Search results

Black Canadians have a historically tenuous relationship with the police. Negative perceptions of the police held by Black people have traditionally resulted from high levels of police contact and perceived negative treatment during these encounters. Well-publicized instances of police violence involving Black civilians have also fostered hostility and mistrust of the police, often resulting in social unrest. Recently, in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of American police, people across Canada rallied in support of the Black Lives Matter social movement and calls to defund the police entered mainstream political consciousness. At the same time, police leaders have vehemently argued that racial bias within Canadian policing has been greatly reduced as the result of various reform efforts.

This paper explores the police racism debate in Canada through an analysis of three waves of survey data collected between 1994 and 2019.

Despite well-publicized reform efforts, the authors' findings demonstrate that little has changed over the past 25 years. Black people still report much higher rates of police stop and search activity than people from other racial backgrounds. Furthermore, racial disparities in negative police contact remain strongly significant after controlling for other theoretically relevant factors, including self-reported deviance and community crime levels. Finally, reflecting their negative experiences, most Black people still perceive Canadian law enforcement as racially biased. Nonetheless, the data do reveal one significant change: the proportion of white people who perceive police discrimination against Black people has increased dramatically over this same time period. The paper concludes by discussing the prospects of meaningful reform in light of the current findings.

This paper contributes to the literature on race and policing through an examination of 25 years of survey data across three waves of collection.

The monograph argues that American racism has two colours (white and black), not one; and that each racism dresses itself not in one clothing, but in four: (1) “Minimal” negative, when one race considers another race inferior to itself in degree, but not in nature; (2) “Maximal” negative, when one race regards another as inherently inferior; (3) “Minimal” positive, when one race elevates another race to a superior status in degree, but not in nature; and (4) “Maximal” positive, when one race believes that the other race is genetically superior. The monograph maintains that the needs of capitalism created black slavery; that black slavery produced white racism as a justification for black slavery; and that black racism is a backlash of white racism. The monograph concludes that the abolition of black slavery and the civil rights movement destroyed the social and political ground for white and black racism, while the modern development of capitalism is demolishing their economic and intellectual ground.

This article was written in response to the #BlackLivesMatter social justice protests that erupted around the world in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020.

This article weaves personal experiences, published research and current events and social issues to build the case that there are many ways that racism kills Black people.

Although antiblack police brutality looms largely in people's minds of how racism kills Black people, less conspicuous ways that racism kills Black people are often overlooked.

In this article, the author highlights: (1) the perennial expectation that Black people cater to other people's needs and desires; (2) performative activism and allyship; (3) assigning Black people the responsibility for fixing racism and (4) thinking education, mentoring or wealth is the panacea for racism as these less conspicuous ways that racism kills Black people.

To examine the race making experiences of multiracial men in carceral facilities.

I interviewed 58 incarcerated multiracial males.

Officially, multiracial incarcerated people are ascribed monoracial labels. They describe the variables used by those who racially categorize them and how their expectations about how others see them influence their racial self-identity. It is possible, they report, to maintain a multiracial self-identity, even if it is unofficially. They also describe interacting with men outside their racial category, behavior that supports the color-blind ideology.

Previous work on race making in carceral facilities has been collected in California; the present data were collected in the northeast. In addition, this research is the first study to consider the experiences of race making among incarcerated multiracial people.

The aim of this article is an analysis of the links between race and psychotic illness, psychiatric diagnosis and treatment, as well as psychiatric, police and prison violence against people with mental health problems. The analysis focuses on Black men who are more frequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders and who face more brutal treatment than other people with such diagnoses. We have adopted a multidisciplinary approach which draws insights from psychiatry, psychology, and sociology and challenges the biologistic interpretation of “mental illness.” We take into account the United States and Britain – two countries with large Black minorities and an established tradition of research on these groups. Among the crucial findings of this study are the facts that racial bias and stereotypes heavily influence the way Black men with a diagnosis of psychotic illness are treated by the psychiatric system, police and prison staff, and that the dominant approach to psychosis masks the connections between racism and mental health.

This chapter discusses the experiences of black men who encounter the phenomena of a mental health diagnosis, detention and death in a forensic setting in England. Although there are black women with mental health issues who have also died in forensic settings, the occurrence is significantly higher for men who become demonised as ‘Big, Black, Bad and dangerous’. The author discusses the historical over representation of mental ill health amongst black people in the general community and the plethora or reasons attributed to this. The author then discusses the various points of entry into the criminal justice system, where black men with mental health issues are over represented. The author explores some inquiries into the deaths of black men in custody and the recommendations that were subsequently made, which successive governments have failed to act upon. The author argues that the term ‘Institutional Racism’ is insufficient to explain this phenomenon; and offers her own theoretical interpretation which is a combination of systemic racism influenced by post-colonial conceptualisation

Previous literature about race equality in social care has identified specific examples of good practice, but also a lack of widespread action by services to address both race discrimination and cultural competence. This paper is based on work by the Commission for Social Care Inspection to produce a practice‐focussed bulletin for social care service providers about providing appropriate services for black and minority ethnic people. It is based on evidence from self‐assessment work by services and importantly, the views and experiences of black and minority ethnic people using social care services. The findings suggest that only a minority of services are taking specific action on race equality and that there is an under‐reporting of concerns by black and minority ethnic people using services. The key to appropriate services is not adapting existing services based on generalisations about ‘culture’ but providing culturally competent, personalised support that addresses individual needs alongside a systematic approach to remove barriers to race equality in the service.

The current piece summarizes five critical points about racism from the point of view of Black scholars and allies: (1) Black people are experiencing exhaustion from and physiological effects of racism, (2) racism extends far beyond police brutality and into most societal structures, (3) despite being the targets of racism, Black people are often blamed for their oppression and retaliated against for their response to it, (4) everyone must improve their awareness and knowledge (through both formal education and individual motivation) to fight racism and (5) anti-racist policies and accountability are key to enact structural reformation.

The first three of these points detail the depths of the problem from the perspectives of the authors and the final two lay out a call to action.

This viewpoint is the joint effort of 14 authors who provided a unified perspective.

This was one of the most original experiences the authors have had – working with 13 former/current students on joint perspectives about police brutality and racism more generally. The authors thank for the opportunity.

This paper explores the changing shape of black youth cultures and youth crime since the 1970s and the emergence of ‘gangs’ in the 21st century, against the backdrop of Britain's changing social, economic and cultural conditions. Using a structural‐cultural conceptual framework, it demonstrates that like much black youth crime in the 1980s and 1990s, gang membership amongst black young males can, in part, be explained as a dysfunctional cultural adaptation to socio‐structural pressures. Yet, while tackling poverty, social and economic disadvantage and racism will alleviate some of their pressures, many young people feel they are trapped in ‘violent worlds’ and have developed a sense of nihilism, which now appears to be a more pressing problem.