In recent news, there was a black male (Danroy Henry[age 20]) Pace University student shot and killed by a police officer outside of a local bar. Officers were patroling the area, having broken up a fight close by when a policemen shot and killed Danroy. The police report written by the policemen on site states, the student sat in a car in the fire lane with the car parked. When a police officer approached the car and knocked on the window Danroy drove off and hit 3 police officers trying to shot Danroy. The student stopped driving and raised his hands, when the police officer shot him repeatedly and killed him. The police officer justifies that, he thought that when the student raised his hands he was raising a gun, and shot and killed him.
Modern day crime statistic support that African American's are 13x more likely to commit a violent crime.Black people account for 66% of all violent crimes commited today, 80% of shootings and 70% of robberies. Hispanics are 9x more likely to commit a violent crime. In fact: 98% of all shootings are commited by black and hispanic people. Asian people account for 5% of all police stops. White people account for 5% of all violent crime, 1.8% of shooting ands 5% of robberies.
A connecting article I found, was the hirings of firefighters in New York. Black firefighters makeup 3.4% of the force. People of New York are saying that this is racist to have a majority of white firefighters and recently made a public outcry. The NYFD responded by saying the only hire people who meet their requirement of testing, and will accept people of any race who meet those requirements.
Was the student shot, because the cop assumed that because he was black that he had a weapon and would shoot? Does the NYFD hire white people more, because black people commit more crimes are less likely to assist the community as firemen and are seen as less potential than white firefighters?
Or is racism less of an issue today and the policemen shot the student because he injured four cops with his car and NYFD stay true to their statement, and hire people the believe will do the job regradless of race.
My question is: Is racism instituationalized and unavoidable misfortune, or were these people acting appropriately, and the situation would be the same if the people who weren't hired at the NYFD or the Pace Student were white?
here are my resources:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/10/massachusetts_m_2.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/nyregion/14fire.html
http://www.city-journal.org/2010/eon0514hm.html
I believe that racism is no longer institutionalization because racism isn't like it was in the 1960s, people now a days give everyone a far shot especially police officers. I wouldn't blame the police officer for shooting the Pace student. Clearly, the pace student was driving recklessly and was a threat to the people around us. I feel that if it was a white student the situation would have been handled the same way. I believe that race is an unavoidable misfortune. Also, I believe that the NYFD was staying true to there statement about hiring firefighters who reach the correct standards. I think that if the roles were switched in both cases it would be handled the exact same way that they are handling it today.
ReplyDeleteI think that racism is not institutionalized, and everyone is taught that everyone is equal these days. Most people think that all races are equal, and I think that most police officers would not discriminate against minorities. I completely agree with Alyssa that the situation at Pace University would have occurred if the student was white or any other race. I believe that Henry was foolish and driving extremely recklessly, which is why he was shot. I do not think that the officers would have treated the situation differently if they found the driver of the car was white. I also believe that it is just a coincidence that a small percentage of the NYFD is African-American, and I do not think that it is racist. If they try to fix this "problem", they either fire some white people, which would reduce their numbers a lot, or hire more African-Americans. This would also lead to problems, as they may start hiring people only because of their race and not because of their skill. This is very unsafe because a large department has unskilled and unqualified firefighters working for it. I do not think that
ReplyDeleteI actually disagree with both of the previous comments. I believe that even though a lot of people don’t consider themselves to be racist or discriminatory towards other races, they still are. For example, in the movie “Crash” that we saw in class, the police officer did not believe that he was racist until he shot the black man because he just assumed that he had a gun. I believe that many people try to not be racist but it still lingers in the back of our minds. We will never know if the cop shot the student as a racist act or because he thought it was the right thing to do, but I believe that it may have been a slightly discriminatory action. Even though people do not want to admit it to themselves, I think all of us have a little bit of racism within us that we may or may not act upon. I think that racism will always be institutionalized whether we want it to or not because it is a part of our human nature. There are things that can be done to reduce racism, such as hire more colored people onto the NYFD, but racism and stereotypes will always be a part of our society and of our human nature.
ReplyDeleteI think that racism is still institutionalized because we still grow up with our parents' prejudices. Our media is still slightly racist. Certain popular TV networks still only feature white main characters and stereotypical "black" characters that talk with slang and their main focus is basketball and hip hop. I think these police officers acted appropriately in the way that this student should have been arrested for attempting to out run the police and crashing into stationed officers. I do not think that they acted appropriately in the way that they handled this student by shooting him, assuming that he was armed. I think the only racial profiling that went on here was assuming that this student was armed and dangerous just because he was African american.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lauren and Laura. I do believe that racism is still institutionalized in America today. We are taught by America’s past that racism is something that shouldn’t be enforced. Like Lauren said, we all have the idea of racism in our minds, but we may or may not act upon our ideas. People try to cover up the thought of racism by hiring more colored people, and giving them more of a chance. Even though American’s don’t want to believe it, there definitely is the thought in everyone’s mind about the different races. I think that the cop did in fact act on a racial impulse, and the situation with the Pace student would have been different if he was white. If he was white, the officer would have thought that there was less of a chance for him to have a gun. Although the man was driving recklessly and hit three other police officers, that in no way suggests that the man was also armed. Even though the officer may not have meant to racially profile this student, I think that this was what it came down to in the end.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that racism is still institutionalized. It may be true that we are taught that everyone is equal, but I agree Laura that we still have to live with citizens who never believed that others were equal. Many elderly people use many racial slangs and act superior to other races, or at least I know my grandparents do. I don’t believe that they are bad people for doing so because I know that’s what many citizens believed back in the day. It is obvious that our society has greatly improved and has started to accept other races as equals, but I agree with Lauren that many people are slightly racist whether they want to admit it or not just like the example from the movie “Crash.” Just like in the movie, there is a slight possibility that the cop that shot the Pace student was slightly threatened because of his race, but I believe that he acted with his best judgment. If a man drove off from a cop and hit a couple other police officers in the process, then continued to put his arms up I believe there is enough reason to believe the student was dangerous.
ReplyDeleteI think racism is institutionalized because if you're brought up around racism, when you're a child, you're not going to know anything else to believe other than what you are taught. However, once you get older you are more than capable of creating your own beliefs and values and being accepting of people who are different from you. I don't think it's unavoidable either because you can very well avoid being racist, you can't always control other people thoughts on race or change their mind, but you can control your own. I don't know if these people were acting appropriately because I don't know what was going through their heads or if the situation would have been the same if the people involved were white. The cop who shot the black man could have genuinely thought he possessed a gun, or he could have used that as an excuse to explain his racism in believing that the man only had a gun because he was black.
ReplyDeleteI agree that racism is still very institutionalized. No one in this day and age wants to think that they are a bit racist but in fact most people do racially profile other without even realizing it. In the media races are profiled in many different ways and people learn for that, also people act differently around different races weather it being more cautions or just watching your mouth more. This is al institutionalized forms of it, no one directly tells people to do this but we learn it from many different sources.
ReplyDeleteI agree that racism is still institutionalized now. Some times, along with not wanting to admit that they are racist, people don't even realize that they are being racist until after the fact. In the situation that was brought up, I don't think that the situation would be the same, but i do think that in some way shape or form it would be thought to be racist because the whit kids were't getting jobs over the black people.
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