Originally Posted by molson
I don't know if race had anything to do with these two particular incidents, but obviously race has always been a big issue/concern in law enforcement. I've been thinking about this in the context of the discussion that came up a few pages back about racism then v. racism now, about whether racism "still exists." I think everybody agreed that the situation has changed a lot. But in some ways, I think "modern", subtle, inherent, cultural, subconscious racism (and sexism) can be even more insidious and damaging than the old-fashion slur-yelling kind.
Because now, prejudice and bias is still in every corner of our society, but - we don't really often see it directly like we did in the old days. But the numbers prove its there. Not just in law enforcement, but in salaries, job opportunities, cab wait times, housing, characterizations in the media, it's everywhere. Some of it can be explained by economic racial disparity, but even controlling for that, that bias and prejudice is there. And what makes the underlying cultural racism so insidious and damaging is that we don't realize that we're doing it. Bosses aren't literally saying, "well, this is a black women, so let's go ahead and knock 20% off the salary". Racism and sexism are particularly terrible things because they can impact even well-meaning people, even people who speak out against racism, even people who sincerely believe that they have no biases themselves. So it can always be "somebody else" that is the problem, even within the ranks of law enforcement, or employers, or whatever.
So in this thread and elsewhere, there's posters who recognize that insidious hidden nature of racism, but don't treat it that way when it comes to law enforcement.
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