The Color of Crime RRuusssseellll__BBrroowwnn__ii__224499..iinndddd 11 88//2277//2211 1111::3311 AAMM RRuusssseellll__BBrroowwnn__ii__224499..iinndddd 22 88//2277//2211 1111::3311 AAMM The Color of Crime Racial Hoaxes, White Crime, Media Messages, Police Violence, and Other Race- Based Harms Third Edition Katheryn Russell- Brown NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York RRuusssseellll__BBrroowwnn__ii__224499..iinndddd 33 88//2277//2211 1111::3311 AAMM NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York www.nyupress.org © 2021 by Katheryn Russell-Brown All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Russell-Brown, Katheryn, 1961– author. Title: The color of crime : racial hoaxes, white crime, media messages, police violence, and other race-based harms / Katheryn Russell-Brown. Description: Third edition. | New York : New York University Press, [2021] | Series: Critical America | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021003108 | ISBN 9781479801749 (hardback) | ISBN 9781479843152 (paperback) | ISBN 9781479802739 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479888504 (ebook other) Subjects: LCSH: Discrimination in criminal justice administration—United States. | Crime and race—United States. | African American criminals. | Racism—United States. Classification: LCC HV9950 .R87 2021 | DDC 305.8—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003108 The Color of Crime (Third Edition): White Crime, Media Messages, Police Violence, and Other Race- Based Harms is in the Critical America Series. New York University Press books are printed on acid- free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppli- ers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Also available as an ebook RRuusssseellll__BBrroowwnn__ii__224499..iinndddd 44 88//2277//2211 1111::3311 AAMM Contents Introduction 1 1. Definitions, Statistics, and Issues 9 2. Media Messages 32 3. History’s Strange Fruit 51 4. Racial Discrimination, Racial Profiling, and Racial Monitoring 72 5. Racial Hoaxes 96 6. White Crime 133 7. Race and Crime Literacy 153 8. The Soul Savers 167 Acknowledgments 181 Appendix A: Data Snapshots on Race and Crime 183 Appendix B: Racial Hoax Cases 187 Notes 221 Selected Bibliography 235 Index 245 About the Author 249 RRuusssseellll__BBrroowwnn__ii__224499..iinndddd 55 88//2277//2211 1111::3311 AAMM RRuusssseellll__BBrroowwnn__ii__224499..iinndddd 66 88//2277//2211 1111::3311 AAMM Introduction These are not the best of times. It is 2021 and the world is living, surviving, and dying through a pandemic. Most of us have been touched directly or indirectly by the COVID-1 9 virus. Many people have suffered a punish- ing blow. In the United States, millions of people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and hundreds of thousands of people have died of complications from the virus. COVID-1 9 has wreaked a particular havoc against African American and Latino communities. Members of these groups are disproportionately front-l ine workers—a s food service work- ers, meatpacking plant employees, health-c are aides, and service industry workers. In some cities and states, Black Americans have been more than twice as likely to contract and die from the virus. The racial disparity highlights entrenched racial fault lines that meet at the intersections of race, socioeconomic status, gender, neighborhood, and health care. The racial toll has been particularly stark for people awaiting bail, awaiting trial, and serving time. The coronavirus has provided an undeniable inflection point we can use to assess how race matters in our understand- ing of criminality, criminal imagery, harm, and justice. Early on, we were instructed to wear face masks when out in public and to maintain a social distance of at least six feet from other people. Black men quickly noted the potential danger of wearing face masks. Aaron Thomas’s comment keenly summarizes the existential conundrum: I don’t feel safe wearing a handkerchief or something else that isn’t clearly a protective mask covering my face in the store because I am a Black man living in this world. I want to stay alive but I also want to stay alive.1 The COVID- 19 crisis helped to unmask a particular racial havoc. Four months into the pandemic, another social problem took center stage: police killings. The disproportionate rates of Black people killed by police is not a new phenomenon. However, in 2020, the murder of 1 RRuusssseellll__BBrroowwnn__ii__224499..iinndddd 11 88//2277//2211 1111::3311 AAMM 2 | Introduction George Floyd became a rallying cry, precisely because it demonstrated the deadly consequences of treating Black skin as dangerous and a proxy for deviance. This videotaped proof was unavoidable as millions of chil- dren, young people, and adults were home from work or school, with