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White Privilege and Assumptions Of “I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD HAPPEN HERE”: WHITE PRIVILEGE AND ASSUMPTIONS OF SAFETY A Thesis by KAY SARAI VARELA Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Chair of Committee, Sarah N. Gatson Co-Chair of Committee, Wendy Leo Moore Committee Members, Phia Salter Head of Department, Jane Sell May 2014 Major Subject: Sociology Copyright 2014 Kay Sarai Varela ABSTRACT Criminology and media scholars over the last two decades convincingly argue that crime is one of the major social problems of this era. Racialized constructions of safety and space, however, continue to be the dominant paradigm through which crime is viewed and the hypervigilance of people of color legitimized. I argue that depictions of white communities as pure, homogenous, and calm spaces permit and facilitate whites’ tendency to link danger and violence to people of color, which not only reinforces existing stereotypes that associate people of color with the dangerous side of the safety continuum, but also harks back to a history when white space was violently protected and its isolation legally sanctioned. Using 155 newspaper articles taken from four Chicago area newspapers from January 2008 to January 2013 (The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Defender, La Raza Chicago, and The Daily Herald), I conduct a structurally contextualized critical discourse analysis and engage several different categories of frames, particularly in three areas: 1) neighborhood contextualization; 2) safety concern of the article; and 3) how the incident being reported on is described and understood in terms of locality. My analysis highlights the white supremacist logic found and upheld in newspaper discourse; a discourse that focuses on white normative standards of safety while also structuring the way in which people and communities of color experience safety. As such, my analysis indicates demonstrates discourse surrounding safety and crime indicate an often unnoticed privilege—the privilege of ii being able to presume safety—that is denied to people and communities of color and almost guaranteed to whites and white communities. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to first thank my committee co-chairs, Sarah Gatson and Wendy Leo Moore. Thank you for honoring my desire to take on this project and for sharing your vast knowledge, which has undoubtedly contributed to making this work the best it could be. Thank you for their mentorship, continued support, and guidance throughout this entire process. Gratitude also goes to my other committee member Phia Salter and Sociology Department Head Jane Sell for your feedback and support. I cannot thank Christi Ramirez of the Sociology Department enough for all her administrative assistance throughout this process. I also thank my dear friends and colleagues—Belem Lopez, Jennifer Guillen, Glenn Bracey, Lissa Schwander, Kimberly Randle, and Michelle Jokisch Polo—all of who continue to challenge me to become a better scholar and researcher. You have kept me sharp and alert with your feedback and comments on my work and your continued encouragement and support. Finally, I thank my family for their unwavering support and encouragement, especially my mother Elizabeth, sister Katlyn, god-sister Lizzette, and my entire extended Espinoza family. Thank you all for your patience, heartfelt encouragement, and midnight coffee and quesadillas. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................................iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES...........................................................................................................vi LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................vii I. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................1 II. LITERATURE REVIEW: FEAR OF CRIME..............................................................3 Fear of Crime and Victimization and Risk Perception ..................................................3 Fear of Crime and Residential Location ........................................................................5 The Effects of Media on Fear of Crime .........................................................................7 Race and Class ...............................................................................................................8 Measurement Debate and an Increase in Qualitative Studies ......................................10 Discourse Analysis and Fear of Crime.........................................................................11 III. THE STUDY..............................................................................................................13 Methodology ................................................................................................................13 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................15 Analysis Procedure: Structurally Contextualized Critical Discourse Analysis ...........24 IV. THE PROMINENCE OF THE SAFETY DISCURSIVE FRAME: HOW IS SAFETY ASSUMED?.....................................................................................................26 The Violation of Safe White Space..............................................................................30 The Safety Discursive Frame in Communities of Color: Contrasting Discourses.......35 V. CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................42 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................45 APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................53 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1 Residential Patterns by Racial Group - Greater Metropolitan Chicago...56 Figure 2 Safety and Crime Rates of Chicago Neighborhoods................................57! Figure 3 Crime Rates of Chicago Neighborhoods..................................................58! vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1 Neighborhood Clusters.............................................................................27! Table 2 Locality of Crime Clusters .......................................................................28! Table 3 White/Suburban Neighborhood Cluster in Newspaper Sample...............32! Table 4 Locality Clusters in Newspaper Sample (White Neighborhoods) ...........32! Table 5 Minority Neighborhood Cluster in Newspaper Sample...........................36! Table 6 Locality Clusters in Newspaper Sample (Minority Neighborhoods).......38! Table 7 Population Composition by Race, Chicago IL.........................................53! Table 8 Crime in the United States by Metropolitan Statistical Area, 2011.........54! Table 9 Newspaper Data .......................................................................................55! vii I. INTRODUCTION Criminology scholars over the last two decades have convincingly argued that fear of crime is becoming a major social problem. They have demonstrated that the ramifications of fear of crime go far beyond personal anxiety to include: fragmentation of neighborhoods and communities; increased residential segregation when wealthy individuals move to increase their own personal security; a reduction in the appeal of rehabilitative penal policies; an increase in “tough on crime” policies; increases in incarceration rates; an increased amount of vigilante groups; and numerous mental health issues that result from high levels of fear of crime (Hale 1996; Cheurprakobkit 2006; Fishman 1978; Pain 2000; Pager 2007). However, research on fear of crime, safety, and risk assessment has primarily been quantitative, most conducted through the use of surveys (Carvalho and Lewis 2003; examples include Jackson 2011 and Cheurprakobkit 2006). As Carvalho and Lewis (2003) point out, “Although this approach has provided valuable insight…it has limited our ability to think beyond the variables commonly used” resulting in little being known about the different processes surrounding safety and fear of crime. (pg. 779). Similarly, research on fear of crime is largely based on the experiences of the white majority and constructed from a white perspective with little attention given to the experiences of people of color and how race, class, gender, and sexuality shape fear and safety discourse. As a result, this research will contribute to existing literature by examining the way in which race as a lived experience influences constructions of safety allowing 1 social scientists to assess and more readily identify how security as a public good is unequally distributed throughout the United States. The findings produced by this study will help social scientists better understand the multidimensional and intersectional nature of security, fear of crime, and the continued importance of race in determining the life chances of individuals. Because this study examines how race as a lived experiences influences perceptions of personal safety, this research will allow social
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