Criminal black man stereotype
Encyclopedia
The criminal black man is an ethnic stereotype
in the United States
associated with characterizing some African-American men as criminal
and dangerous. The figure of the black man as criminal has appeared frequently in popular culture
and media. It has been associated with racial profiling
by law enforcement in that country.
was an early writer in criminology; he developed a theory that some peoples were more "civilized" and others more "savage". In the latter category, he grouped colored peoples, specifically black, yellow and mixed. His concern specifically was with southern Italians and gypsies than with peoples in other countries, as he believed the southern Italians had mixed ancestries over the years with Arabs and people from North Africa. He based his theory of atavism
on the prevailing scientific racist theories
. He believed that crime was primarily a manifestation of innate qualities and that humans could be classified as prone to crime by evaluating their physical characteristics, such as shape and size of head, facial features, etc. He classified humans as the white and the colored races, claiming that the whites were more civilized.
As the United States was a slave society, slaveholders began to associate African Americans with crime as part of their justification for the institution. Historians have noted that the South historically has had a higher rate of violence than other parts of the country, and attributed it to the traditions of violence to enforce slavery, and actions in the late nineteenth century after Reconstruction of the white minority trying to dominate African Americans. The rise of drug-related violence and homicides in the inner cities in the 1970s and early 1980s caused people to become more worried about young black men as "ominous criminal predator", rather than "petty thief", according to Marc Mauer.
To show how stereotypes can change, however, during Prohibition and the rise of crimes related to illegal liquor, many people associated Italians with crimes and murders because of the actions of organized crime groups, such as the Mafia. The perception of crime was greater than its incidence.
Katheryn Russell-Brown in her book The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment and Other Macroaggressions
(1998) refers to the stereotype as the "criminalblackman", because people associate young black men with crime in American culture. She writes that the black male is portrayed as a "symbolic pillager of all that is good". Russell-Brown refers to the criminalblackman as a myth and suggests that the stereotype contributes to "racial hoaxes
". She defines these as "when someone fabricates a crime and blames it on another person because of his race OR when an actual crime has been committed and the perpetrator falsely blames someone because of his race". Stuart Henry and Mark Lanier in What Is Crime?: Controversies Over the Nature of Crime and What to Do about It (2001) refer to the criminal black man as a "mythlike race/gender image of deviance".
Linda G. Tucker in Lockstep and Dance: Images of Black Men in Popular Culture (2007) argues that the representations in popular culture of criminal black men help perpetuate the image. She writes that the portrayal of crime by conservative politicians during heated campaigns is used as a metaphor for race: they have recast fears about race as fears about crime. For instance, Republican opponents of Dukakis used the case of Willie Horton
to attack the Democrat's stand on law enforcement, suggesting that people would be safer if led by Republicans. She says that such politicians used Horton as a collective symbol of black male criminality.
The criminal black man appears often in the context of athletics and sports. Arthur A. Raney and Jennings Bryant discuss this in Handbook of Sports and Media (2006). They cite Beyond the Cheers: Race as Spectacle in College Sport (2001) by C. Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood, which examines the connection between race, crime, and sports. They study the ways in which "criminality indelibly marks the African American athlete". Raney and Bryant says coverage and reception of accusations of crimes by sportspeople differed depending on the race of the individual.
John Milton Hoberman
in Darwin's Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race (1997) writes that "the merger of the athlete, the gangster rapper, and the criminal into a single black male persona ... into the predominant image of black masculinity in the United States and around the world" has harmed racial integration.
The stereotype of young black males and crime also exists in the United Kingdom
. Robbery, drug use, and gang violence, for example, have been associated with black people since the 1960s. In the 1980s and 1990s, the police associated robbery with black people. In 1995, the Metropolitan Police commissioner Paul Condon said that the majority of robberies in London were committed by black people.
