DOCSLIB.ORG

“The Future of Race”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
“The Future of Race” A Talk Given at the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church January 19, 2014 by Dick Prouty The Future of Race: A Sequel Just about five years ago I gave a sermon in this church on the topic of race and my personal experience of learning what racial identity is all about. Recently Charles Nazarian asked me if I would like to give that sermon again with perhaps some new thoughts and learnings. I agreed and here we are. Now, five years later, we have learned that the level of racism in our country is deeper than many of us wanted to believe in the wake of the historic election of Barak Obama. We now know now that many people cannot stand the idea that a black man is president of our country. We have learned that “driving while black”, or “walking home while black”, as Travon Martin was doing, can be lethal if you run into the wrong people. Five years ago, in February of 2008, many of my friends and I were marveling at the election of Barak Obama and the seeming impossibility of that event. I spoke of my emotional reaction to that event, and my optimism with what it foretold. When the 2008 results came in, I was watching the election with some friends in my living room. It was a quite literally a major emotional event in our lives. Whooping and high fives, and yes, lots of wet eyes. Grown men in their sixties tearing up at an election result….pretty amazing! Tears of joy and much more, at least for me. I had deep feelings that were difficult to understand, and that sort of surprised me. These feelings were connected to the promise of a future, that my wife, Doris, had given me many years ago, as we were preparing to wed in 1968. I grew up of a farm in a white rural suburb of 3000 people in the fifties, the tenth generation descendent of one Richard Prouty, who came to this country around 1660 from southern England, to seek his fortune. Norwell, a small rural town on the south shore of MA had few people of color, and those that were there had mostly been there for ever, as very minor parts of the landscape. I didn’t think much about race, or racial issues or read much about it. College was a pretty similar racial environment. But I did have two pretty close Nigerian friends, and I began to read and think much more deeply about issues of race, as I took a lot of history and sociology courses. After college, to avoid the draft and the growing Vietnam war, I joined VISTA( the domestic Peace Corps). I ended up stationed in the middle of the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, a large all black neighborhood. I lived on 65A Madison Street, a 15 block or so walk from the A train subway. The tenements lining the streets to the subway were inhabited by African Americans who were often on the streets in significant numbers. In 1966, two years after the first race riot in Harlem, the streets were often tense. I learned how to walk looking as if I belonged there…..to ‘keep cool’ and seem to know where I was going and why, a difficult but necessary task in order to avoid being confronted by the gaggles of young black men out on the street. I began to know the fear of being the “other”, of being the outsider, in a way that I never had experienced, and a feeling that still only a small minority of white people ever really experience. In that first year, I have a memory of a defining moment as to my understanding of how African-Americans experienced the world in 1966. I was watching a show from the series, “I Spy”, in which a young Bill Cosby co-starred as a private investigator. As I watched this show over the weeks of that first summer in Brooklyn, and looked at all the other shows on the network TV, I began to see the US as most of the inhabitants of Madison Street saw it: there were not ANY 1 people of color in this TV world of 1966. It was as if they did not exist. Only one of them, Bill Cosby, was really given any regular visibility. When the full import of this isolation of African Americans from any TV shows or from the lives of the dominant group, my group, the group that ran all the institutions and corporations the country, I was stunned. It somehow just hit me emotionally one night, and I remember the hackles on the back of my neck rising, as I contemplated what that collective isolation and rejection feels like. In the middle of that first year in VISTA, I met Doris Richardson, an “indigenous VISTA volunteer”, who had grown up in Queensbridge, the first public housing project in the city of New York, right under the 59th Street Bridge. Doris was African-American, stunning and we fell for each other right away. In less than a year we had moved in together, living in a Lower East Side two room apartment, with a loft that Doris built. There were lots of cultural learnings that occurred in that first year of dating Doris, but one sticks out. Once, during a first visit to the Richardson family house on a weekend, I was having a meal with about 10 other Richardson family members, including Doris’ mother, Ila, and her father, James. We heard some fairly loud gunshots that were obviously fairly close by. Nobody said much and continued eating and talking. I remember asking, “shouldn’t we see…what had happened and maybe call the police?” Everyone looked at me as if I were a bit crazy. Call the police….”you