-knock warrants (Winright). In addition, Winright also asserts other reforms that have

been made including:

(...)banning choke holds, prohibiting racial profiling, establishing citizen police review

boards, providing officers housing credits to live in the neighborhoods where they police,

designating that the state’s attorney general be the one to investigate police shoootings

and reconsidering the legal doctrine of qualified immunity as law and policy. (par.9)

Another resource to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the structure of our police is

the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs). These were inserted into the system due to recent

protests surrounding police brutality towards minorities, and are hoped to be continued as an

agent to document “officer-civilian encounters” (Dukes and Kahn). Although it is newer

technology and thus is conflicting, Obama has allocated over $20 million since 2015 towards

funding for BWC through the Department of Justice (Ray et al 1032).

Staples quickly mentions that the Washington Post reported that “a few police

departments were volunteering to re-examine their protocals to prevent racial profiling” (39).

These are all much needed steps in the right direction to address the problem at hand, but it will

entail community action, time, and resources to make a real and long term difference.

Part 4.2 - Proposed Solutions

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 Some propose defunding the police as a solution, but that is unrealistic and radical. I thus

propose the following solutions: implementing regular use of body-worn cameras on police,

practicing truth and reconciliation/restorative justice, reforming the police, offering context to the

public, and requiring impact statements.

Section A - Implementing Regular Use of Body-Worn Cameras

Implementing BWCs is federal and state lawmakers suggested solution that will grant

more transparency throughout police confrontations. The finite research we have surrounding

BWC demonstrates that they can often have two results. They can reduce citizen complaints and

force, but opposing research suggests that even with the additional visibility and transparency

that these cameras provide, this does not mean there will be more accountability. Ray et al.

provide the following example, “the acquittal of the four officers who beat Rodney King, despite

condemning video footage, suggest that no amount of evidence is impervious to “reinterpretation

and reframing” (1033). The above research exhibits how complex the relationship between

accountability, transparency, and power status are. Ray makes it a point to highlight the missing

piece from this research, which is the public’s mindset towards BWCs and how effective they

believe them to be. This is very important because their attitudes reflect “power status structures

and intergroups relations,” more specifically, “(...)attitudes about BWC inform relations between

police and various racial groups and illuminate the theoretical distinction between transparency

and accountability and their role in intergroup relations” (1033). Nevertheless, it is expected that

Blacks and Latinos, compared to Whites, will communicate across that they have had less

favorable interactions with police officers. Thus, Blacks and Latinos are bound to be more

favorable towards the use of BWC in hope that they will provide more accountability, protection,

25
and transparency. The argument surrounding BWC’s violating both citizens and officers’ right to

privacy can also be addressed.

In 2017 a study was conducted with residents in Prince George’s County, Maryland. In

this racially diverse county, 81 interviews were organized around the following 5 sections,

summing up to be 32 questions: interactions with the police, profiling and attire, knowledge

about BWC, privacy and transparency, and demographic background. The findings from these

interviews point us in the obvious direction that racial differences in interactions with the police

exist. Overall, out of all the multi-raced interviewees, every subject expressed having some

positive or neutral interactions with officers. However, compared to whites, non-whites reported

more negative encounters. It was also clearly noted from the study that class did not make a

difference in the negative experiences minorities had.

After extensive analysis on this study, respondents were able to be categorized into two

groups, supporters and skeptics, based on their views around BWC. Both of these groups were

also able to be split into two groups,

Supporters are classified into two main types-police supporters and citizen supporters.

Police supporters are respondents who think that BWC will highlight how difficult it is to

be a police officer. Citizen supporters are respondents who believe that BWC will provide

more citizen protections by improving transparency and trust. White respondents were

more likely to be police supporters, while nonwhites were more likely to be citizen

supporters. Skeptics also are classified into two types-privacy skeptics and structural

skeptics. Privacy skeptics are respondents who believe that BWC may violate the privacy

of citizens as well as police officers. Structural skeptics are respondents who think that

26
 BWC will not change policies that systemically disenfranchise racial/ethnic minorities

and maintain power status relations between citizens and the police. (Ray et al. 1041).

A 19-year-old white man who classifies as a police supporter states that he can see BWC

in both ways, a tool for the police as well as protection for the community. I agree with both this

man as well as a 24-year-old black Latina woman who is a citizen supporter who believes that

these cameras will improve relationships between police and citizens. She speaks of the

unbalanced amounts of distrust between the community and police due to a few “bad apples”

who are corrupt and/or bad officers that use their authority and belief that they can get away with

“small things”, which in turn makes the situation worse. A 22-year old Pakistani man first shares

his negative experiences with police where they were “trying to do whatever they want to do”

and “overuse their power”. He claims that if body cameras were in use during these interactions,

it would have helped the situation and they wouldn’t have been able to ask the things they had.

