Sociology Of Race & Ethnic Relations

Sociology of Race & Ethnic Relations
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Sociology of Race & Ethnic Relations
Stereotyping and prejudice is a sin that most people are guilty of. This is fine so long as one does not hold public office where he or she is supposed to use professional judgment. This is why judges and policemen are supposed to be neutral and free from bias. However, this is not the case as the witness video of the very recent Walter Scott shooting goes to show. The sad thing is that this is not the first time a black man has died at the other end of a trigger-happy white man in blue. This has happened before. The even sadder thing is that the policemen responsible for such incidences get off scot-free. This led to the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement. The movement was started after the acquittal of one George Zimmerman (Kraska, 2007). It received more public backing especially after the death of Eric Garner and more recently that of one Freddie Gray. The movement tries to deal with the issues of profiling of men by race, militarization of police and institutional racism.
It is a fact that the profiling of black men has grown to be an integral part of the American culture. Statistics show that a black man is twice as likely to commit a crime as his white counterpart (Beishline, 2012). This however should be no reason to lock out young outstanding men from the police force under false pretenses. This is because the real reason for not recruiting blacks into the police force is that the men in charge of recruiting are afraid that the black man will not be able to mete out justice to criminals, read other black men. By limiting this man’s options, the big men behind their empty desks and bloated feelings of power and moral righteousness are inadvertently pushing the upright man towards a life of crime. Profiling of black men goes hand in hand with institutional and structural racism. Prejudice against black men can be traced back to their days as school going kids. Research shows that out of every four kids suspended, one is white. (Welch 2007) This might be in no way a reflection of how upright or morally corrupt the black kids are. It might however be a reflection of the deep seated attitude of the schoolmaster towards the kids along racial lines (Kraska, 2007). A white kid might commit the same crime as their black counterpart but it is the black kid who will get a suspensi...