Rethinking the racialization of crime

The Significance of Black Firsts

Bibliographic Data

ID2150355
AuthorsPaul Knepper (0000-0002-6329-9666, University of Sheffield, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume31
Issue3
Pages503-523
Publication date2008-03-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01419870701492018
OpenAlexW1964201047
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited23

Racialization of crime represents a significant concept for analysis of the social construction of racial identity, but too much emphasis has been placed on the manufacture and imposition of identities by 'racializers'. We need to know more about the response to such processes by 'racialized' populations. This analysis draws on interviews with twenty-seven African Americans who desegregated the administration of justice in North Carolina, including those who reached the highest positions in city police departments, state law enforcement, the state legislature and prison administration. It explores criminal justice as a site for 'counter-racialization' and the connection between racialized populations and discontinuities of race-based power. Analyses of racialization in the criminal justice context should reflect the contest over racial identities and the fact that such identities are not merely labels imposed on people. Notes 1. The critique of racialization developed here applies to my previous work as well (Knepper Citation1996, Citation2001). 2. The persons interviewed during the course of this project are not, of course, the only firsts. Other North Carolina firsts include Daniel T. Blue, the first African American elected Speaker in the House of Representatives; Eva Clayton, the first African American woman to serve in the US Congress; Annie B. Kennedy, the first African American woman to be elected to the General Assembly. 3. When Lewyn M. Hayes took charge of the Raleigh Youth Center for Negroes in 1952, he became the first African American superintendent of a prison in North Carolina. 4. Charles Daye also spoke about the image of the 'black troublemaker' in the context of the civil rights movement. Daye, Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has served as secretary of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers for some two decades. During the 1960s, he participated in a youth chapter of the NAACP. 'We did picketing to desegregate public accommodations in Durham: hotels, theatres, lunch counters. Racists who passed by spat on us, burned our clothes with cigarettes and hurled all manner of insults.' 5. Judge Timmons-Goodson, who joined the judiciary in the 1980s, spoke of the need to overcome more subtle forms of racial assault. Subtle threats remain, she said, despite one's best efforts not to give in: 'The effect works psychologically and emotionally in terms of one's self-confidence. "Maybe I'm not as good", one begins to wonder. "Maybe the people making decisions about me are right. Maybe it's me".' 6. Judge Herbert Richardson's appearance also challenges categorization; he is taken for white, black and (Lumbee) Indian by those who enter his courtroom. 7. Theodis Beck put it this way: 'As bad as segregation was, there was a sense of community. My teacher, my parents, neighbours all went to the same church. All of them knew about me so bad news arrived home before I did. I had a neighbour that sat on her porch at night. When she would see me, she would call out "Theodis, is that you?" "Yes", I would tell her. "I am going home"'. Everybody knew.' 8. A number of those interviewed spoke of the importance of having found a mentor. This mentor, Joseph Lofton explained, is 'a person to guide you personally' and not someone 'who can pull political strings'. It is worth noting that mentoring relationships did not always occur in the context of black professional associations or communities; White colleagues were important to the success of black leaders in more than one situation. 9. Some said 'yes', some said 'no', to my question about whether it was meaningful to speak of a 'black perspective' on crime. SBI Director Brian Beatty allowed that the experience of African Americans contributed to a black perspective. There is a black perspective that is 'perception' and 'a lot that is reality': black people perceive the disproportionate involvement of backs as defendants in criminal courts as evidence of an unjust criminal justice system. He attributed the mistrust of law enforcement to the experience of living in segregated communities, where the only whites seen were shopkeepers and police. 'This caused a misperception - it gave a perspective different from all-white communities where the people, the police, and the persons arrested were all white.' Judge Patricia Timmons-Goodson said: 'No, there isn't any black perspective on crime. There isn't any black perspective on anything else. People talk about "the black community" as if it were monolithic, but there is no "black perspective" because African Americans are all individuals.' 10. Balance, who served as vice-chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Justice and Public Safety, also sponsored legislation to promote fairness in imposition of the death penalty, to fund youth and juvenile justice initiatives and to bring about changes in criminal procedure. Additional informationNotes on contributorsPaul Knepper PAUL KNEPPER is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, and Visiting Professor of Criminology, Institute of Forensic Studies, University of Malta

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