He was then able to confirm his claim by sharing a new experience he had with an officer that

had a BWC on during the interaction. He confirmed that the cops were much nicer and more

pleasant towards him. It was able to be concluded that generally, supporters favored BWC but for

an array of reasons. Both police and citizen supporters value transparency and accountability. But

some conclude that the hardships of policing will become more transparent, whilst others think

that BWC will increasingly form trust between police and citizens (1041-1042).

Privacy skeptics worry that BWC will violate people's privacy, could break certain

constitutional rights, as well as invade police officers' privacy since they would be watched

regularly. One of the identified privacy skeptics also raises the concern that “BWC will make

27
police officers cautious, which he believes can have negative implications for protecting citizens.”

They continue on to note both sides that they see to the argument, “Positives will be,

a lot of the disputes about who did what will be taken care of, because what you see is not a lie;

whatever happened happened. Negative is that the police officers can feel very apprehensive

about doing their jobs or even respond to a serious issue” (1043). Overall, this category of

respondents believe that BWC will both not create as much transparency as citizens desire as

well as that it will not fix everything because everything will not be caught on video.

Oppositely from privacy skeptics, structural skeptics reason that BWC will not alter

existing policies when it comes to force or power dynamics. They use the evidence that even with

incidents that were recorded, BWC did not alter the outcomes in any way, never mind in a

positive fashion. One of the respondents in this category states, “The communities that are

actually being targeted are gonna be able to see through you know, if it’s artificial, if it’s an effort

just for show. I think they’re gonna be able to tell that. If it is actually followed up by real

structural change, or if they do take the videos more seriously… if police you know, take the

footage seriously, then obviously communities would respond well” (1044). Most importantly, it

is highlighted that BWC is one of many parts to policing, and that there must be other changes

within the structure to accompany it as well as alter policies, the criminal justice system, and

power relations (Ray et al). BWC has the potential to create more transparency, but at the same

time not change the accountability structure we have today. Research proves how visibility

without accountability can actually have a negative effect of continuing to disadvantage

minorities. The overall conclusion surrounding BWC is that regardless of their race, people

believe that BWC is a step in the right direction. But to maximize their potential as well as the

28
potential of decreasing racial disparities, we also need to incorporate trainings about implicit

bias, diversity, and community policing to build better relationships between police officers and

citizens (Ray el al. 1047-1048).

Section B - Truth and Reconciliation/Restorative Justice

Truth and reconciliation is used as a guide to resolving past conflict by recognizing and

revealing the wrongs that have been done. A truth commission, as some may call it, is oriented to

focusing on the past, finding patterns within the events that had occurred, and engaging directly

with the community/group that had been affected by those wrongdoings. This solution, which

has been put into practice in at least 46 countries, had become a very important tool for healing

national divisions. Although it has taken multiple forms, these commissions have lent a hand in

getting societies to at least start moving in the right direction of facing problems where fixing is

needed. It has assisted the acknowledgement and systemic injustices of dictatorship in Argentina,

enthic conflict in the Solomon Islands, genocide in Rwanda, civil war in El Salvador, etc, (Souli

par.3). For example, the post-apartheid South Africa allowed for a huge change in a positive

direction because it granted equal rights to all South Africans disregarding of race. However,

though this advancement provided significant steps towards equality, to this day, South Africa

still struggles with the lasting effects of social inequalities that resulted from decades of the

apartheid (Britannica). This serves as a good example of how we have progressed in the past and

how we can continue to evolve while still acknowledging that due to the stains from our past,

growth will not come without struggle.

There has been limited action in the United States when it comes to implementing truth

and reconciliation, but District Attorneys from San Francisco, Philadelphia and Boston have

29
joined together. They decided to make the call of creating “truth, justice, and reconciliation

commissions to address the legacies of systemic, racially-based harm caused by police and the

criminal justice system” (Panne par.2). In the city of Asheville, North Carolina, the council

passed a resolution for providing reparations for Black communities. Acknowledgments and

apologies for historical and present racial discrimination and incarcerations were also made by

the council. A list of wrongdoings against the Black community as well as the creation of a

commission “to develop a plan to make ‘significant progress towards repairing the damage

caused by the public and private systemic Racism’” was also incorporated by the Asheville

council (Panne par.3). Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a private non-profit organization has

dedicated research and a project to the integration of truth and reconciliation.

