The Relationship Between Race and the Law

Q1 

According to Goff et al. (2016), the subjective data related policing in the US is that the relationship between race and the law is that criminal behavior drives police response. The meaning of this statement is the idea that races that have higher crime rates are more represented in criminal justice than those that have lower crime rates. The same authors argue that the objective data surrounding policing, especially the use of force depicts disparities in the application of force to combat crime by the police. Precisely, African Americans are disproportionately affected by police brutality compared to their White counterparts—they are approximately 1.3 times more likely to be brutally treated than the Whites—yet the this trend does not imply that Blacks are more deviant than Whites. Despite the existence of such data, the study indicates that the public appears to remain coy on the issue of police brutality, especially because of the consideration that crime rates vary according to racial factors. The idea indicates that in the US, a majority of the public perceives African Americans as more deviant than the rest of the races, especially the majority White race. 

Q2 

The objective solution to the disproportionate use of force by the police among the different races in the nation is to control the use of Tasers. According to Goff et al. (2016), Tasers are the most commonly used devices by the police when they use force to control criminals. The study identifies that the police have increased the use of the weapons in the recent years in their encounters with the public on the streets, which would suggest that most of the persons that they deal with appear to resist arrests. If policy was to regulate the use of Tasers, therefore, it would be possible to reduce the incidence of police harassment and use of force, which would have implications on racial disparities reported. 

Discussion Forum#3 

Original Post 

I was surprised by the fact that I managed only four correct classifications of people according to their races. I found the assignment hard especially because the pictures were a little too small for me to study them properly. Although the size of the images cannot be an excuse to the low score that I managed, I feel that they might have contributed to the findings. Another frustrating issue was the idea that I thought the persons whose pictures were classified should have belonged to more than four racial groups. Consequently, a fumbled figuring out the way I would classify the people correctly, and though I was sure of a higher score, I performed dismally. 

According to my experience, it is not possible to classify an individual into their correct racial background based on their appearance because of the changes in the racial dynamics of the world. More interactions of people around the world have resulted in a mixture of races, which is the first factor that contributes to the challenges in classifying them. Furthermore, advances in technology have allowed people to alter their appearances, which is why attributes such as skin color, shape of face, hair, and eyes no longer reveal much about their racial backgrounds (Omi & Winant, 2014). 

Social construction of race refers to the manner in which people perceive race and the social factors that underpin this perception. Slavery in early American history and the Civil Rights movement of the pre-modern America might have contributed to the way we define race (Omi & Winant, 2014). These two historical events depict the disparities that existed between the races, especially while attempting to access opportunities for self-advancement. As the population and diversity of the country rose, it was realized that defining people according to their appearance would create more inequality among the races (Berlant, 2011; Deakin, Morris, & Morris, 2005). 

Response to Posts by Classmates 

I agree with you on your finding that it is not possible to identify someone’s race by looking at their physical appearance. The US is a more diverse society now than it was centuries ago, and this factor has resulted in a racial mix-up. Identifying natives of the country and using this factor to group the rest of the races could be challenging, especially when one looks at their physical appearances alone. The quest of racial equality could be the most significant factor that has shaped the way Americans perceive racial issues. 

Understanding the social construction of race could be one of the most important steps that one can make towards understanding race in the US. It is true that identifying an individual into their correct racial group based on physical appearance is challenging because of the growth in diversity. In fact, it is important for you to note that pure races are almost becoming rare because of the growth in the levels of social interactions and efforts to reduce inequality. 

References 

Berlant, L. G. (2011).  Cruel optimism  (Vol. 226). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 

Deakin, S. F., Morris, G. S., & Morris, G. S. (2005).  Labour law  (p. 386). Oxford: Hart publishing. 

Goff, P. A., Lloyd, T., Geller, A., Raphael, S., & Glaser, J. (2016). The science of justice: Race, arrests, and police use of force . Center for Policing Equity. 

Omi, M., & Winant, H. (2014).  Racial formation in the United States . Routledge.