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8 stats that reveal just how badly the police state hurts black women
If Sandra Bland were white, there's a good chance she still would be with us
TERRELL JERMAINE STARR, ALTERNET
The outrageous shooting death of Sam Dubose by a Cincinnati cop is grabbing the headlines, but nearly two weeks after Sandra Bland died in a Texas jail after being stopped and brutally arrested for a minor traffic violation, her questionable detainment makes it clear that the criminal justice system is often as brutal to black women as it is to black men. As AlterNet recently reported, Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia overstepped his authority when he asked Bland to put out her cigarette, prolonging and escalating the stop.
Social media reactions to Bland’s stop, however, have been divided, in part along racial lines. Many white people have argued that Bland would have left the stop untouched had she simply not given Texas state trooper Brian Encinia an “attitude.” Black people, overwhelmingly, have pointed out that white women regularly engage police officers just as Bland did, yet don’t have to fear being abused for doing so.
Critics point to a New York Daily News photo of a white woman breast-to-chest with an NYPD officer and a video of a white woman defiantly challenging an officer during a traffic stop as offering sharp contrasts with Bland’s treatment, and anecdotal examples of how law enforcement treats white and black women differently.
Julia Jordan-Zachery, a professor of political science at Providence College whose research focuses on the treatment of black women in the criminal justice system, says Bland’s story and ultimate death is another example of the myth of the strong black woman, who somehow is impervious to pain.
“It wasn’t possible for anyone to understand that she could have been in pain,” Jordan-Zachery told AlterNet. “What we know from literature is that black women are somehow so strong that we can’t even experience physical pain or that our tolerance level for pain is so high that no one ever listens to black women when we say we are experiencing pain.”
The Rest: http://www.salon.com/2015/08/03/8_stats_that_reveal_just_how_badly_the_police_state_hurts_black_women_partner
TERRELL JERMAINE STARR, ALTERNET
The outrageous shooting death of Sam Dubose by a Cincinnati cop is grabbing the headlines, but nearly two weeks after Sandra Bland died in a Texas jail after being stopped and brutally arrested for a minor traffic violation, her questionable detainment makes it clear that the criminal justice system is often as brutal to black women as it is to black men. As AlterNet recently reported, Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia overstepped his authority when he asked Bland to put out her cigarette, prolonging and escalating the stop.
Social media reactions to Bland’s stop, however, have been divided, in part along racial lines. Many white people have argued that Bland would have left the stop untouched had she simply not given Texas state trooper Brian Encinia an “attitude.” Black people, overwhelmingly, have pointed out that white women regularly engage police officers just as Bland did, yet don’t have to fear being abused for doing so.
Critics point to a New York Daily News photo of a white woman breast-to-chest with an NYPD officer and a video of a white woman defiantly challenging an officer during a traffic stop as offering sharp contrasts with Bland’s treatment, and anecdotal examples of how law enforcement treats white and black women differently.
Julia Jordan-Zachery, a professor of political science at Providence College whose research focuses on the treatment of black women in the criminal justice system, says Bland’s story and ultimate death is another example of the myth of the strong black woman, who somehow is impervious to pain.
“It wasn’t possible for anyone to understand that she could have been in pain,” Jordan-Zachery told AlterNet. “What we know from literature is that black women are somehow so strong that we can’t even experience physical pain or that our tolerance level for pain is so high that no one ever listens to black women when we say we are experiencing pain.”
The Rest: http://www.salon.com/2015/08/03/8_stats_that_reveal_just_how_badly_the_police_state_hurts_black_women_partner
7 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I feel like the cops are getting even cockier, like they are collecting these horrible deaths like hunters. 
Anyone remember when New Yorker had this out illustrating that?
And regarding "pain" - here is something that reinforces the article's point -
Study: Whites Think Black People Feel Less Pain
July 11, 2013 12:00 PM ET
<...>
SILVERSTEIN: <...> We have this assumption that because black people have been hardened by certain life experiences, that they can deal with more pain or they feel it less intensely, and therefore, they're forced to endure even more. So this was a very surprising result that we have here that shows us how this sort of works in a cycle.
MARTIN: And you were saying that the implications of this go far beyond administering pain medication.
SILVERSTEIN: Sure, sure. You know, I think that, look, if we can see that people generally assume that black people feel less pain, you can imagine all of the different social problems that this explains. One area is healthcare, but it's also the criminal justice system. We know that race and empathy impact jury decisions, and we know that black defendants receive harsher sentences for the same crimes. But in particular, if we take a close look at the juvenile justice system, what we start to see is that young youth of color are being tried much more aggressively than white youth. And why is this? We've also seen research that it's because there's a certain perception that black juveniles are not treated as innocents.
They're not treated with compassion. But at every stage, they're treated much more like adults and therefore subjected to harsher treatments, tried in adult courts and given adult sentences for things that, for white students or white juveniles, would be just written off as perhaps pranks or something that could be a slap on the wrist.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=201128359
July 11, 2013 12:00 PM ET
<...>
SILVERSTEIN: <...> We have this assumption that because black people have been hardened by certain life experiences, that they can deal with more pain or they feel it less intensely, and therefore, they're forced to endure even more. So this was a very surprising result that we have here that shows us how this sort of works in a cycle.
MARTIN: And you were saying that the implications of this go far beyond administering pain medication.
SILVERSTEIN: Sure, sure. You know, I think that, look, if we can see that people generally assume that black people feel less pain, you can imagine all of the different social problems that this explains. One area is healthcare, but it's also the criminal justice system. We know that race and empathy impact jury decisions, and we know that black defendants receive harsher sentences for the same crimes. But in particular, if we take a close look at the juvenile justice system, what we start to see is that young youth of color are being tried much more aggressively than white youth. And why is this? We've also seen research that it's because there's a certain perception that black juveniles are not treated as innocents.
They're not treated with compassion. But at every stage, they're treated much more like adults and therefore subjected to harsher treatments, tried in adult courts and given adult sentences for things that, for white students or white juveniles, would be just written off as perhaps pranks or something that could be a slap on the wrist.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=201128359
And the truly sad part about this is that with all the references in the OP's article and the reference shown above, there are far too many out here in this country and right here on DU who prefer to do this -
The right's Paranoid and Unhinged from Reality version of the Obamas in glorious color. Her with a frizzed out 'fro and AK-47, him worshiping Osama with a burning American flag in the fireplace.
DU and the "left" libertarian Paranoid and Unhinged from Reality version of the Obamas would be Michelle wearing a $6k Yves St. Laurent suit as she drives her gold plated Hummer with mink seat covers over the legs of a homeless white person while Obama laughs and clinks champagne glasses with white bankers and billionaires in the back of said Hummer.
I honestly don't know which one is stupider. Or more hilarious.
The "New Angela Davis" from from the right and the "Ann Romney wannabe bankster fraud" from the left.
(adding this lest someone thinks the entirety of DU has just been insulted >>> 
)