must be crazy.” And, everyone resumed normal conversation. Later Doris explained that you almost never called the cops, you were just asking for trouble..they didn’t really protect black people and they just might shoot you instead, if you were crazy enough to call them. Race relations were tense in the New York City of the late sixties. I was held up a knife point one evening with another white VISTA volunteer, by three black teenagers. We gave them our cash and they left. We went up to my apartment and called the police. Within a few minutes, the police were there and we got in the police car to search for the perpetrators. Within a few minutes we found them and the police ran down one of the young men. They proceeded to put him, handcuffed, spread eagle out on the hood of the car, and pistol whip him for several minutes, minutes that seemed like hours to me sitting there helplessly in the patrol car. They kept yelling at him, asking where were the others, and calling him the N word. I was having a hard time believing all this. When we got back to the station, they took the scared young man upstairs for more interrogation. I had already decided that I couldn’t and wouldn’t press charges…..and I did not do so, despite their protestations. They were upset with me, but I was sick to my stomach thinking of what would happen to those young men, if I identified them. I never found out what happened to the young man who went upstairs. As the end of my VISTA service approached, I was in a big dilemma. Was I going to leave Doris, and go my way, on to law school, or business school? Or was I going to stay with Doris and make a commitment to her… a commitment to us? It was a pivotal time in US history. The Vietnam war was heating up big time, and there were many protests. The war seemed insane to me. I marched on the Pentagon with some friends I had met in Europe. And there was the issue of the kids we both hoped to have. I was afraid of the conventional wisdom of the time that “mixed race” kids belonged to no one group, and always had difficult identity issues. Doris’s answer was that: “Dick…. get over it; it’s an advantage to be from a mixed background. Look at me, I’m at least half white myself. You can see all sides more easily in social situations and understand the viewpoints of all better…. it really is an advantage.” As she spoke these words, I could see that they worked for her, and I wanted to believe her….I was madly in love with her. We were married in a small family ceremony on April 6,1968, two days after Martin Luther King had been shot, and a day after Doris’s 21st birthday. We took a cheap flight to Puerto Rico and had a great week, driving all around the Island, 2 and staying with my old college roommate, who himself had married a local Latina woman he had met in the Peace Corps in Panama. Marrying Doris was a huge leap for me, similar to the leap, I later thought, that the first Richard Prouty must have made as he left alone, for the new land in 1660. For Doris, it seemed an ordinary and very natural thing to do….. “No big deal.” We returned from Puerto Rico to my family farm home, an old Cape Cod house on a farm in Norwell, and moved in with my father…as I tried to figure out what to do with my life now.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Excessive Use of Force by the Police Against Black Americans in the United States
    Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Written Submission in Support of the Thematic Hearing on Excessive Use of Force by the Police against Black Americans in the United States Original Submission: October 23, 2015 Updated: February 12, 2016 156th Ordinary Period of Sessions Written Submission Prepared by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Global Justice Clinic, New York University School of Law International Human Rights Law Clinic, University of Virginia School of Law Justin Hansford, St. Louis University School of Law Page 1 of 112 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary & Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 4 I. Pervasive and Disproportionate Police Violence against Black Americans ..................................................................... 21 A. Growing statistical evidence reveals the disproportionate impact of police violence on Black Americans ................. 22 B. Police violence against Black Americans compounds multiple forms of discrimination ............................................ 23 C. The treatment of Black Americans has been repeatedly condemned by international bodies ...................................... 25 D. Police killings are a uniquely urgent problem ............................................................................................................. 25 II. Legal Framework Regulating the Use of Force by Police ................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Searching for the Denominator: Problems with Police Traffic Stop Data and an Early Warning System Solution