limited options for entertainment. Floyd’s killing sparked worldwide protests and demands for transformative changes in policing agencies across the United States. Millions of people took to the streets to protest and march against the killing, shooting, and profiling of African Amer- icans. There were rallies in small towns and large cities, in majority- White communities and majority– of color communities. The marches were largely led by a multiracial group of young people and included a vast range of participants— including college students, high school stu- dents, frontline workers, community activists, professionals, and retir- ees. Public artwork and murals featuring the victims of police killings, including Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, were widespread. In some cities, protesters gathered to remove or vandalize statues of Confederate soldiers. In stark contrast to the 1960s civil rights protest marches, which involved mostly Black Americans, the majority of the marchers in 2020 were White. On the news, many of them could be seen chanting, holding, or wearing the words “Black Lives Matter.” Since then, Derek Chauvin, the officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and twenty- nine seconds, was convicted of second- degree murder, and awareness of the frequency of police killings has penetrated the nation’s collective consciousness. Overall, this book reflects and critiques this nation’s racial history and how this history informs our current criminal- legal practices and understandings of race, law, and justice. Book and Chapter Overview I initially wrote The Color of Crime to address the many unanswered questions I had about race as a law student and later as a graduate stu- dent. I attended law school to learn about the intersections between law, race, class, and justice. Likewise, when I returned to graduate school for a doctorate in criminology, I presumed that my studies would focus on how and why race matters in the administration of justice. In both instances, I was frustrated with the slim pickings of course work, RRuusssseellll__BBrroowwnn__ii__224499..iinndddd 22 88//2277//2211 1111::3311 AAMM Introduction | 3 assigned readings, and the infrequent and unnuanced discussions on these seminal topics. Beyond addressing my own queries, this book’s modest objective is to offer students and interested others a richer and fuller backdrop with which to understand and critique the US criminal- legal system. This work is part of my ongoing academic expedition—a project designed to enhance race and crime literacy. The material in this third edition is both forward and backward looking. It keeps an eye on the historical development of America’s systems of policing, courts, and corrections, and it analyzes contemporary applications of racialized systems, practices, and labeling in the system. There are eight chapters, including six completely updated chapters and two new ones. Chapter 1, “Definitions, Statistics, and Issues,” pro- vides an overall grounding for the book’s material. It defines the central terms and themes discussed throughout the book, such as “race” and “crime,” and offers a historical backdrop for them, including the termi- nology and definitions used to allot racial groups in the US Census. As noted, the chapter includes charts and tables that clarify the impact of race and racial disparity in the US correctional system. Chapter 2, “Media Messages,” takes a measure of how racial groups of color are portrayed in the mass media. Specifically, it explores how Indigenous Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and African Ameri- cans are portrayed by the media, including television and movies. Today there are many more faces of color in the mainstream media. However, the substance and breadth of these roles raise interesting questions. The chapter discussion identifies some remarkable trends in these portray- als, including how some groups of color (e.g., Native Peoples and Asian Americans) are rarely seen or heard but are “represented,” and framed without being at the decision- making table. Chapter 3, “History’s Strange Fruit,” considers the deep, long- standing and intentional associations made between race and criminality— through law and legislation, political actions, religion, and science. The chapter sets out the historical role of race in the development and opera- tion of the US criminal justice system, from the slave codes to Jim Crow legislation. This history is used to identify the operating principles that are necessary for establishing an equitable criminal justice system. These justice principles establish the groundwork for the text’s assessment of the degree and forms of bias within the US justice system. RRuusssseellll__BBrroowwnn__ii__224499..iinndddd 33 88//2277//2211 1111::3311 AAMM