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RACIAL RETURN:
THE COLOUR OF CRIME;
POLICING “RACE”
© Dr. ©
© Francis Adu-Febiri,
2017
Presentation Contents
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Central Question, Main Thesis and Main
Argument
Major Concepts
Racial Risk & Racial Profiling
Stories of Policing Race
Consequences of Policing Race
Sociological Claims of Policing Race
Social construction of Race and Ethnicity
Major Concepts of Race and Ethnic Relations
Theoretical Perspectives of Race/Ethnic Relations
Sample final exam question
CENTRAL QUESTION &
MAIN THESIS
To what extend does “race” matter in the
21st century Western societies [Canada
include]?
 To a large extent “race” continues to matter
in the 21st century Western society because
the body continues to be central in
racialization in ways that make the “racial
risk” still very high and “racial return” still
very low for non-whitened people.

MAIN ARGUMENT:
Discrimination: The Body Continues to be Central

Although “race” is not a biological/genetic
phenomenon, the BODY is central to race,
in that “race” is socially ascribed to the
body and the body is made the focus of
racial identification (K. Anthony Appiah
2014, p. 432) and the basis of prejudice,
discrimination, and accessibility to valued
resources (Tepperman 2015, p. 276).
MAIN ARGUMENT:
Discrimination: The Body Continues to be Central

Ethno-racial discrimination and prejudice remain
problematic in many Western societies, where a
majority of people claim to support the idea of
ethno-racial equality, and legislation that would
bring about that goal. Nonetheless, research
continues to find that ethno-racial inequality is
still evident in virtually all societies—especially in
the areas of employment, housing, wealth, health,
and criminal justice (Tepperman 2015, p. 276)
MAIN ARGUMENT:
Discrimination: The Body Continues to be Central

…for black, Indigenous, and brown people in Canada, race and racism are a
daily consideration in how we live, make decisions, and navigate the world.
Like all of my black friends and family, I have been singled out (when in the
company of whites) profiled by police and civilians in positions of power for
[driving], shopping and walking while black. Many of us have been stopped
for the "offense" of "driving while black"; a particularly prevalent police
tactic when racist white officers perceive a black person to be driving a nice
car, one above their assumed lower class status.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/charmaine-nelson/modern-racism-canada_b_14821958.html)

Police departments developed out of the tradition of slave patrols. These were
mainly white males, working independently or at the behest of a slave owner
or plantation manager, to hunt down, capture or kill fugitive slaves. Fugitive
slave advertising, ubiquitous across the Americas (with significant repositories
in Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario by the way) reveal the pervasiveness of
African resistance to slavery, Ibid.).
MAIN ARGUMENT:
Discrimination: The Body Continues to be Central
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But such advertisements also reveal that white participation in the
criminalization and recapture of the enslaved was incentivized through the
offer of rewards. When an enslaved person fled, slave owners provided
detailed racialized descriptions of the people they held in bondage, including
complexion, hairstyles, clothing, languages, accents and even gestures,
countenance, physical habits, and bodily marks suffered from perilous labour,
torture, and abuse. The nature and amount of such details demonstrate that
the enslaved lived under constant surveillance. These descriptions helped to
conflate blackness with slavery and criminality. Indeed, to abscond from one's
owner was, under colonial law, as Marcus Wood has argued, a crime of "selftheft“ (Ibid.).
While slavery was practiced in the territory that became Canada for over 200
years, it is rarely taught in our schools prior to university, and only sparingly
in higher education (Ibid.).
MAIN ARGUMENT ILLUSTRATED:
Discrimination: The Body Continues to be Central in
Racialization
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Quotes/Excerpts from UN CESR Concluding Observations on the
Plight of African Canadians
1. Unemployment: In recognition of the disproportionate rate of
unemployment among African Canadians.
2. Child welfare: Overrepresentation of African Canadian children in
care institutions.
3. Right to health: Concerned that African Canadians face barriers in
access to health care services due to stigma
4. Right to education: Recognizing the continuous lower educational
and academic achievements by African-Canadian children.
5. Cultural rights: The Committee is concerned about the inadequate
funding and promotion of African art and culture that adds to the
structural discrimination faced by African Canadians in the enjoyment
of economic, social and cultural rights in Canada.
MAIN ARGUMENT ILLUSTRATED:
Discrimination: The Body Continues to be Central