These same stereotypes are present in Brazil
, where persons of color (except Asian Brazilian
s) are considered much more propense to crime than its White population
of European, Middle Eastern
(in contrast to some negative social perceptions in North America
, Europe
and Australasia
which experienced a rise in the first decade of 21st century, there was not considerable racism against persons of Middle Eastern descent in Brazil who are deemed as white) or European-predominant Multiracial origins, which tend to be relatively much wealthier and with higher education degrees than African
, Indigenous and perceptibly Multiracial
Brazilians, as well South American and African immigrants
. There are also major stereotypical correlations of Afro-Brazilians (Black people in general) and Multiracial Brazilians with "ghetto culture" (further information in the favela
and Culture of Brazil
articles) and sports
(some of the athlete stereotypes shared with Asian Brazilian
s, mainly in Martial Arts
).
Ethnic stereotype
An ethnic stereotype is a generalized representation of an ethnic group, composed of what are thought to be typical characteristics of members of the group.Ethnic stereotypes are commonly portrayed in ethnic jokes.-Ethnic stereotypes:*African Americans...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
associated with characterizing some African-American men as criminal
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and dangerous. The figure of the black man as criminal has appeared frequently in popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
and media. It has been associated with racial profiling
Racial profiling
Racial profiling refers to the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement...
by law enforcement in that country.
History
People in different countries have tried to associate criminality with different physical types. The Italian Cesare LombrosoCesare Lombroso
Cesare Lombroso, born Ezechia Marco Lombroso was an Italian criminologist and founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology. Lombroso rejected the established Classical School, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature...
was an early writer in criminology; he developed a theory that some peoples were more "civilized" and others more "savage". In the latter category, he grouped colored peoples, specifically black, yellow and mixed. His concern specifically was with southern Italians and gypsies than with peoples in other countries, as he believed the southern Italians had mixed ancestries over the years with Arabs and people from North Africa. He based his theory of atavism
Atavism
Atavism is the tendency to revert to ancestral type. In biology, an atavism is an evolutionary throwback, such as traits reappearing which had disappeared generations before. Atavisms can occur in several ways...
on the prevailing scientific racist theories
Scientific racism
Scientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
. He believed that crime was primarily a manifestation of innate qualities and that humans could be classified as prone to crime by evaluating their physical characteristics, such as shape and size of head, facial features, etc. He classified humans as the white and the colored races, claiming that the whites were more civilized.
As the United States was a slave society, slaveholders began to associate African Americans with crime as part of their justification for the institution. Historians have noted that the South historically has had a higher rate of violence than other parts of the country, and attributed it to the traditions of violence to enforce slavery, and actions in the late nineteenth century after Reconstruction of the white minority trying to dominate African Americans. The rise of drug-related violence and homicides in the inner cities in the 1970s and early 1980s caused people to become more worried about young black men as "ominous criminal predator", rather than "petty thief", according to Marc Mauer.
To show how stereotypes can change, however, during Prohibition and the rise of crimes related to illegal liquor, many people associated Italians with crimes and murders because of the actions of organized crime groups, such as the Mafia. The perception of crime was greater than its incidence.
Perceptions
Research on perceptions in the US shows that many people believe that African-American men engage in violent crimes at the highest rates of all racial categories, which is reflected by crime statistics. It is also true that black men are overrepresented in the American prison system; according to numerous sources African Americans are approximately six times more likely to spend time in prison or jail, and eight times more likely to commit violent crimes than whites (based on both arrest and conviction statistics and victim crime reports).Katheryn Russell-Brown in her book The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment and Other Macroaggressions
The Color of Crime
The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment and Other Macroaggressions is a 1998 book by American academic Katheryn Russell-Brown , published by New York University Press , with a second edition in 2008...
(1998) refers to the stereotype as the "criminalblackman", because people associate young black men with crime in American culture. She writes that the black male is portrayed as a "symbolic pillager of all that is good". Russell-Brown refers to the criminalblackman as a myth and suggests that the stereotype contributes to "racial hoaxes
Racial hoax
A racial hoax is a hoax that occurs "when someone fabricates a crime and blames it on another person because of [their] race or when an actual crime has been committed and the perpetrator falsely blames someone because of [their] race"...
