The Criminalization of Black Youth and the Rise of Restorative Justice

[marmar]

The Criminalization of Black Youth and the Rise of Restorative Justice

Sunday, 20 July 2014 00:00
By Max Eternity, Truthout | Interview


In the spring of 2014, on two separate occasions, African-American teenagers - a 15-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy - were pushed through windows by police. Fortunately, both teens survived their encounter, though it was a very close call for the boy. No reports of white teens being pushed through windows by police have been discovered. These violent incidents are just a couple of examples of how, for many African-Americans, youth offers little hope and few niceties.

"Black children are dehumanized to such an extent that they aren't perceived as children at all," writes Margaret Kimberly in "Police Target Black Children." Citing a new report published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Kimberly says African-American children "are assumed to be older, less innocent and inherently guilty."

Along with racial profiling and other legal harassment, like stop-and-frisk, being pushed through a window by police has apparently become a new reality for brown-skinned kids. Yet how is such aggression and violence justified by law enforcement, and are these incidents to be imagined as mere coincidence - or explained as reflective of black pathology rather than police pathology?

Among extrajudicial deaths at the hands of police and white vigilantes, the tragic stories of Travon Martin and Oscar Grant have garnered media attention, but are also highly contested narratives. Less talked about is the institutionalized climate of fear that has been normalized for brown-skinned youth - the daily domestic terror by police. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/24816-the-criminalization-of-black-youth-interviews-with-kai-wright-and-allen-nance

[msanthrope]

2. Enjoy your stay. nt

[marmar]

3. Let the countdown begin......

[marmar]

6. Umm, read the article. You miss the point by about 5 miles.

[hrmjustin]

8. bye again!

[marmar]

9. You're about as subtle as a rhino in a glassware shop.

[WhiteTara]

10. thanks for removing this very offensive and untrue statement. nt

[redqueen]

11. Must-read stuff.

We often want to say that if we just did job training or if everybody got health insurance, but the reality is that we have built, not just an economy, but a culture and a society on inequity. We've spent the vast majority of American history building on that foundation.

In the most expansive idea of where we are today, we've been working on it for a generation. So, we're going to have to look at everything we do.