“But equality legalized wasn’t [isn’t]
equality realized”
 (http://europe.newsweek.com/green-book-jim-
crow-era-travel-guide-saved-black-lives565430)
MAJOR CONCEPTS
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Racial Risk and Racial Return
Racialization and Criminalization
Racialism
Racialized Groups
Racial Groups
Race
Ethnicity
Racism
Racist
Racism and Racists
Visible Minority
Racialized Minority
 All these are representations of realities that are
SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED
RACIAL RISK & RACIAL RETURN

“Racial Risk” is the particular
constellation of dangers associated with
being a member of a racialized group in
society. “Racialized Return” is about
rewards one receives because of one’s
membership in a racialized group (AduFebiri 2014).
RACIAL RISK & RACIAL RETURN:
Illustrations

1. Online Dating:
 Read
“STARTING OFF: When is Online
Dating Racist?” (page 246 of Tepperman
2015).

2. Go back to Portugal?
 http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/03/16/nelly
-furtado-immigrant-portugal_n_15365356.html
RACIAL RISK & RACIAL RETURN:
Illustrations
3. Racism in shopping, housing, and job
recruitment
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjmD
wWUhEpg
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/blindrecruitment-marketplace-1.3462061
RACIAL RISK & RACIAL RETURN
Illustrations
4. Racial Profiling in the Criminal Justice System
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“Racializing Crime While Criminalizing
Minorities”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAkDHu
imJRc
Racial profiling is the police targeting
physical appearance (usually non-whitened
bodies) rather than behavior of designated
groups in dealing with crime and potential
crime (David Tanovic. 2006. The Culture of
Justice: The Policing of Race).
http://www.upworthy.com/meet-the-17-yearold-who-blew-the-lid-off-racial-profilingwith-his-ipod
RACIAL RISK & RACIAL RETURN:
Illustrations
5. Systemic and Systematic Discrimination against “non-Whitened”
people
Labour Market:
Employment & Income
Educational
Access: Attainment
School Segregation
Criminal
Justice System
DISCRIMINATION
Residential
Segregation
Health Care System
Credit Markets
Housing:
Mortgage Market
Source: Reskin 2012, cited in Tepperman 2015, p. 266

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM:
 STORIES
OF POLICING RACE
STRORIES OF POLICING RACE
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Story #1:
According to Critical Race Theory, Racism is deeply
entrenched in our social, and, especially, legal
institutions. While recognizing the important gains
made during the civil rights movement, it is argued that
institutionalized instruments of racial oppression
continue to operate even as more overt forms of racism
have been eliminated. This fact is illustrated in the
tendency of police to disproportionately arrest people
of racialized minorities and the tendency of the courts
to disproportionately imprison and, in some US states,
execute them (Tepperman 2015, p. 252).
STRORIES OF POLICING RACE:
“The Myth of Black Criminality”
Story #2: Watch these video clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22aH9
OeE_X8
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP4Dd
YvD480
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7NvU
OUSKvU&feature=related
STRORIES OF POLICING RACE
Story #3:
 In the USA and Canada, compared to their
proportion of the population, “blacks” are
10 times more likely than “whites” to be
shot at [or beaten up] by the police (Wortley
2005)

STRORIES OF POLICING RACE

Story #4:

Using the evidence at the level of policing in minority
communities, the police have been criticized for
underpolicing (i.e., slow response rates), for overpolicing
(i.e., excessive and unnecessary coverage), and for
mispolicing (i.e., prejudicial and discriminatory
enforcement) (Holdaway 1996, Fridel et al 2001, CRRF
2003, MacDonald 2003, Tanovich 2006).
The consequences of this interactional breakdown have
had the effect of racializing crime while criminalizing
minorities (Henry and Tator 2006).

STRORIES OF POLICING RACE
Story #5:
 According to the Manitoba Human Rights
Commission, both Black and Aboriginal
youth accuse the police of racist and
abusive treatment despite initiatives to
repair the breach (Friesen 2007).

STRORIES OF POLICING RACE
Story #6:
 Latinos in the Lower Mainland feel they are
frequently stopped by the police when
driving, walking on the streets, and waiting
for public transit (Riano-Alcala 1999: 15).

