Dehumanization and Demonization of Black Men

An essay responding to the recent attention directed on the systematic murder of black men

A study conducted in February of 2014 at the University of California gathered 264 students (most of whom were white, female, and of college age), to rate the perceived innocence of several strangers based solely on their appearances in photographs. The photographs were of people of all races from infants through age twenty-five. Up until age nine each child was perceived to be equally innocent and needful of protection, however an unprecedented change occurred around when the photos switched to those of ten year olds. Beginning at age ten the black children were given lower innocence ratings than their white and other race counterparts. Another portion of the research once again showed the students photos, this time of male children aged ten through seventeen: the pictures were each matched with a caption briefly describing a crime. The rating process was repeated, however this time the test subjects were asked to not only determine how innocent those depicted in the photos were, but to also estimate their age. In keeping with the findings of the previous experiment, the participants found the black children far less innocent and this time, even overestimated the ages of the black boys by an average of 4.5 years more than the Latino and white boys. Black boys are being deprived of the leniency and security that youth and innocence bring. The natural human inclination to protect the young; to guard the innocent and to treat them with higher levels of tolerance and empathy is not being awarded to African American boys, even as young as age ten they are thrust into world that perceives them to be more culpable than they truly are.

We could all conjure up the mental image on call. A drug dealer on a streetcorner, his pants sagging loosely beneath his hips, a police siren wailing somewhere in the distance, the lights of a street light flickering off the degenerated buildings nearby. Why is it the subject of this description is always a black man? Our minds unconsciously create this cliched image because it is what we have been taught is normal, it is what we are accustomed to seeing and hearing both through media and through our own society.

These stereotypes surrounding black men arose as a consequence of the racially biased laws that once angled the law against African Americans. However these longstanding stereotypes are so ingrained into our society that they have begun to manifest themselves in the unconscious mind of the populace, thus once again creating a system of institutionalized racism. According to the U.S Justice Department, black motorists are 31 percent more likely to be pulled over by police than their white counterparts are, and during that stop they are twice as likely to be subjected to a police search. Our unconscious and often unintended blind acceptance of stereotypes allows history to slip back into its own ways, rather than using our new tolerances in a way to divert the path of history towards a better and more equal future.

Black males are constantly faced with a dehumanizing lack of empathy, they are filtered through the dangerous lense of racial stereotypes. African American males from childhood through adulthood are constantly viewed as threats, merely because of an increased level of melatonin in their skin.

Perhaps the reason we unconsciously create mental images that so perfectly reflect traditional stereotypes is because it is the initial thought that we have that reflects what we are taught to think, however the second thought is what truly defines who we are as individuals.