CalvinJohn Smiley

From “brute” to “thug:” The demonization and criminalization of unarmed Black male victims in America

ABSTRACT The synonymy of Blackness with criminality is not a new phenomenon in America. Documented historical accounts have shown how myths, stereotypes, and racist ideologies led to discriminatory policies and court rulings that fueled racial violence in the post-Reconstruction era and have culminated in the exponential increase of Black male incarceration today. Misconceptions and prejudices manufactured and disseminated through various channels such as the media included references to a “brute” image of Black males. In the 21st century, this negative imagery of Black males has frequently utilized the negative connotation of the terminology “thug.” In recent years, law enforcement agencies have unreasonably used deadly force on Black males allegedly considered to be “suspects” or “persons of interest.” The exploitation of these often-targeted victims’ criminal records, physical appearances, or misperceived attributes has been used to justify their unlawful deaths. Despite the connection between disproportionate criminality and Black masculinity, little research has been done on how unarmed Black male victims, particularly but not exclusively at the hands of law enforcement, have been posthumously criminalized. This article investigates the historical criminalization of Black males and its connection to contemporary unarmed victims of law enforcement. Action research methodology in the data collection process is utilized to interpret how Black male victims are portrayed by traditional mass media, particularly through the use of language, in ways that marginalize and devictimize these individuals. This study also aims to elucidate a contemporary understanding of race relations, racism, and the plight of the Black male in a 21-century “postracial” America.

From Silence to Propagation: Understanding the Relationship between “Stop Snitchin” and “YOLO”

Beginning in the early twenty-first century, “Stop Snitchin”—a technique of not speaking to police—was at the forefront of urban hip-hop culture. With the exponential growth of social media, however, the idiom switched to “YOLO”—You Only Live Once. This phrase has glamorized American values of individualism and exceptionalism, thus contradicting “Stop Snitchin,” as people use social media as a platform to display their exploits and apply “YOLO” to dismiss criminal and deviant behavior. This article examines the intersections of social media, crime, and deviance as well as the influence of the prison industrial complex on social promotion of crime and deviant behavior. Using cultural criminology, this article seeks to identify how power is achieved through different forms of impression management, moving from silence to broadcasting in three ways: (1) chance, (2) announced, and (3) rehearsed performances.

Clothing makes the man: Impression management and prisoner reentry

Building on the wealth of prisoner reentry scholarship focusing on the process of transitioning home, this article examines clothing and reentry, and the complex interplay of how clothing has meaning for both the wearer and the viewer during this process. Prisoner reintegration research demonstrates that former prisoners are in need of a multitude of items, yet the purpose of clothing as a function in impression management is rarely considered. This article contends that clothing plays an important role in mediating social interactions for men returning to the community. Drawing on ethnographic data from a two-year interdisciplinary project in Newark, New Jersey, we present empirical evidence that clothing supports substantial notions of identity and performance. Through the notion of liminality, we explore three typologies that reveal how clothing pertains to male performance and social practice: (1) loss of identity, (2) reclamation of identity, and (3) creation of identity. We find that clothing is a tool through which former prisoners are able to reengage with society as someone other than as a former prisoner.

Familia y educación: a quantitative assessment of the impact of parental configuration on educational attainment for a national sample of Latinx students

ABSTRACT The Latinx community is the fastest growing demographic in the United States and faces high rates of xenophobia and racism because of myths surrounding immigration and criminality. Therefore, Latinx communities are faced with many challenges. Parental configuration and educational attainment are key areas to explore the Latinx community in U.S. society. Utilizing a national representative sample from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), this paper employs an intersectional framework to investigate the relative impact of parental divorce on Latinx students’ educational attainment outcomes. This paper finds: (1) for both male and female students, parental divorce had no impact on educational attainment; (2) students in public schools had lower educational attainment than their counterparts; (3) cultural capital was significant for Latinx males; (4) parental social capital was significant for Latinx females; and (5) socioeconomic status proved to be significant for both males and females.

Black Petes & Black Crooks? Racial stereotyping and offending in the Netherlands

Abstract In the popular Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas, the caricature of his helper ‘Zwarte Piet’ [Black Pete] is often of a black-faced white person. The representation of this character has been surrounded by controversy in Europe and abroad. The following paper discusses these recent controversial media stories in the Netherlands and Western Europe along with the historical context of this character. We also make an argument about how the pervasive imagery in news, television, and theatre of people of color in the Netherlands may be influencing crime statistics by creating and encouraging negative views of ‘the other’. In the Netherlands, Dutch Caribbean and Surinamese first-generation immigrants compared to white, native Dutch are over-represented in official arrest and prison statistics. We theorize that the reasons for this noticeable overrepresentation in crime statistic is it at least in part due to a societal stigma of ‘the other’ and racial profiling of black ethnic minorities.

Can I sit?: The use of public space and the ‘other’

On a frigidly cold morning in March 2011, I arrived at Newark Penn Station and decided to have breakfast in the Gateway Center – a set of interconnected above ground tunnels and buildings – before arriving at the prisoner reentry office where I was doing fieldwork. I sat at one of the small tables in the corridor away from the noisy eatery filled with businessmen. Facing me at another small table was a young adult White male in a dark navy blue suit. I assumed he worked in one of the multiple businesses located inside the Gateway Center. When I sat down we glanced at each other and both gave a half grin. I expected that this interaction was final but to my surprise I heard a voice say, ‘Good choice.’ I looked up and before I could respond the young man said, ‘On your breakfast,’ glancing down to the fact that we had the same exact meal. I cheerfully stated, ‘Yes, it is.’ ‘Do you work in the Gateway?,’ he said. I responded, ‘No,’ yet an interesting but brief conversation ensued. He told me that he had recently finished law school and had started working at a law firm in the Gateway Center. He was living at home with his parents but looking to move out. I asked had he thought of moving to Newark. He replied, ‘You know... I’ve never been out there.’ I gave him a perplexed look and he clarified, ‘I haven’t actually been in Newark. I started working here at the end of August and still haven’t been outside [Newark] Penn Station or the Gateway [Center]. You always hear bad things about Newark and I guess I have no real reason to go out there.’ We both finished and said good-bye; he headed towards his office as I made my way towards the exit. Our encounter was short but as I left the Gateway Center facing the cold wind for the second half of my walk, I thought about our conversation and two things stood out about this young man’s comments. First, his assessment and analysis of both Newark Penn Station and the Gateway Center that had anything he needed for a typical day, which included several places to eat, fitness center, banks, and coffee stands. Second was the reaction to the question about moving to Newark and his comment of ‘you always hear bad things.’ Newark, like many other predominately poor and Black communities, is marred with a stigma of being dangerous and a place that is unsafe for ‘good’ people. By his own admission, he had never felt or experienced this threat of danger of Newark being a ‘scary’ place, yet still harbored those feelings of fear towards the city.

Doing a Bid: The Construction of Time as Punishment

Juxtaposing the sociology of time with the sociological study of punishment, we interviewed 34 former inmates to explore their memories of how they constructed time while “doing a bid.” Prison sentences convey macro-political and social messages, but time is experienced by individuals. Our qualitative data explore important theoretical connections between the sociology of time as a lived experience and the temporality of prison where time is punishment. The interview data explores the social construction of time, and our findings demonstrate participants’ use of the language of time in three distinct ways: (a) routine time, (b) marked time, and (c) lost time.