STRORIES OF POLICING RACE
Story #7:
 “The Skin I’m In: I’ve been interrogated by
police more than 50 times—all because I’m
black”
 Watch the documentary and read the article:
 Documentary: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/one-movie-can-t-end-racism-in-canada-but
the-skin-we-re-in-will-fuel-the-fight-1.4008818
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Article:
http://www.torontolife.com/informer/features/2015/04/21/skin-imive-interrogated-police-50-times-im-black/?page=all
STRORIES OF POLICING RACE
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Story #8:
In societies or political economies where there is
intersection of racialization, militarization of policing,
increased accessibility to weapons of mass destruction,
and disconnection from our common humanity, the
interaction between the police and racialized minorities
become violent. In this context the shootings and killings
of Blacks and police officers are less surprising (AduFebiri 2016. Prepared in response to the request of CBC Radio,
Victoria, as a response to the recent increased shootings and
killings of Blacks and police officers in USA).
CREATIVE/INNOVATIVE THINKING
EXERCISE #3:

1) Critically review this lecture.

2) Based on your critical thinking, come up with one creative idea and
connected innovative project/program design (provide a diagram of
your design) with specific implementation strategies that will provide
opportunities that people from various racial groups can use to
improve the lives of racialized peoples by reducing/eliminating their
racial risk and increasing/maximizing their racial return for them.
3) Use your design to evaluate the concept of sociological imagination
or the concept of social construction of reality.
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4) Put your idea and design on paper and bring to class. YOU RECEIVE A
MAXIMUM OF 2 BONUS MARKS if you are doing the service-learning
project. IF YOU ARE NOT DOING THE PROJECT, YOU RECEIVE A
MAXIMUM OF 10 MARKS.

RESPONDING TO RACIAL RISK AND
RACIAL RETURN
BLACK CANADIAN LEADERS RESPONDING TO RACIAL
INEQUITY: Workshops on Police-Black Relations in Victoria
Victoria, Nov. 2, 2015
Black Canadian Leaders
Responding to Racial Inequity
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BLACK BOYS CODE PROGRAM:
Black Boys Code is a non-profit organization intended to address
inequalities by exposing boys of colour aged 8-16 to the digital
universe. We will utilize mentorship, industry exposure, and
intensive training in the field of computer science to help Black
boys become technological innovators and creators of their own
futures.
At Black Boys Code, we believe that young men of colour
constitute a significant source of untapped talent in our society. In
bringing this talent to the fore, we aim to uphold our commitment
to equality, thereby contributing to the advancement of our
society.
Source: http://www.blackboyscode.org/
Black Canadian Leaders
Responding to Racial Inequity
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Africentric Alternative School
The Africentric Alternative School has three key outcomes for its
students:
 High academic achievement
 High self-pride
 A high motivation to succeed
A unique feature of the Africentric Alternative School will be the
integration of the diverse perspectives, experiences and histories of
people of African descent into the provincial mandated
curriculum. The program will also feature a Parenting and Family
Literacy Centre for pre-school children.
Source: http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/africentricschool/Home.aspx

CONSEQUENCES OF POLICING
RACE
NON-WHITE SKIN AND
CRIME IN CANADA

Because the police tend to police race
(Henry et al 2000, p. 302),
 There
is “disproportionate number of people
of colour in the court and prison system”
(Henry et al, 2000: 178).
 This social construction of crime contributes
to the fact that, in Canada “the image of
crime is a dark [black or brown]” skin
(Mann and Zatz 1998: 130-133)
Blacks in the Canada’s Justice System
% of Population
% of Federal Jails
2.5%
9.12%
% of Federal Jails
in Ontario
20.0%
Crawford, Alison, 2011, CBC News,
December 2011
 (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/20
11/12/14/crawford-black-prison.html)

Aboriginal People in Canada’s
Justice System: 2016
% of Population
% of Federal
Prisoner
Population
4%
25%
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/25/
indigenous-australians-and-canadians-destroyed-by-same-colonialism
Aboriginal Youth in Canada’s
Justice System: 2016

