Jun 11, 2020
Bias is killing
Why police kill a disproportionate number of black people
In the US, disproportionately more black people are being killed than white people by police officers. In 2019, for instance, police in the United States of America killed 1,098 people, which in itself is a staggering number, especially compared to most of the rest of the world. Of the people killed by US police, 24% was black, while only 13% of the US population is black.
One could simply assume that US police officers are generally racist and thus more likely to kill black people than white people. But perhaps it’s not that simple. Researchers found that white officers appear to be no more likely to use lethal force against minorities than nonwhite officers.
Several studies into the causes of disproportionate police killings have focused on individual police officers. This point of view, however, ignores the general racist bias in American society. Even though overt racism is largely considered to be a taboo, implicit, or aversive racism is still maintained. Surveys show that large sections of Americans admit to holding discriminatory viewpoints.
Growing up in a society that has a racist undercurrent is likely to affect people’s stereotypes, prejudices, and biases, no matter the color of their own skin. What happens with these stereotypes is that people unconsciously start looking for confirmation, in accordance with the very well documented psychological phenomenon called confirmation bias, which states there is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs. The racial bias thus becomes bigger and bigger as it becomes entangled in a vicious racist circle.
An example of a catalyst in this vicious circle is the racial bias that has been recorded in criminal news reporting, particularly with regard to African American individuals. Research reveals persistent racial prejudice, characterizing African Americans as violent and aggressive. Media exposure contributes to these perceptions by disproportionately depicting ethnic minorities as criminal suspects and Caucasians as victims in television news. Police officers come from all walks of life and they too carry implicit bias, regardless of their ethnicity. Watching the biased news unconsciously confirms their racist beliefs as well.
On top of the biased news reporting, there seems to be a trend of white people calling the police on black people doing nothing wrong. Even though in most of these cases the police are called unjustly, they will likely subconsciously reconfirm living prejudices, also among police officers.
With the arrival of Donald Trump as president of the United States, a new era of more overt racism has been entered. Trump has, on numerous occasions, used racist rhetoric to incite followers. This political conduct will only reinforce the already existing racial stereotypes even more for large portions of society, again, including police offers.
The disproportionate attention to (supposed) black crime via news outlets, in politics, and in real life, caters to the confirmation bias of people looking for evidence for their beliefs, which reinforces the racist stereotypes many people have, including police officers who will unconsciously be influenced by these stereotypes when having to make split-second decisions. Research by Daniel Kahneman shows that we rely on our subconscious when having to make split-second decisions in life or death situations like police officers face. Thus, confirmation bias contributes directly to the disproportionate killing of black people by police officers.
The remedy against the vicious circle of racism requires a lot of courage throughout society. The people with the most prominent positions and broadest influence in society should break the circle first and foremost. Politicians should, therefore, stick to the actual facts and portray society as it is, not as the racist fearmongering parts of society would have it. The news media have their responsibility to deliver well-balanced stories that portray society in a more evenly light. Only when these macrolevel racist biases are overcome will individuals be able to confront their inner racist demons. If and when society comes to this, it will mean that police officers will be able to assess any given situation on its own merit. Which in turn should result in an evenly divided attitude towards all groups of society.
