6 - Conclusions

Summary

Throughout this book, we have recounted multiple and varying instances of African Americans and Whites responding to real-world events (or in some cases vignettes designed to mimic real-world events) in profoundly differing ways. We have documented ways in which the races evaluate the conduct of police officers, see the racial bias of certain policies, and judge the fairness of the criminal justice system so differently.

Perhaps most dramatically, if for no other reason than people read about such things in the papers and see such accounts on television, we have offered example after example of Whites and Blacks differentially interpreting actual events in the justice system, finding that the races almost seem to be responding to different realities. Abner Louima. Amadou Diallo. Reginald Denny. Rodney King. O. J. Simpson. The Jena Six. Time after time, African Americans perceive such instances using one interpretive lens, while Whites use another. Time after time, they come to dramatically different conclusions about the treatment that such individuals received at the hands of the criminal justice system.

The settings and the cast of characters in each of these episodes have doubtless served to racialize the public's responses: before citizens began to interpret the events, the scenarios had largely been defined in racial terms. Louima and Diallo were obvious victims of racial profiling. Denny and King were involved, in different ways, in an instance of race-related police brutality.