40% of children in Canadian youth jails are
Aboriginal
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/25/
indigenous-australians-and-canadians-destroyed-by-same-colonialism
ABORIGINAL PEOPLE IN
PROVINCIAL PRISONS
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Alberta
BC
% of Population
% of Prisoner
Population
14.9%
14.5%
5.8%
4.8%
80%
71%
39%
79%
Source: Statistics Canada, 2006
Aboriginal People in Criminal
Justice System
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‘It's the same story': How Australia and Canada are twinning on bad
outcomes for Indigenous people
'The statistics were almost identical. Aboriginal peoples make up 4% of the
Canadian population and 25% of its prison population. In Australia, the 3% of
the population who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders make up
27% of those in prison. Aboriginal women make up a third of the female
prison population in both countries. The only significant difference in
incarceration rate is among juvenile detainees, where Australia is markedly
worse: 59% of all children in detention in Australia are Indigenous, compared
with 40% of children in Canadian youth jails. In the child welfare system,
which Rudin said was the most significant concern for most Aboriginal
peoples, almost 50% of children were Aboriginal. The Australian rate is
51%.“If it’s something people want, Aboriginal people have less of it, and
if it’s something people don’t want Aboriginal people have more,” he
said.‘
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/25/indigenousaustralians-and-canadians-destroyed-by-same-colonialism

SOCIOLOGICAL CLAIMS OF
POLICING RACE
From the perspectives of sociological imagination and social
construction of reality, policing race falls into the
“PATTERNS OF DOMINANT GROUPS’ INTERACTION
WITH MINORITY GROUPS” (Ravelli 2013, pp. 247- 253)
PATTERNS: Racialized groups are targeted
for:
 1. Genocide
 2. Expulsion
 3. Segregation & Separation
 4. Assimilation
 5. Multiculturalism
 6. Criminalization

 These
are mechanisms used to exclude, marginalize
and control racialized peoples (minorities).
THE CENTRALITY OF THE BODY IN
RACIALIZED STRATIFICATION

“…the body is central to race, gender, and sexuality, but not so central
to class and ethnicity” (K. Anthony Appiah 2014, p. 432 in James
Fearganis 2014. Readings in Social Theory):

From the perspective of sociological imagination,

Skin-whitening commodities reinforce and consolidate the
globalized ideology of white supremacy and the sexist practice of
biomedicalization of women’s bodies. It is in this specific context
of the continuum of the western practices of global racism and the
economic practice of commodity racism that the social, political
and cultural implications of skin-whitening must be located and
resisted. Consequently feminist/antiracist and anti-colonial
responses must confront this social phenomenon as part and
parcel of our old enemy, the “civilizing mission”; the violent
moral prerogative to cleanse and purify the mind and bodies of the
“dark/dirty/savage” (Amina Mire 2005).
THE CENTRALITY OF THE BODY AS
IMAGE IN RACIALIZED STRATIFICATION
Watch this video clip:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4Xe
6Dlp0Y

THE WHY & HOW OF RACIALIZATION OF
CRIME: Application of Sociological Imagination &
Social Construction of Reality
1. Criminalized activities
as a major means of
survival for minorities. 2.
Overpolicing and
mispolicing of racialized
minorities
SOCIAL
STRATIFICATION
POLICE
MEDIA
“Racialization of crime is developed primarily by
the police but communicated and perpetuated by
the Canadian media” (Henry et al, 2000:
302).
CRIMINAL
IMAGE & IDENTITY
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Sociological Imagination: RACE/ETHNICITY
MATTERS FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE
RACIALIZATION
As a new dimension of
inequity introduced by
the roots of Globalization,
namely, Industrialization, Slavery
and Colonization
“RACE”,
ETHNICITY,
MINORITY
UNEQUAL
SOCIO-ECONOMIC
STATUS & LIFE CHNACES
OF MINORITIES
RACISM
RACIAL
INJUSTICES
STRATIFIED
“RACES”
RACISTS,CRIMIMINALS,
POLICE/MEDIA
CRIMINALIZATION OF
MINORITIES
& RACIAL CONFLICT
Changes
in “Race”
Relations

ELABORATION OF MAJOR
CONCEPTS OF RACE/ETHNIC
RELATIONS
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
 All
the major concepts of racialized stratification
system are representations of realities that are
SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED
Socially Constructed

When sociologists say something is
“socially constructed” they mean:
 The
characteristics deemed relevant to the
definitions of that thing is based on societal
values (Gallagher 2007, p. 2).

