Between Me And You Analysis

“Between Me and You” a book created by Ta-Nehisi Coates describes how tough it is being an African American man in America. The book which I read a couple of months ago showed how hard it is not to be targeted and judged in society if a person is of color. Coates mentioned how the rise of police brutality scares him on a daily basis for his African American son who is able to see these attacks on the black community through different outlets. Due to the use of social media, cellphones, video cameras and more we are able to see the destruction of minority communities. Though, the use of excessive force and police brutality happened years ago, now we are able to see blatant racism right before our eyes. The killings of Corey Jones, Tamir Rice,
It is very rare to see police in an area that lacks minorities. Usually the police community relations within these neighborhoods are very different compared to communities with an influx of minorities. The Place hypothesis states that police forces are usually more prominent in neighborhoods where minorities are because minorities are seen as threats. Usually in urban neighborhoods, it is less likely that there are enough resources for people to live comfortably. For many urban neighborhoods, there is great disadvantage compared to communities with Caucasians. The school systems lack proper books, poverty occurs, violence happens and there is weapon availability (Smith 2014) Many police forces sees this as a threat to society because their circumstances are different from what is considered the norm. Keeping African Americans and Hispanics in an environment where it's hard to prosper maintains social order. Officers often associate these neighborhoods with menacing ways and criminality. People in these neighborhoods are considered potential threats. This relates to the next hypothesis which is the minority threat hypothesis. The minority threat hypothesis states the higher the percentage of minorities in a specific community, the higher the police involvement within that neighborhood. In these neighborhoods, police may believe that they are dominant compared to the people that live there because
Race is one of the factors that predicts one’s view of the police system. White supremacy is definitely linked to one’s perception of police and their activities. According to Steven Tuch, who wrote the article “Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct”, Tuch states that dominant groups like white people favor police forces to keep black people subordinate. A Lot Of minorities shouldn’t be considered “anti police”, instead it should be noted that they tend to have some negative sentiments regarding police. Their subordinacy in America ultimately increases the likeliness of being abused due to police misconduct. (Tuch 2004) For example many African Americans deal constantly with unwarranted stops but aren’t able to argue against these procedures due to their subordinate position. Many white people agree with the tactics police use against minorities. Cassandra Chaney’s article called “Racism and Police Brutality in America” agrees with this. Chaney mentions a term called “negrophobia” which is a term used to describe white people’s fear of being abused by black people. This fear warrants police to harm black people due to them wanting protect the dominant communities. (Chaney 2013) This protection gains favorability in these