". She defines these as "when someone fabricates a crime and blames it on another person because of his race OR when an actual crime has been committed and the perpetrator falsely blames someone because of his race". Stuart Henry and Mark Lanier in What Is Crime?: Controversies Over the Nature of Crime and What to Do about It (2001) refer to the criminal black man as a "mythlike race/gender image of deviance".
Linda G. Tucker in Lockstep and Dance: Images of Black Men in Popular Culture (2007) argues that the representations in popular culture of criminal black men help perpetuate the image. She writes that the portrayal of crime by conservative politicians during heated campaigns is used as a metaphor for race: they have recast fears about race as fears about crime. For instance, Republican opponents of Dukakis used the case of Willie Horton
Willie Horton
William R. "Willie" Horton is an American convicted felon who, while serving a life sentence for murder, without the possibility of parole, was the beneficiary of a Massachusetts weekend furlough program...
to attack the Democrat's stand on law enforcement, suggesting that people would be safer if led by Republicans. She says that such politicians used Horton as a collective symbol of black male criminality.
The criminal black man appears often in the context of athletics and sports. Arthur A. Raney and Jennings Bryant discuss this in Handbook of Sports and Media (2006). They cite Beyond the Cheers: Race as Spectacle in College Sport (2001) by C. Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood, which examines the connection between race, crime, and sports. They study the ways in which "criminality indelibly marks the African American athlete". Raney and Bryant says coverage and reception of accusations of crimes by sportspeople differed depending on the race of the individual.
John Milton Hoberman
John Milton Hoberman
John Milton Hoberman is an American author. He is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin as well as the chair of the Department of Germanic Studies. His work focuses on sports and culture....
in Darwin's Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race (1997) writes that "the merger of the athlete, the gangster rapper, and the criminal into a single black male persona ... into the predominant image of black masculinity in the United States and around the world" has harmed racial integration.
The stereotype of young black males and crime also exists in the United Kingdom
Race and crime in the United Kingdom
The relationship between race and crime in the United Kingdom is the subject of academic studies, government surveys, media coverage, and public concern...
. Robbery, drug use, and gang violence, for example, have been associated with black people since the 1960s. In the 1980s and 1990s, the police associated robbery with black people. In 1995, the Metropolitan Police commissioner Paul Condon said that the majority of robberies in London were committed by black people.
These same stereotypes are present in Brazil
Crime in Brazil
Crime in Brazil involves an elevated incidence of violent and non-violent crimes. According to most sources, Brazil possesses high rates of violent crimes, such as murders and robberies; the homicide rate has been steadily declining, but it is still above 20.0 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants,...
, where persons of color (except Asian Brazilian
Asian Brazilian
An Asian Brazilian is is a Brazilian citizen of full or partial Asian ancestry, who remains culturally connected to Asia, or an Asian-born person permanently residing in Brazil. Brazil received many immigrants from Asia, both from Middle East and East Asia...
s) are considered much more propense to crime than its White population
White Brazilian
White Brazilians make up 48.4% of Brazil's population, or around 92 million people, according to the IBGE's 2008 PNAD . Whites are present in the entire territory of Brazil, although the main concentrations are found in the South and Southeastern parts of the country...
of European, Middle Eastern
Arab Brazilian
An Arab Brazilian is a Brazilian citizen born in an Arabic country, or a Brazilian-born person of Arab descent, who is aware of such ancestry and remains connected, in some degree, to Arabic culture.- Immigration to Brazil :...
(in contrast to some negative social perceptions in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
which experienced a rise in the first decade of 21st century, there was not considerable racism against persons of Middle Eastern descent in Brazil who are deemed as white) or European-predominant Multiracial origins, which tend to be relatively much wealthier and with higher education degrees than African
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
, Indigenous and perceptibly Multiracial
Pardo
In Brazil, Pardo is a race/colour category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in Brazilian censuses. It is a Portuguese word that encompasses various shades of brown, but is usually translated as "grayish-brown"...