In this context, Race and Ethnicity are
social products based on cultural values, not
scientific facts (Gallagher 2007, p. 2.).
Socially Constructed

Race and Ethnicity are socially constructed
and used to produce and reproduce
 1) racialization
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2) racialism
3) racialized groups
4) racial groups
5) race
6) racism
7) racists
1. RACIALIZATION
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Simple Definition:

The social and political processes that create racial
groups based on perceived physical differences
(Christian Caron 2016, p. 21)
The process of using the natural variation in
human skin color as a way to sort people into
groups, putting them in a hierarchy, and justifying
exploitation based on skin color (Gallagher 2007,
p. 5)

1. RACIALIZATION



Technical Definition:
A process of constructing people into inferior
or superior racial categories that block/limit or
facilitate their access to valued societal
resources (property, power, prestige, and
privilege).
The results or products of this social construction process are
 “RACE”
 ETHNICITY
 MINORITY
 RACISM
 RACISTS
 CRIMINALIZATION OF RACIALIZED GROUPS
2. RACIALISM

Differentiation or categorization of people
according to their race or ethnicity
(Tepperman portrays this process also as
racialization: 2015, p. 248)
3. RACIALIZED GROUPS: Application
of Social Construction of Reality

According to Majority Scholars’ interpretation: Racialized groups are
people collectively constructed into superior and inferior racial categories
based on their phenotypes and/or genotypes:
“White”
 2nd: “Yellow”
 3rd: “Brown”
 4th: “Red”
 5th: “Black”
 1st:


“Mixed” usually ranked as part of the inferior groups
According to Minority Scholars’ interpretation: Racialized groups are
people collectively constructed into inferior or devalued racial categories.
Sociologists call this RACIALIZED MINORITIES, an equivalent concept
is Statistics Canada’s MINORITIES:

Visible Minorities and Invisible Minorities
“Non-whitened”
groups of people.
4. RACIAL GROUPS

People grouped into categories based on their
phenotypes (external biological features) and/or
genotypes (genetic attributes), but not rank-ordered
into superior or inferior.
Negroid
Americanus
RACIAL GROUPS
Mongoloid
Caucasoid
5. RACE

As Phil Bartle (2005) insightfully
concludes,
genetics cannot be used to determine
racial categories because there are no
genetic boundaries between what we
call “races”
5. RACE
RACE AND THE BODY:
 Although “race” is not a biological/genetic
phenomenon, the BODY is central to race,
in that “race” is ascribed to the body and the
body is made the focus of racial
identification (K. Anthony Appiah 2014, p.
432).

5. RACE

APPLICATION OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY

From a sociological perspective, ‘RACE’, like culture,
is socially constructed and learned. That is, race is
identity/image ascribed to bodily characteristics or
distinction.
This perspective is well captured by Charles Cooley’s
Looking-Glass-Self Thesis or what is conventionally
referred to as Self-fulfilling Prophesy:


When people are defined as a ‘race’ and given a role related to
the ‘race’ by others, they acquire a group identity and become
oppressed or privileged, and then use the idiom of ‘race’ in
relation to themselves, their identities and grievances (Miles
and Brown 2003: 6).
6. RACISM

RACISM AS IDEOLOGY
 Beliefs,
doctrines, and theories that
suggest that human population groups
constitute races, and that some human
populations groups are biologically
superior or inferior to others (Miles
and Brown 2003: 51).
 OLD RACISM: Based on the BODY
(see Rushton’s Evolutionary Typology in the next slide)
OLD RACISM:
RUSHTON’S EVOLUTIONARY
TYPOLOGY (1994)
Negroid
200,000
Caucasoid
110,000
Oriental
40,000
Brain Size
1330 cu.cm
1408 cu.cm
1448 cu.cm
IQ Score
85
Intense
100
107
Weak
Evolutionary
branching
Sexual activity
Moderate
Temperament
Aggressive/Exci Moderate
table
Marital Stability
Brittle
Low
High
Law abiding
Crime rates
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate
Calm/Cautious
Strong
High
Low
“New Racism”: Ethnicity

Like “Race”, Ethnicity is socially constructed, but the BODY is not
supposed to be so central to ethnicity:

It is a social phenomenon that represents a group
of people with a common identity based on
ancestry, nationality and/or culture (particularly
language, customs and religion).
However, because of the unnecessary conflation
of ancestry and culture, the BODY has been very
central to ethnicity too.
NEW RACISM is about connecting CULTURE to
the body (phenotype and genotype).