Considering our past, and where we stand today on the issue of racial inequality within

our policing system, there is no better time than now to adopt this as a constant solution

throughout the entire United States that is implemented into our daily practices.

Section C - Reforming the Police

To “reimagine and cultivate a culture of just policing will require significant changes in

academy and field training as well as recruiting from the community” (Winright par.11).

Reforming the police is not a “surface-level remedy”, it is rooted culturally and systematically.

(Winright).

Based on research I have conducted, I propose screening or training for eliminating

implicit bias as well as racial bias/stereotyping be implemented all throughout the policing

system. As Kovera importantly points out, there are three factors that must be met in order for

this strategy to work for implicit bias:

30
 First, the racial disparities in the criminal justice system must be the result of implicit

racial bias; otherwise, an intervention to train away implicit bias will not work. Second,

we must have the resources that allow us to screen all potential decision makers in the

chain of events that lead from police stop to conviction and sentencing for implicit racial

bias. Third, we must have effective interventions for eliminating implicit bias among

those who are identified with it. (1151)

There are two faulted, but possible ways to execute this strategy of eliminating implicit

bias. The first is the Implicit Association Test, which will measure the levels of bias within those

being screened. The downfall to this solution is that it is not realistic to believe that we would be

able to screen each and every decision maker who contributes to the existing racial disparities,

due to how many are involved. The more reasonable approach would be “repeated exposure to

counter-stereotypical examples (e.g., associating Black with good) and evaluative conditioning

(e.g., pairing Black faces with positive words and White faces with negative words)” (Kovera).

Research has proven that the downfall to this is that it is commonly not effective after a couple

hours or days have passed. This path to a solution will require time and effort from decision

makers involved, which they might not have in time sensitive scenarios such as when making the

decision on whether or not to shoot a suspect. In summary, levels of implicit racial bias will most

likely be decreased, but in relatively small sizes when implementing these solutions.

Similar to an idea presented in the American Psychological Association’s brief to the U.S

Supreme Court, a more impactful route may be dedicating time and effort towards identifying

ways in which we can stifle decision makers ability to act upon their racial bias. Precise

procedures that focus on performance evaluations can be used to make it more difficult for bias to

31
influence decisions (Kovera). This can include expanding the usage of

“interdependence/teamwork, underscoring the importance of accurate evaluations, and having

third parties evaluations for accuracy” (Kovera 1154). By setting protocols that highlight or

identify racial bias within people, organizations, workplaces, etc., there is a potential for

motivation to change one's conscious or unconscious bias once it is brought to light and made

known.

While it is ambitious to thoroughly eliminate racial bias in individuals, it has been

proven in countless studies that controlling “for the effects of implicit racial bias on individual

decision-makers” (The Sentencing Project 12) is feasible. This means that due to the prevailing

culture in the U.S, it is unattainable to establish cognitive colorblindness in individuals, but

training a person to be “behaviorally colorblind” is probable (The Sentencing Project).

Section D - Offer Context to the Public

When battling the issue of racial disparities, oftentimes the use of the public to inflict

social change is tried. It is imagined that compiling a list of disturbing statistics and sticking it

under the public's nose will create the motivation needed to fight back. Absurdly enough,

research has proven that it often has the opposite effect. When presented with the evidence of

extreme racial disparities within our criminal justice system, the public tends to become more

supportive of the vindictive policies that create that inequality in the system. Rebecca C. Hetey

and Jennifer L. Eberhardt, from Stanford University, explore the results of a few studies that were

conducted around this subject:

When White participants were informed about racial disparities in executions, 52%

strongly favored the death penalty compared with 36% in the baseline

32
 conditions(...)When the prison population was “more Black,” voters became signigicantly

less likely to sign a real petition aimed at lessening the severity of California’s harch

three-strikes law(...)When we described California’s three-strike law and presented

participants with a prison population that was less Black, 52% of them signed the petition

compared with only 27% in the more-Black condition. (Hetey and Eberhardt 184)

These numbers, along with many others, can only be interpreted as signs of systemic

racial bias. Yet more careful analysis shows that White Americans are prone to denying this

partial treatment. They rebuff any claims of bias partially to perpetuate the views of the world as

“fair and meritocratic”. The same views that keep their eyes discerning and away from racial

inequality and institutional practices that sabotage minorities (Hetey and Eberhardt 184).