    Problems with police traffic stop data • 63 * Searching for the Denominator: Problems With Police Traffic Stop Data And an Early Warning System Solution Samuel Walker University of Nebraska at Omaha * Abstract In response to widespread allegations of racial and ethnic discrimination in traffic stops, a practice that has been labeled “racial profiling,” law enforcement agencies are now collecting data on traffic stops that include the race or ethnicity of drivers. Interpreting these data to determine whether a pattern of race discrimination exists poses enormous difficulties. Specifically, it is not clear what baseline (often referred to as “the denominator”) should be used to assess the racial and ethnic distribution of people stopped. Using the first traffic stop data reports from the San Jose Police Department as a case study, this paper examines baselines that are commonly used or discussed as appropriate. The paper argues that resident population data and/or offi- cial crime data are not adequate as baselines. As an alternative, the paper proposes an approach based on police early warning systems. This paper is based in part on research supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice (98-IJ-CX-0002). The views expressed are those of the author and do not neces- sarily reflect those of the National Institute of Justice or the U.S. Department of Justice. The author would like to thank Matt Zingraff of North Carolina State University for suggesting the title. JUSTICE RESEARCH AND POLICY, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2001 © 2001 Justice Research and Statistics Association 64 • Justice Research and Policy Allegations that the police in the United States stop motor vehicle drivers on the basis of race or ethnicity rather than suspected law violation has rapidly emerged as a major national controversy (Ramirez, McDevitt, & Farrell, 2000).
    [Show full text]
  • Policing Space and Race: Prejudice, Policies, and Racial Profiling
    issue 11/space & culture 12/11/01 11:32 PM Page 177 Policing Space and Race: Prejudice, Policies, and Racial Profiling Greg Elmer Seemingly overnight, the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States have caused Americans to question their steadfast belief in broad civil liberties. The rethinking of racial profiling, in particular, has occurred in light of allegations that the September 11th hijackers lived counter intuitive lives while in the U.S. and also significantly deviated from the single and economically marginalized profile of the (Israeli constructed) Palestinian suicide bomber. Subsequently, as fears of the ‘Other’ in the U.S. grow, the near universal opposition to racial profiling across the country continues to erode. However, despite re- emerging public support for racial profiling, the term itself contin- 177 ues to elude simple explanation or definition. Initially, the term was circulated in response to a slew of complaints from African American and Latino communities who found them- selves disproportionately stopped on U.S. Highway 95, the major North South Interstate in the Eastern U.S.. In the 1980s the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation had singled out the Interstate as a key North-South drug trafficking route. Early definitions thus generally focused on the act of “…police stop- ping black and Latino motorists or pedestrians solely because of their race.” (Hurley 2001). Such definitions therefore called into question the practice of literally “policing” the spatial mobility of America’s racial minorities. In the past few years though instances of racial profiling have seemingly appeared in all aspects of society, not solely on one or two key Interstate highways.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Racial Profiling and Street-Level Crime the National Significance Of
    Racial Profiling and Street-level Crime The national significance of the Trayvon Martin case has ignited a heated discussion about bias and racial profiling in this country. The prologue for this conversation was established in communities across the country where racial profiling by law enforcement has been commonplace for years. Notwithstanding the fact that racial profiling is unconstitutional, and despite the emphatic declaration from the federal government that the practice is “invidious,” “wrong,” “ineffective,” and “harmful to our rich and diverse democracy,” quantitative and qualitative evidence collected at the federal, state, and local levels confirms that racial profiling persists. Empirical evidence confirms the existence of racial profiling on America’s roadways and that police actions taken during traffic stops are not uniform across race and ethnicity. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that for the year 2005: • Black drivers (4.5 percent) were twice as likely as White drivers (2.1 percent) to be arrested during a traffic stop, while Hispanic drivers (65 percent) were more likely than White (56.2 percent) or Black (55.8 percent) drivers to receive a ticket. • In addition, Whites (9.7 percent) were more likely than Hispanics (5.9 percent) to receive a written warning, while Whites (18.6 percent) were more likely than Blacks (13.7 percent) to be verbally warned by police. • Black (9.5 percent) and Hispanic (8.8 percent) motorists stopped by police were searched at higher rates than Whites (3.6 percent). Quantitative evidence reported in several states confirms this nationwide data. • A study in Arizona shows that during 2006–2007, the state highway patrol was significantly more likely to stop African Americans and Hispanics than Whites on all the highways studied, while Native Americans and persons of Middle Eastern descent were more likely to be stopped on nearly all the highways studied.
    [Show full text]
  • Racial Disparities in Traffic Stop Outcomes
    Baumgartner et al Maro Final (Do Not Delete) 5/16/2017 11:52 AM RACIAL DISPARITIES IN TRAFFIC STOP OUTCOMES FRANK R. BAUMGARTNER, LEAH CHRISTIANI, DEREK A. EPP, KEVIN ROACH, KELSEY SHOUB† INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 22 I.PUBLICLY AVAILABLE DATA ........................................................................................ 26 I.DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS ............................................................................................... 30 II.DISPARITIES IN SEARCH RATES BY RACE ..................................................................... 31 A. Search Rates Among White Drivers........................................................ 31 B. Search Rates Among Black Drivers ......................................................... 33 C. Search Rates Among Hispanic Drivers .................................................. 35 D. Black-White Search Rate Ratios ............................................................... 37 E. Hispanic-White Search Rate Ratios ......................................................... 39 III.A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS ...................................................................................... 43 IV.CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 47 V.APPENDIX: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS. .......................................................................... 48 Copyright © 2017 Frank R. Baumgartner, Leah Christiani,
    [Show full text]
  • Assessing the Roles of Race and Profit in the Mass Incarceration of Black People in America
    ASSESSING THE ROLES OF RACE AND PROFIT IN THE MASS INCARCERATION OF BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA WILLIAMS C. IHEME* “And in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. So in a real sense, our nation’s summer’s riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.” —Martin Luther King Jr, The Other America, a speech delivered on April 14 1967, at Stanford University. Abstract: Shortly after the alleged discovery of America and its vast expanse of land waiting to be cultivated with cash crops using cheap human labor, millions of Africans fell victims and were kidnapped to work as slaves in American plantations for about four centuries. Even though it has been over 150 years since the official abolition of slavery in America, the effects of the 400 years of enslavement continue to reverberate: irrespective of the blackletter rights protecting Black people from injustices, the deep racist structures typically decrease the potency of these rights, and thus perpetuate oppression.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Lives Matter: Eliminating Racial Inequity in the Criminal Justice
    BLACK LIVES MATTER: ELIMINATING RACIAL INEQUITY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM For more information, contact: This report was written by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D., Research Analyst at The Sentencing Project. The report draws on a 2014 publication The Sentencing Project of The Sentencing Project, Incorporating Racial Equity into Criminal 1705 DeSales Street NW Justice Reform. 8th Floor Washington, D.C. 20036 Cover photo by Brendan Smialowski of Getty Images showing Congressional staff during a walkout at the Capitol in December 2014. (202) 628-0871 The Sentencing Project is a national non-profit organization engaged sentencingproject.org in research and advocacy on criminal justice issues. Our work is twitter.com/sentencingproj supported by many individual donors and contributions from the facebook.com/thesentencingproject following: Atlantic Philanthropies Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation craigslist Charitable Fund Ford Foundation Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church JK Irwin Foundation Open Society Foundations Overbrook Foundation Public Welfare Foundation Rail Down Charitable Trust David Rockefeller Fund Elizabeth B. and Arthur E. Roswell Foundation Tikva Grassroots Empowerment Fund of Tides Foundation Wallace Global Fund Working Assets/CREDO Copyright © 2015 by The Sentencing Project. Reproduction of this document in full or in part, and in print or electronic format, only by permission of The Sentencing Project. TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 3 I. Uneven Policing in Ferguson and New York City 6 II. A Cascade of Racial Disparities Throughout the Criminal Justice System 10 III. Causes of Disparities 13 A. Differential crime rates 13 B. Four key sources of unwarranted racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes 15 IV.
    [Show full text]
  • Improvising While Black Iwb =
    IWB = IMPROVISING WHILE BLACK writings, INterventions, interruptions, questions by mayfield brooks with interview by Karen Nelson, for CQ IMPROVISING WHILE BLACK is an interdisciplinary dance project and dance improvisation experiment. The seed for IWB sprouted out of brooks’s personal experience of being racially profiled when driving while black/DWB in San Francisco, California. The project is a multifaceted inquiry into spontaneous mayfield brooks [above] and Alyssa Burton performing Improvising While Black: The Wreck Part 2. Davis, CA, 2014. photo © John Kokoska movement creation, racial representation, and survival, and lives in “the wreck” of collective dreams and desires for some kind of real or imagined future. IWB is also a series of Creative INterventions—e.g., a zine and community participation projects—that rupture settler colonial logic, anti-black violence, and other sites that perpetuate industrial complex mentality. IWB finds futurity in the hustle, the fugitive, the ancestor, the queer outlaw, the flesh, and improvisatory modes of dance as resistance. It’s also an MFA thesis performance and written document. “the wreck” is pulled from poet Adrienne Rich’s book & poem of the same name, Diving into the Wreck. —mayfield brooks • CONTACT QUARTERLY JOURNAL WINTER/SPRING 2016 33 There is no set way to talk about improvisation, but there improvisation that defies all set choreography because it are ways to situate it in the context of the moving body allows the body to go against its own expectation of itself. and blackness.... how does one perform dance improvisation? it takes enormous skill to understand how to harness an how does one perform blackness? an interconnected sensory improvisatory thrust of the body and direct it while allowing experience becomes the conduit for communication.
    [Show full text]
  • MOVEMENT and SPACE MOVEMENT and SPACE Creating Dialogue on Systemic Racism from the Modern Civil Rights Movement to the Present
    Creating Dialogue on Systemic Racism from the Modern Civil MOVEMENT Rights Movement to the Present AND SPACE ABOUT THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1971 to combat discrimination through litigation, education and advocacy. The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with com- munities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people. For more information about THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER visit splcenter.org © 2021 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER LEE / KIRBY AP IMAGES 2 MOVEMENT AND SPACE MOVEMENT AND SPACE Creating Dialogue on Systemic Racism from the Modern Civil Rights Movement to the Present WRITTEN BY CAMILLE JACKSON AND JEFF SAPP EDITORIAL DIRECTION BY JEFF SAPP, TAFENI ENGLISH AND DAVID HODGE AP IMAGES / KIRBY LEE / KIRBY AP IMAGES 4 MOVEMENT AND SPACE TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface .................................................................................................................................................7 What Do We Mean by Movement and Space? .......................................................................8 Objectives, Enduring Understanding and Key Concepts ..................................................9 Audience, Time and Materials ................................................................................................. 10 Considerations .............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Brief Amici Curiae of United Negro College Fund And
    No. 14-981 IN THE Supreme Court of the United States ABIGAIL NOEL FISHER, Petitioner, v. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, et al., Respondents. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES CouRT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRcuIT BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND AND NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENTS DEsiREÉ C. BOYkiN DAVid E. SCHWARTZ General Counsel Counsel of Record UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND RICHARD W. Kidd 1805 Seventh Street, NW MELINDA M. HIGHTOWER Washington, DC 20001 ASHLY NikkOLE DAVis TATUM JI NICOLE LAZARRE CHRisTINE A. KUVEKE General Counsel Four Times Square NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE New York, New York 10036 120 Wall Street, 8th Floor (212) 735-3000 New York, New York 10005 [email protected] Counsel for Amici Curiae 262430 A (800) 274-3321 • (800) 359-6859 i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF CONTENTS..........................i TABLE OF CITED AUTHORITIES ..............iv INTEREST OF AMICI CURIAE ..................1 United Negro College Fund .....................1 National Urban League .........................5 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT .....................5 ARGUMENT....................................9 IT IS NOT IN THE NATION’S INTEREST TO EXPLICITLY OR IMPLICITLY END RACE-CONSCIOUS ADMISSIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION ..........................9 A. THE EFFECTS OF STATE-SPONSORED DISCRIMINATION ARE NOT MERE HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES................9 1. Lingering Effects of Discrimination: Limited Educational Opportunities ......10 2. Lingering Effects of Discrimination: Limited Employment Opportunities .....12 ii Table of Contents Page 3. Lingering Effects of Discrimination: Racially Biased Police and Judicial Practices.............................15 4. Lingering Effects of Discrimination: Police Brutality and Extrajudicial Killings ..............................17 5. Lingering Effects of Discrimination: Violence Against Black Churches ........20 B. THE RAMIFICATIONS OF EXPLICITLY OR IMPLICITLY ELIMINATING RACE-CONSCIOUS DECISION MAKING IN HIGHER EDUCATION ARE SIGNIFICANT .........22 1.
    [Show full text]
  • BORN SUSPECT: Stop-And-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America
    September 2014 1 Stop-and-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America NAACP’s groundbreaking report opens a renewed dialogue about racial profiling by law enforcement in America. This conversation includes a call to action for NAACP members to work toward ending this ineffective policing practice across the country. www.naacp.org BORN SUSPECT: Stop-and-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America Cornell William Brooks Roslyn M. Brock President and Chief Executive Officer Chairman, National Board of Directors Barbara Bolling-Williams Criminal Justice Committee Chairman, National Board of Directors President, NAACP Indiana State Conference September 2014 First Edition BORN SUSPECT: Stop-and-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America I BORN SUSPECT: Stop-and-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America III BORN SUSPECT: Stop-and-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America Mr. Gary L. Bledsoe, Esq., President, Texas NAACP State Conference; NAACP National Board Member Region VI Ms. Barbara Bolling-Williams, Esq., Chair, NAACP Criminal Justice Committee; President, NAACP Indiana State Conference; NAACP National Board Member Region VI Mr. Dedric Doolin, NAACP National Board Member Region IV 1V Minister Edward O. Dubose, NAACP National Board Member Region V Mr. Scot X. Esdaile, President, NAACP Connecticut State Conference; NAACP National Board Member Region II Mr. James Gallman Sr., NAACP National Board Member Region V Mr. John R. Grant, Jr., Retired Staff Sgt., Air Force, Purple Heart Veteran; Chair, NAACP Veterans Affairs Committee, Harrisburg, PA Region II Ms. Alice A.
    [Show full text]
  • Driving While Black: It's Getting Worse
    Driving While Black: It’s Getting Worse Frank R. Baumgartner* Derek A. Epp+ Kelsey Shoub^ Bayard Love# Abstract North Carolina mandated the first collection of demographic data on all traffic stops during a surge of attention to the phenomenon of “driving while black” in the late 1990s. Based on analysis of over 18 million traffic stops, we show dramatic disparities in the rates at which black drivers, particularly young males, are searched and arrested as compared to similarly situated whites, women, or older drivers. Further, the degree of racial disparity is growing over time. Finally the rate at which searches lead to the discovery of contraband is consistently lower for blacks than for whites, providing strong evidence that the empirical disparities we uncover are in fact evidence of racial bias. Findings are robust to a variety of statistical specifications. Keywords: racial profiling, driving while Black, traffic stops, race, gender, age, police, criminal justice, North Carolina. *Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [email protected] + Post-doctoral fellow in political science, Dartmouth University. [email protected] ^ Graduate Student in Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [email protected] # Chief Operating Officer, International Civil Rights Center & Museum, Greensboro, NC. [email protected] Submitted for anonymous review, June 30, 2015 The United States has been in a period of intense discussion of police shootings and relations with minority communities for the past two years. Beginning with the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin (July 2013), through the killings by police officers of Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY (July 17, 2014), Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO (August 9, 2014), and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, MD (April 12, 2015), these four unarmed black men have become symbols of a national movement made apparent with the #BlackLivesMatter and the “Hands up, don’t shoot” slogans that have now become commonplace.
    [Show full text]