Ashante K. Charles
Instructor: Micaela S. Kramer
Integrative Seminar
Friday, November 30th, 2018
The Stigma of Police Brutality: The Power of Abusing Power
For centuries African Americans have undergone oppression from police forces, their presence in society prevails as a threat and through the color of their skin their reputation is distinctly stigmatized. In America, this stigma thrives in damaging the state of black communities. According to studies, African Americans are targeted commonly under the color of law. Clarence Taylor states, “the perceived criminality of the black population explains much of the racialized police violence in U.S. cities in the 20th century.” People of color are defined by the reputation of their community, creating a false perception of minorities and biased relationship with the population and law enforcement. As a brief history is elaborated of racial injustice within African American communities, this will familiarize us of the perception of people of color, and intensified relationships amid law enforcement as it consolidates with modern activism through culturally and politically motivated artists and social media influence.
Young African American men have since remained a dominant group of victims to police brutality, news reports and media validate these circumstances to be true. Men of color are more likely to be confronted or assaulted by a police officer than women of color. A recent study confirms this is associated with critical stereotyping, analyzing the appearance of black men that fractures how they are discerned in the streets by policemen. Those factors entail the height of African American men, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) uncovers that the “New York Police Department stop-and-frisk encounters and finds that tall Black men are especially likely to receive unjustified attention from police.”
Based on a formal and visual analysis, America is a predominant region of police misconduct and violence. The first documented incident of police brutality was introduced initially in the late 1800s, a newspaper issued by the Chicago Tribune reported a civilian subjected to undue violence from a police officer.
Atrocities were dominant when the Jim Crow law was established between the mid to late 1870s. The Jim Crow law emerged in the South, initially in Tennessee and soon after Texas, other States followed through subsequently. Southern state legislatures agreed to pursue a racially segregational system in matters of enforcement. The legislation remained fixed for nearly a hundred years before African Americans adopted the courage and ability to fight despite the harsh predicaments. African American protests surfaced during the 1950s, this era is commonly renowned as the civil rights movement. Black communities took advantage of this moment to advocate for their rights in the midst of racial disparities. Inevitably through these protests, law enforcement was despicable from subjugating to physically constraining African Americans violently, these actions consequently provoked widespread riots. The 19th century is prominent for colored people, this is why movements and protests remain relevant in the 20th century, stubbornly African Americans never cease to advocate against injustices within black communities as they continue to endure police brutality.
This issue continues to surface in numerous media outlets and platforms, and social movements generated in this case, the Black Lives Matter protests frequently prevail across the country, influencing a significant increase in awareness amongst communities. The Black Lives Matter movement was established in 2013 and has since formed a powerful and long-lasting response, as protestors advocate persistently in various communities prevalently. This revolution raised after the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an innocent 17-year-old black male shot in Florida. Countless deaths followed subsequently; 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot six times by a white police officer in Missouri, Eric Garner died instantly of excessive force due to an NYPD chokehold in Staten Island, In Cleveland, a 12-year-old boy Tamir Rice was fatally shot, and Alton Sterling in Louisiana shot at gunpoint range, the list is practically endless. An overflowing volume of media attention politically and socially enabled the Black Lives Matter movement to grow as a trend on social media.
Generations have taken advantage of their social media platforms, urging millions of people to project their voice on this matter, creating a mainstream of activism. These faces have circulated rapidly on the internet, unjustly renowned for their innocent deaths from the excessive, abuse of power law enforcement practice. Due to recurrent cases of police brutality, black communities are subjected to fear in their homes and neighborhoods. Statistics translate a frequent increase in casualties of African Americans that dates back from 2013 to 2018.
Many artists have expressed their outrage over law enforcement’s abuse of power habitually. One of the countless artistic communities that have executed creative and reminiscent pieces to project the pain entangled in African Americans lives is the online community, Art Responders. Visual artists who actively engage themselves in this community are, Ravi Zupa, Zeal Harris, Keith Mikell, and several other artists. The Art Responders purpose is to take advantage of creative expression to express their strong opinions and disapproval of “[the] culture of inhumane law enforcement in the US.” Their production of artworks elicit their passion within the content they illustrate with their heart mind and soul. Daryl Wells is one of the founders of the Art Responders community, she was motivated by the redundancy of African American youth shot every year, especially during the peak of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Daryl’s artwork derives from her passion “to memorialize the victims of police brutality and fight for criminal justice reform.” Their form of response is characterized as a “cultural engagement for social justice.” The community integrates workshops that allow communities of all ethnicities to participate in producing art for protests. Wells encourages artists like herself to express and respond creatively to police brutality and many other obstacles African Americans continue to endure.
Overall, as African Americans remain dominant victims of police brutality, their resilience is proven through their courage to speak and protest is prevalent against the injustices in America. Utilizing art to express their pain, they have created vivid and raw pieces of artwork in an example of online communities through artistic activism. Over centuries People of color have been stigmatized with police brutality, in these circumstances our attempts to fight and demand criminal justice reform, it persists as a lifestyle for people of color.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Taylor, Clarence, Introduction: African Americans, Police Brutality, And The U.S. Criminal Justice System, The University of Chicago Press, 2013
This article is written by a highly respected professor and American author, Clarence Taylor, his work focuses dominantly on African American culture and history. This article effectively discusses several issues in African American communities such as, racial injustice, the U.S. criminal justice system and mass incarceration.
“Police Brutality.” Wikipedia. November 29, 2018. Accessed November 30, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_brutality.
This source shares insight of the history of police brutality in African American communities and information on how it surfaced.
Hester, Neil and Gray, Kurt For black men, being tall increases threat stereotyping and police stops, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, February 26, 2018
The concept of this article is a statistical analysis of stereotyping men of color in America and dominant characteristics they are discriminated with from the perspective of society and law enforcement.
Huck, and Eesuu Orundide. “Five Things We Learned from Artists Confronting Police Brutality.” Huck Magazine. May 03, 2016. Accessed November 30, 2018. https://www.huckmag.com/perspectives/activism-2/five-things-learned-artists-confronting-police-brutality/.
This magazine publishes an article about the Art Responders online community, they discuss how these art activists are producing work for the purpose of memorializing people of color who have been victims of police brutality.
“Art Responders.” Art Responders. Accessed November 30, 2018. https://artresponders.squarespace.com/.
This site is owned by the community of artists that is researched. Information is shared on their site regarding the reason behind their motivation, artists who actively participate in producing artwork for the community, projects they have displayed for exhibitions, and most importantly the background of the founder of Art Responders D.E. Stenvoll-Wells.
