Fractured Belonging: Black Police Officers and the New Civil Rights Movement Público

Abstract

This dissertation examines how Black police officers navigate their dual identities of being Black and Blue in the age of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Historically, Black Americans have been excluded from the police force by white supremacist sociocultural imaginaries that conceive of police as white males. As a result, they have fought for recognition and inclusion in police departments across the nation. While the notion of police as white males persists, today, Black police officers are largely represented in most urban police departments and have been able to make gradual changes to the perception of police and policing as their role has shifted from tokens to leaders.

Through 12 months of ethnographic research, I explore how the seemingly contradictory identities: Black and Blue are lived out by Black officers during the Black Lives Matter Movement. I argue that policing offers Black police officers temporary access to white civic participation – which in the U.S. is a currency that brings along social and cultural capital. I do so using the analytic of double consciousness – a theoretical construct that examines the duality of being Black and Blue in one dark body. To be a police officer means performing one’s civic duty and serving as the arm of the state. It implies white respectability that is denied to Black people due to the lack of social status epidermalized on their skin. If historically, Black skin has been a marker of non-being, keeping Black people at the bottom of the social hierarchy, being a police officer today offers the possibility of borrowed personhood through inclusion into white civic participation placing Black officers in opposition to those advocating for Black life.

By focusing on Black police officers, this dissertation is in dialogue with the literature on race, identity, social movements, and social transformation by examining their antagonistic relationship. This research critiques diversity efforts without structural changes by interrogating the role of Black police officers in our society. This research centers itself within broader conversations of critical race theory, diversity, social movements, and the importance of structural change for effective inclusion.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 

Preface ………………………………………………………………………………………. viii

 

Chapter 1: Introduction ………………………………………………………………………1 

 

Introducing the field .....................................................................................................................1

Theoretical context........................................................................................................................2

Chapter contents, research design, and methods........................................................................15

 

Chapter 2: From Objects to Subjects? ………………………………….……………..…….17

Colonial and Antebellum Policing………....................................................................................18

First Black Officers............................................................................................... .....................21

Reconstruction Era ....................................................................................................................23

Redemption Era/Jim Crow Era..................................................................................................26

Second-Class Status ……………………………………………………………………….……….…. 27

Black Police in Atlanta..............................................................................................................28

The Atlanta Eight ……………………………………………………….….……………………….….31

Separate and Unequal………………………...............................................................................35

The Civil Rights Era..................................................................................................................35

Conclusion Resistance: Contemporary Issues of Policing, Race, and Racialization in America…..42

Chapter 3: Black Rage: The Aftermath............................................................................45

History of Black Rage .................................................................................................................45

Black Police in the Aftermath......................................................................................................47

Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Policing...................................................................................47

Becoming the Police……………………………..............................................................................48

On Black Lives Matter (BLM)………………………...................................... ... ...........................50

Trauma, BLM, and Policing ……………………………………………………………......................55

Policing Trauma ………………………………………………..........................................................63  

Conclusion....................................................................................................................................68

 

Chapter 4: From Theory to Practice: Policing in Action………............................................70

Introduction ……...........................................................................................................................70

Police Perspectives .......................................................................................................................72

Code Enforcement ……………………………………………………………………………………..….80

Police/Community Meeting …………………………………………………………………...…………89

Community Perspectives………….................................................................................................96

Conclusion...................................................................................................................................101

 

Chapter 5: Imagined Futures: Defund the Police ………………..........................................103

Introduction ................................................................................................................................103

The Blue Flu……………………………………………………………………………………………... 106

Defund the Police ……................................................................................................................110

Backlash…………........................................................................................................................116

Refund the Police - Return to the Status Quo ………………………………………………....…….121

Predictive Policing…………………………………………………………………………… 126

Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 128 

Chapter 6: Conclusion: The Future of Policing Black Life ................................................. 129

Introduction ................................................................................................................................129

Black Officers or Police Officers who are Black …………………………………...................132 

Community Responses ………………………………………………………………………………... 135

What then? ................................................................................................................................137

Recommendations ………………………………………………………………………………….… 139

Conclusion................................................................................................................................141

References ………………………………………………………………………………….…142 

About this Dissertation

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Anthropology
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	African American Studies Anthropology, Archaeology
Palabra Clave	Social movement Race Identity Black police
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Peter J Brown, Emory University
Committee Members	Bruce M Knauft, Emory University Justin Hosbey, Emory University

Última modificación

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	Fractured Belonging: Black Police Officers and the New Civil Rights Movement ()	2022-07-14 12:50:44 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions