Keystone Journal of Undergraduate Research volume 5(1): 1-11, 2018 A Critical Analysis of the Shootings of Unarmed African Americans by Police: A Social Work Perspective Senneca Davis Azadeh Masalehdan Block Department of Social Work California University of Pennsylvania ABSTRACT In recent years, more media attention has been garnered by the shootings of unarmed African Americans. This highlights the issue of the Black/White dichotomy of treatment under the law that has long been an issue in the United States. Presented herein is a literature review that contextualizes these shootings from a social work theoretical perspective. This review implements theories from the social work profession, such as critical race theory, contact theory, fundamental attribution error, and the strength based perspective, which offer a multidimensional understanding of the circumstances, history and bias underlying these shootings. The evidence provided in this review underscores the persistence of racism and its specific oppression of African Americans in society at large. It also highlights some of the ways in which American culture can redress issues such as segregation. Future directions, including the promise of reconciliation through consensus building within the communities impacted by shootings of unarmed African Americans, are discussed. Keywords: Critical Race Theory; Contact Theory; Fundamental Attribution Error; Reconciliation; Racial Bias Introduction After numerous shootings of understand its nature as well as to present unarmed African American individuals, feasible solutions. riots, protest, and the birth of the Black Until recently, the Department of Lives Matter movement it is important that Justice has not required police departments social workers bring their perspective to to collect data on officer related fatalities. the table to integrate the profession’s In 2016, new procedures were enacted to unique ethical and theoretical standpoint ensure accuracy in the counting of “arrest on current affairs. Use of deadly force is related deaths” (Bureau of Justice an act impacted by both conscious and Statistics, Department of Justice, 2016). In unconscious forces. Accounts from law the interim, the Washington Post created enforcement officials offer a narrative that an archival database of all officer-related purports that it is noncompliance with fatalities in the USA from 2015-2017 officer orders that justifies use of deadly (present). In 2015, 995 individuals were force, and is in fact a calculated decision killed of whom 259 (26%) were African rather than one based on automatic American, 497 (50%) of whom were thoughts or “split second” decision making White, 172 (17%) were Hispanic. In 2016, (Gross, 2016). Herein, authors seek to 963 individuals were killed of whom 233 understand the implicit bias that affects (24%) African American, 466 (48%) this post hoc use of deadly force. It is White, 160 (17%) Hispanic, the count for important for social workers to 2017 is ongoing (Washington Post, 2017). acknowledge and critically examine this In comparison to demographic data, as of social problem from all angles to fully the last Census in 2010, the percentage of 2 Davis and Block – Critical Analysis of Shootings Whites in the US is 63.7%, African Issues of racial inequality, oppression and Americans 12.6%, 16.3% Hispanic (U.S. discrimination have persisted as social Census Bureau, 2011). As can be seen problems in the United States since the use from these numbers, African Americans of slavery as a means of production, nation are overrepresented in these fatality building and social control. Severe statistics by at least a margin of 2:1. inequality is accepted in U.S. culture and Whereas hispanic representation is near to the legacy of slavery, without a doubt, population levels at around 16-17%. affects cultural conceptions of African Moreover, it has been found that unarmed Americans today. CRT focuses on the African Americans are 3.5 times more primacy of race and racism and the likely to be shot than their unarmed White connectedness with other forms of counterparts (Mapping Police Violence, subordination. It questions the status quo, 2015). Also, African Americans who are is committed to social justice, and places armed but do not pose an imminent threat high value on society’s experiential towards the police are more likely to be knowledge (Chaney & Robertson, 2015). killed than Whites, Hispanics, and Asians A CRT approach within the (Mapping Police Violence, 2015). The following articles highlights why the numbers bare out what the following shootings of unarmed African Americans theoretical analysis unpacks: historical and by White police may be happening and socio-cultural factors result in social how it is affecting the African American injustice for African Americans apropos community’s perceptions of law their experiences with the use of deadly enforcement. Chaney & Robertson (2015) force and police. pose three questions: “1: How does the According to the NASW’s Code of murder of unarmed African American Ethics, (1999) a social worker’s primary (Black) people by police support White mission is to “enhance human well-being supremacy? 2: What do non-indictments and help meet the basic human needs of all of police suggest about the lives of people, with particular attention to the unarmed African American (Black) needs and empowerment of people who people? 3: How does the murder of are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in unarmed African American (Black) people poverty” (para. 1). Social workers have an escalate individual, familial, and ethical imperative, unique to this communal mistrust of police?” The profession, which pushes professional authors unpack these questions and apply social workers to prevent injustice and CRT to the situation of shootings of discrimination based on race. This paper African American men by law utilizes theory, specifically critical race enforcement. theory, contact theory and the fundamental Through the first question the attribution error to better understand the authors show the importance of historical context of the issues facing the understanding the historical significance intersection of race and policing. A of slave patrols and their legacy on thorough understanding of the problem is policing in the United States of America. the first step toward identifying possible When African Americans are perceived as solutions. dangerous and subhuman, the socio- political process allows for White METHODS supremacy to hold fast. The lack of indictment tells African Americans that Critical Race Theory police have little to no accountability for their actions against the African American community. Through the second question Keystone Journal of Undergraduate Research 5(1): 1-11, 2018 3 authors emphasize that the lack of shows that retribution is lacking in indictments tells African Americans that correcting the misconduct (Chaney & their lives have little value. Through the Robertson, 2013). third question they look at how the Whiteness throughout history and shootings of unarmed African Americans still today conveys a position of privilege impacts mistrust of police throughout the and power. This hierarchy instituted by African American community (Chaney & Whites, for Whites provides the lens Robertson, 2015). In combination, these through which cultural conceptions are research questions underscore the drawn about race and racial inequality, historical and current social circumstances including White attitudes about the use of that allow for the cycle of shootings of force by the police (Carter & Corra, 2016). unarmed African Americans to continue Carta and Corra suggest that one’s (Crenshaw 2011; 2002; 1995; Solorzano, perception of race is not truly their own; Ceja, & Yosso, 2000; Yosso, Smith, Ceja, instead these perceptions are passed down & Solorzano, 2009; Zuberi 2011). through generations and enforced by the From the very beginning, the society one lives in. This theory erodes nation’s “White superiority” and history hope that the elimination of negative has been built on the backs of African stereotypes and hostile relations can be Americans. They have been victims of achieved through the education of youth brutality, physical force, abuse, and alone and underscores the complexity humiliation at the hands of those who surrounding this national illness to erase it. created and enforced the laws in America. Overwhelmingly, White individuals are CRT brings full circle how the historical the ones maintaining social control, and context of White superiority affects CRT bares out as much when one looks at African Americans today. A bedrock piece power dynamics and race. of evidence in connecting theory to reality is the increasing rates of police brutality It is a well-known fact that against African Americans in recent years lynching was a method of policing and (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). In this social control, especially in the south, article, CRT helps to show how race is during the time of Jim Crow (post-civil embedded in institutions such as law war) (Petersen & Ward, 2015). Estimates enforcement, etc. As well as how White indicate that over 2500 African Americans leadership could be increasing the were lynched between 1890 and 1930 in possibility of unequal treatment of the American South (Bailey & Snedker, marginalized groups according to CRT 2011). Aymer (2016) discusses how the (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). violence and death from these lynchings Through an extensive search