6. RACISM


PREJUDICE, STEREOTYPE &
DISCRIMINATION
Specifically, RACISM is prejudice, stereotype
and/or discrimination constructed by a
dominant group around superficial physical
characteristics such as skin color perceived as
inferior in the context of human phenotypic
diversity with the objective to prevent
racialized minority from having access to
socially defined valued resources (Naiman
2000).
6. RACISM

DISCRIMINATION is “Treating someone
differently or unfairly because of a personal
characteristic or distinction, which, whether
intentional or not, has an effect of imposing
disadvantages not imposed on others or which
withholds or limits access to opportunities,
benefits and advantages available to other
individuals or classes of individuals in society”
(Courtesy Public Services Alliance of Canada
and Treasury Board Secretariat, January
2004).
7. RACIST:
APPLICATION OF SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Since racism, like any “ism”, applies to acts of discrimination that
occur at the collective level (or when it occurs at the individual
level, are consistent with institutional patterns of discrimination)
and works in favour of dominant group members and against
minority groups (McIntyre 2006: 232), a racist could only be a
person from a dominant group not a minority person.


A person from a racialized minority group could not be racist (against dominant
group members) because the minority person’s racialized group has no collective
power over the dominant group members. In this context the racialized minority
person is rather a target of racism.
Therefore, reversed racism, as indicated in the statement below, is a
oxymoron or contradiction in terms:
 While we don’t notice systematic unfairness, we do observe
specific efforts to redress it — such as affirmative action, which
often strikes white men as profoundly unjust. Thus a majority of
white Americans surveyed in a 2011 study said that there is now
more racism against whites than against blacks (Nicholas Kristof,
Feb. 21, 2015).

(http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-straighttalk-for-white-men.html?referrer&_r=1)
7. RACISM and RACISTS: The
Connection

None of these examples (of systematic unfairness to
racialized people and females) mean exactly that society is
full of hard-core racists and misogynists. Eduardo BonillaSilva, a Duke University sociologist, aptly calls the present
situation “Racism without Racists” [racism without
racists]; it could equally be called “misogyny without
misogynists.” Of course, there are die-hard racists and
misogynists out there, but the bigger problem seems to be
well-meaning people who believe in equal rights yet make
decisions that inadvertently transmit both racism and
sexism (Nicholas Kristof, Feb. 21, 2015).

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristofstraight-talk-for-white-men.html?referrer&_r=1

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
“RACE”, RACISM AND CRIME IN
CANADA: Theoretical Perspectives

FUNCTIONALIST PARADIGM: Homeostasis

Application of Sociological Imagination

Racialization of crime in Canada is functional
because it contributes to social cohesion and
stability:

Function #1: Contributes to job creation
Function #2: Rationalizes and facilitates assimilation
Function #3: Reinforces social solidarity in dominant group
Function #4: Makes resources and opportunities available to
dominant group members




Function #5: Makes it difficult for minorities to successfully challenge
existing social conventions of the dominant group
“RACE”, RACISM AND CRIME IN
CANADA: Theoretical Perspectives

SOCIAL CONFLICT PARADIGM:
Competition and Power Inequality
 Application

of Sociological Imagination
Capitalist societies such as Canada, using the ideology of
scarcity, create competition for resources that results in the
upper/middle Class people having the economic and political
power to shape laws and criminal justice system that make
the police and the media process lower class people
(proportional majority of racialized minorities happen to be
in this class) as criminals to eliminate them from the
competition for resources or minimize their chances of having
access to valued resources.
“RACE”, RACISM AND CRIME IN
CANADA: Theoretical Perspectives

INTERACTIONIST PARADIGM: Human
Agency & Definition of crime:


Application of Social Construction of Reality
The police and the media subjectively define and
label minorities as deviants/criminals and some
of the minorities define this label positively,
interact with it as such and internalize the
criminal label to become criminals—Selffulfilling prophesy! or looking-glass self.
“RACE”, RACISM AND CRIME IN
CANADA: Theoretical Perspectives

FEMINIST PARADIGM: Western Patriarchy:
Application of Sociological Imagination & Social
Construction of Reality

Feminization of Race:




The perception of “non-white” groups as “a feminine race” or possessing
“feminine racial characteristics” (Pon 1996:50), and the fact that racism
and gender have the same root--socially constructed “natural inferiority of
minorities and women” (Allahar 1995: 186).
“White Europeans lay claim to superiority and dominance by
effeminizing—or othering—there non-Westerners” (Tepperman, 2015, p.
252).
Feminization & Racialization of Poverty:

Sexism leads to inequality and oppression that render women poor, and
racist globalization aggravates this poverty for racialized minority women.
Some of these impoverished racialized women resort to crime to survive.
“RACE”, RACISM AND CRIME IN
CANADA: Feminist Paradigm


Illustration #1: Aboriginal women make up over 20%
of Canada's female prison population, but only 2% of
the female population of Canada.
Illustration #2: “To become more competitive in
the global economy, countries cut social
services. For poor white women, women of colour
and Aboriginal women this can make criminalized
activities the only way to survive,” says Dr.
Sudbury.
“RACE”, RACISM AND CRIME IN CANADA:
Theoretical Perspective

POSTMODERNISM:
 Application

of Social Construction of Reality
The elite using their power or hegemonic
discourses create and reproduce hyperreal
symbolic discourse as institutionalized
instruments of oppression for the
preservation of the distinctions between
socially constructed communities, including
races (Tepperman, 2015, p. 252).
CONCLUSION:
The Gap Between Ideal and Real Cultures

[Racial] discrimination and prejudice remain
problematic in many Western societies, where
the majority of people claim to support the idea
of ethno-racial equality, and legislation that
would bring about that goal. Nonetheless,
research continues to find that ethno-racial
inequality is still evident in virtually all
societies—especially in the areas of
employment, housing, wealth, health, and
criminal justice (Tepperman 2015, p. 276).
 SAMPLE
FINAL EXAM
QUESTION:

The arrests and imprisonment of Blacks, Aboriginals
and Latinos is at rates above Canadian average. What
do you think is the cause of this pattern and what
creative ideas and innovative designs do you suggest to
solve this social problem? Relate your answer to the
concept of racialization and show which of the
sociological paradigms would agree with your answer
and why?
REFERENCES
Aylward, Carol A. (1999). Canadian
Critical Race Theory: Racism and the Law.
Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
 Deroche, C. and John Deroche. (1991).
“Black and White: Racial Construction in
Television Police Drama”. Canadian Ethnic
Studies. 23(3): 69-91.

REFERENCES




Fleras, A. and Jean L. Elliott. (2010). Unequal Relations:
An Introduction to Race, Ethnic and Aboriginal Dynamics
in Canada. Scarborough: Prentice-Hall.
Gallagher, Charles A (ed.). 2007. Rethinking the Color
Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity. Third Edition.
Boston: McGraw Hill
Henry, F. (1994). The Caribbean Diaspora in Canada.
Toronto: U of Toronto Press.
Henry, F. (Forthcoming). The Racialization of Crime by
the Print Media. Toronto: School of Journalism, Ryerson
Polytechnic University.
REFERENCES



Henry, F., Carol Tator, Winston Mattis and Tim Rees.
(2000). The Colour of Democracy: Racism in Canadian
Society. Second Edition. Toronto: Harcourt Brace.
James, Carl E. (1998). “‘Up to no Good’, Black on the
Streets and Encountering Police”. In Vic Satzewich (ed.).
Racism and Social Inequality in Canada: Concepts,
Controversies & Strategies for Resistance. Toronto: TEP.
Kristof, Nicholas, (2015). “Straight Talk for White Men”,
New York Times, February 21, 2015. The Opinion
Column.
REFERENCES







Li, Peter S. (ed.). (1999). Race and Ethnic Relations in Canada. Second
Edition. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.
Lin, Ken-Hou & Jennifer Lundquist. 2013. “Mate Selection in Cyberspace:
The Interaction of Race, Gender and Education”. American Journal of
Sociology 119, 1, 183-215.
McIntyre, Lisa. (2006). The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology,
Third Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Mire, Amina. (2005). “Pigmentation and Empire: The Emerging SkinWhitening Industry”. A CounterPunch Special Report.
Mosher, C.L. (1998). Discrimination and Denial: Systemic Racism in
Ontario’s Legal and Criminal Justice Systems, 1892-1961. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
Tepperman, Lorne. 2015. Starting Points: A Sociological Journey. Second
Edition. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.
Thomas, Jennifer. 2000. “Adult Correctional Services in Canada 1989-99.”
Juristat. June 2000, pp. 1-16.
REFERENCES

Riano-Alcala, Pilar. (1999). The Impact of
the “Drug-War” on the Latin American
Community of Vancouver. Final Report.
Vancouver: Social Planning, City of
Vancouver, and the Latin American
Community Council (LACC).