Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The changing place of prejudice: a migration underground
- 1 “Those people all look alike”: The myth of the other
- 2 “They must be guilty of something”: Myths of criminalization
- 3 “Feminists are man-haters”: Backlash myth-making
- 4 “Gays flaunt their sexuality”: The myth of hypersexuality
- 5 “I'm not a racist, I'm colorblind”: The myth of neutrality
- 6 “Affirmative action is reverse racism”: The myth of merit
- Conclusion
- Index
2 - “They must be guilty of something”: Myths of criminalization
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The changing place of prejudice: a migration underground
- 1 “Those people all look alike”: The myth of the other
- 2 “They must be guilty of something”: Myths of criminalization
- 3 “Feminists are man-haters”: Backlash myth-making
- 4 “Gays flaunt their sexuality”: The myth of hypersexuality
- 5 “I'm not a racist, I'm colorblind”: The myth of neutrality
- 6 “Affirmative action is reverse racism”: The myth of merit
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
But the thing is, you don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.
Former Attorney General of the United States, Edwin MeeseIn the early morning hours of July 23, 1999, law enforcement officers raided homes and arrested 46 residents on drug charges in the small west Texas town of Tulia. Forty of those arrested were African Americans, representing about 10% of the town's African American population. Local television stations were alerted in advance of the raids, and cameras rolled as suspects, many of whom were not allowed to get fully dressed, were led out of their homes into squad cars. The arrests were based on white undercover officer Tom Coleman's 18-month investigation. And while no drugs, weapons, or large sums of cash were found at any of the residences, 38 of the 46 were convicted, based, in most cases, solely on Coleman's testimony that the suspects had sold him drugs. Coleman did not wear a wire or take notes during the purported transactions, and there were no eyewitnesses or video records. Judges ruled information about Coleman's checkered past inadmissible at the trials. No African Americans served as jurors on any of the cases. The first trial concluded with resident Joe Moore being sentenced to 90 years in prison. Another suspect got 300 years.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Benign BigotryThe Psychology of Subtle Prejudice, pp. 81 - 128Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009