Summary of the Selected Client System
The U.S law enforcement officials are implicated for unfairly targeting African Americans for suspicion of crime based on their racial backgrounds (Bell et al., 2014). According to Shane et al., (2017), Black men in the United States are two and a half times more likely than their White counterparts to be killed by a law enforcement officer during their lifetime. African Americans are uniquely vulnerable to police brutality because of the systemic racial bias among police officers and the perception that Blacks are inherently violent and dangerous (Gilbert & Ray, 2016). Therefore, they are more likely to be stopped, searched, and detained by the police without probable cause. In this handout, the Critical Race Theory (CRT) is deemed suitable for examining this topical issue as it offers a theoretical understanding of African Americans' persistent mistreatment by the police regarding the social inequities exacted on this minority group.
Summary of the Critical Race Theory
The Critical Race Theory (CRT) was developed by Derrick Bell, a Black civil rights lawyer (Bonilla-Silva, 2015). The model proclaims that institutions are typically racist and that race is a socially sanctioned notion that strives to promote economic and social inequality between races (Bonilla-Silva, 2015). As noted by some scholars, Blacks' marginalization by law enforcement is not a recent phenomenon but a historical problem in the United States (Aymer, 2016). To understand the origins of this practice, the CRT argues in support of the claim that the abuse and killing of African Americans are hallmarks of a racialized America that has established and propagated such patterns (Bonilla-Silva, 2015).
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Assessment of how the Selected Theory helps to understand the Selected Client System
Concerning the relationship between the police and members of marginalized communities, especially African Americans, a fundamental CRT principle asserts that racism is deeply entrenched in the American culture (Bonilla-Silva, 2015). The theory depicts how racism is structurally ingrained across U.S. policing. As Bonilla-Silva (2015) claims, this increases the possibility of abuse of marginalized communities using the social construction of race. Bonilla-Silva (2015) conjectures that this central tenet allows institutions to bestow benefits and detriments to individuals based on their race. Racial classifications, including White and Black is deep rooted whereby the former is associated with almost everything noble, and the latter linked with nearly everything wicked (Robinson, 2017). This injustice exposes African Americans to police brutality.
The CRT shows that historical experiences present an opportunity to examine modern forms of subjugation. According to Bonilla-Silva (2015), this concept's application facilitates an understanding of how police violence and persecution of African Americans today is similar to the Blacks' marginalization and torture during the 19th century in the U.S (Shane et al, 2017). Some observers have reasoned from a critical perspective that these law enforcement practices' objective is to promote and preserve White supremacy (Gilbert & Ray, 2016). More practically, the police's racial profiling is meant to ensure that Whites possess and maintain the exclusive entitlement to power and wealth (Park & Kim, 2015).
Ethical Considerations and Professional Behavior
The marginalization of African Americans by police officers is a critical issue in social work. The profession has a lengthy history of striving to alleviate all vestiges of structural racism in law enforcement. Moore et al., (2016) suggest that social workers should apply social justice principles at the macro-level practice to evaluate the impact of intergenerational patterns on their clients' different realities. They should be inspired by the professional values of social work that seek to significantly impact educating society and law enforcement officers on the dignity of Blacks. As Moore et al. (2016) observe, social justice and advocacy should emphasize on reinstating the humanity and respect for African Americans by deploying a multidisciplinary approach in collaboration with the media and other institutions including the Black church. Through this activism, social workers can institute a new era of amicable race relations between the police and African American society.
References
Aymer, S. R. (2016). “I can’t breathe”: A case study—Helping Black men cope with race-related trauma stemming from police killing and brutality. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment , 26(3-4), 367–376.
Bell, G. C., Hopson, M. C., Craig, R., & Robinson, N. W. (2014). Exploring Black and white accounts of 21st-century racial profiling: Riding and driving while Black. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication , 15(1), 33–42.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2015). More than prejudice: Restatement, reflections, and new directions in critical race theory. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity , 1(1), 73–87.
Gilbert, K. L., & Ray, R. (2016). Why police kill Black males with impunity: Applying public health critical race praxis (PHCRP) to address the determinants of policing behaviors and “justifiable” homicides in the USA. Journal of Urban Health , 93(S1), 122–140.
Moore, S. E., Robinson, M. A., Adedoyin, A. C., Brooks, M., Harmon, D. K., & Boamah, D. (2016). Hands up—Don’t shoot: Police shooting of young Black males: Implications for social work and human services. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment , 26 (3-4), 254-266.
Park, S. H., & Kim, H. J. (2015). Assumed race moderates spontaneous racial bias in a computer-based police simulation. Asian Journal of Social Psychology , 18(3), 252–257.
Robinson, M. A. (2017). Black bodies on the ground: Policing disparities in the African American community—an analysis of newsprint from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015. Journal of Black Studies , 48(6), 551–571.
Shane, J. M., Lawton, B., & Swenson, Z. (2017). The prevalence of fatal police shootings by US police, 2015–2016: Patterns and answers from a new data set. Journal of criminal justice , 52 , 101-111.