Staples notes that the white community in America has started to feel anxiety due to the

possibility that in three decades, their stance as a majority will change to a minority. He then

proceeds to propose that among whites forty and over, sits the fear that they will lose their racial

privilege to the new majority, people of color, and begin being treated as badly as they were (40).

This can be perceived as one of the promoting ideas for why the majority of the public favors law

enforcement as the “solution” to crime instead of social support programs (33). It has become

obvious that when the white population is faced with the threat of potentially "losing" our upper

hand, our privilege, and our "birthrights" of equality and power, there is a sense of panic and

denial. Many seem to believe that simply creating a space where Blacks are treated as equals in

every aspect poses a threat to their comfortable ways of living as well as the ways in which they

view the world. It is undeniably easy to be scared and uncomfortable when faced with the harsh

realities like the intensity and weight of racial injustice within our society.

33
 In order to address the issue of negative public support, I agree with Hetey and

Eberhardt’s proposal to offer context to the public. It is common that people take information

they receive and use it to support what they previously believe and expect. To counteract this,

future research is suggested to test if offering information about disparities parallel to a

description about how these disparities came to be would be a more effective way to present

inequality. To contextualize this information would mean implying that it is both unnatural

and/or “due to fixed stereotypical traits” (185). Although civil rights activities are aware of how

racial disparities came to be, that history is often either not highlighted to the extent it should be,

or all together left out when informing the public. As acknowledged by Hetey and Eberhardt,

“stripped of context, stand-alone statistics may simply be used as “evidence” of the stereotype

that Blacks are prone to criminality” (185). If we fail to push the public's eyes towards the

systemic forces that have played a leading role, the decontextualized information they obtain

surround racial inequality “can lead people to engage in defensive processes that instead blame

the victim while protecting the self and the status quo” (185). This can be seen in almost every

setting, whether its media, workplace, school, etc., because this narrative is so embedded within

our society as a whole.

Section E - Impact Statements

There can and should be many policies put in place, but one I propose is a policy

requiring racial impact statements. As Iowa, Connecticut, Oregon, and New Jersey have already

done, adopting and requiring a constant use of racial impact statements at the federal and state

level should be implemented. This would require the preparation of an analysis weighing in any

34
possible “racial consequences of any proposed legislation before enacting it in order to avoid any

unintended disparate racial effects” (The Sentencing Project 12).

Part Ⅴ: Conclusion

Racial disparities in one of the first things that come to mind when thinking about our

policing system. In part, this is due to how cultural and systemic the problem is. The saying “one

bad apple can spoil the bunch” comes in hand. But unfortunately, there is no longer just one bad

apple. The inequality originated from the very roots of the apple tree, also known as our criminal

justice system. Columbus arrived 528 years ago in the Caribbean and enslaved the Native’s. The

first enslaved Africans reached our shores 401 years ago. The rights that were stolen and trauma

that was inflicted will not be forgotten or fixed in a week, month, or year (Panne).

It seems as though we often have racism without racists, yet “people are judged on the

color of their skin, not the content of their character” (Staples 38-40). Recently the government

has made efforts to address the glaring levels of unjust racism and deliberate bias in our police

system, yet these efforts are minimal compared to what they need to and should be. No one

solution will solve this deeply rooted problem, and the list of proposed solutions I present all

have their holes where they will fall short, which is why we need to implement them all. One

may fall short in a specific area in which another one exceeds in. There is limited research on

many of my proposed solutions, so I argue that we need to implement them all, collect data and

see the effects, whether negative or positive, and based on that, refine them in areas where

refinement is needed. In order to exercise the use of BWC, training and screenings, and truth and

reconciliation, we will need to dedicate funding and resources to maximize efficiency.

35
 For all the days, months, years and decades we have wronged our fellow citizens, we owe

it to them to step up as individuals, communities, and as a country to do everything in our power

to admit where we have failed, work to fix the corrupt system, and ensure it never falls back to

unequal and unjust ways. There is no more denying that white supremacy and the inability to

accept that all people are equal no matter the color of their skin is deeply embedded within the

very backbone of our society. It courses through the veins of our history and lives on through

each system that was built on the soil of a stolen nation. If we truly want to right our wrongs and

move forward in the best ways possible, it is time for us to get uncomfortable. It is our job not

only to address the racism that still exists to this day but to actively stand up to it on a daily basis.

It is time for us to be the change we want to see.

36
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