Brazilians, as well South American and African immigrants
Immigration to Brazil
Immigration to Brazil is the movement to Brazil of foreign persons to reside permanently. It should not be confused with the colonisation of the country by the Portuguese, or with the forcible bringing of people from Africa as slaves....
. There are also major stereotypical correlations of Afro-Brazilians (Black people in general) and Multiracial Brazilians with "ghetto culture" (further information in the favela
Favela
A favela is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18th century, the first settlements were called bairros africanos . This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many freed black slaves moved in...
and Culture of Brazil
Culture of Brazil
The culture of Brazil presents a very diverse nature reflecting an ethnic and cultural mixing occurred in the colonial period involving mostly Native Americans, Portuguese and Africans...
articles) and sports
Sport in Brazil
Sports in Brazil are those that are widely practiced and popular in the country, as well as others which originated there or have some cultural significance. The Brazilian people are very involved in sports. Football is the most popular sport in Brazil...
(some of the athlete stereotypes shared with Asian Brazilian
Asian Brazilian
An Asian Brazilian is is a Brazilian citizen of full or partial Asian ancestry, who remains culturally connected to Asia, or an Asian-born person permanently residing in Brazil. Brazil received many immigrants from Asia, both from Middle East and East Asia...
s, mainly in Martial Arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
).
See also
- Race and crimeRace and crimeObservations of relationships between race and crime have been part of criminological theory since its early inceptions. In early criminology this relation was used to argue that certain racially defined populations were more prone to crime than others, and in turn as motivation for policies of...
- Race and crime in the United StatesRace and crime in the United StatesThe relationship between race and crime in the United States has been a topic of public controversy and scholarly debate for more than a century...
- Magical NegroMagical negroThe Magical Negro, or magical African-American friend, is a supporting stock character in American cinema, who, by use of special insight or powers, helps the white protagonist....
- Mammy archetypeMammy archetypeThe mammy archetype is perhaps one of the best-known archetypes of African American women. She is often portrayed within a narrative framework or other imagery as a domestic servant of African descent, generally good-natured, often overweight, very dark skinned, middle aged, and loud...
- Black bruteBlack bruteThe black brute caricature is a stereotype originating around the time of the Reconstruction Era of the United States, which depicts African American men as inherently violent, savage, and immoral beings.- History :...
Sources
- Russell-Brown, Katheryn (1998). The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment and Other Macroaggressions. New York University Press. ISBN 0814774717.
- Quillian, Lincoln; Pager, Devah. (November 2001). Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime. American Journal of SociologyAmerican Journal of SociologyThe American Journal of Sociology was established in 1895 by Albion Small and is the oldest academic journal of sociology in the United States. The journal is attached to the University of Chicago's sociology department and it is published bimonthly by The University of Chicago Press. Its...
107 (3): 717–767. For a copy, see . - Rome, Dennis (2004). Black Demons: The Media's Depiction of the African American Male Criminal Stereotype. Greenwood Publishing GroupGreenwood Publishing GroupGreenwood Publishing Group is an educational publisher and is part of ABC-CLIO. It publishes reference works under its Greenwood Press imprint, and scholarly, professional, and general interest books under Praeger Publishers...
. ISBN 0275972445. - Tucker, Linda G. (2007). Lockstep and Dance: Images of Black Men in Popular Culture. University Press of MississippiUniversity Press of MississippiThe University Press of Mississippi, founded in 1970, is a publisher that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi:*Alcorn State University*Delta State University*Jackson State University*Mississippi State University...
. ISBN 978-1578069064. - Welch, Kelly (August 2007). "Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling". Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 23 (3): 276–288. .
- Marsh, Ian; Melville, Gaynor. (2009). Crime, Justice and the Media. Taylor & FrancisTaylor & FrancisTaylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom which publishes books and academic journals. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Kingdom-based publisher and conference company.- Overview :...
. ISBN 9780415444903.