Examining the Racial and Gender bias in the Media: Police Crime Reporting
Stop saying the off duty cop who killed Botham Shem Jean was “confused.”
Botham Shem Jean, a 26 year old Black man, was killed in his own home by an off duty White woman cop who entered his home. Botham was an associate at PwC, a churchgoer, a singer, a community volunteer.
Someone told me “the cop was just confused and stupid, not racist. Let’s not make this about race.”
Well, I beg to differ.
A little detour before I get into why race does matter here. Because a bit of historical context is important:
Identities are the lenses through which we see and experience the world. Many of our laws, institutions, and customs have been born out of our ancestors’ desire to subjugate and marginalize various identity groups. While we may not see the same policies such as the Three Fifths Compromise or Chinese Exclusion Act enacted in their original forms, there are plenty of reincarnations of those policies today that are written in different words while maintaining their racist core.
Did you know the police institution was created to capture runaway enslaved people? Me neither, until recently. It’s no wonder the institution is so adept at protecting its own, even at the expense of innocent Black lives and other communities they claim to protect. Criminalization of people of color (and LGBTQ people) has always been at the core of our police and judicial system, and no matter how many individual “good cops” try to prove otherwise, we can’t erase our history. It’s important to remember that conversations around police brutality isn’t about a “few bad apples” nor is it about the well intentioned, moral police officers. We’re talking about the entire system — not individuals — and how it operates to marginalize specific groups of people.
Ok, let’s get back to Botham Shem Jean’s death.
For those who are reading this in the future, it’s been 2 days since Botham’s murder. More information is being reported out as we speak, but there’s also a lot of noise in the news.
The most popular narrative right now is this: an off duty woman cop entered the home of Botham Shem Jean by mistake, thinking it was her home. She then shot Botham.
The fact that the story got out in this way, especially without much context in the beginning, should cause us to pause. There hasn’t been any definitive evidence to indicate such narrative is true. Rather than paying attention to how the investigation will be conducted and what charges will be brought, people were quick to comment on how “stupid” she was, whether she was drunk or high, and how unfortunate the “accident” was. The search warrant for the cop was apparently dropped because of her willing cooperation, and the police is seeking a manslaughter charge. The off duty police officer’s narrative has been cemented as an innocent off duty cop who “was mistaken.” All the while, an innocent person is dead.
Media’s prompt releasing of these headlines exposes the decades old unconscious (or perhaps conscious) bias that has shaped the way we’ve historically portrayed White women’s perpetration of violence against men of color — an innocent mistake, confusion, helplessness (Google: Emmett Till).
We see words such as “murder” “suspect” “perpetrator” “criminal” often associated with any crimes committed by men of color. We don’t see those words being used to describe this incident, because after all, it was just an innocent mistake, right? It sickens me to think (and know with a degree of certainty) this wouldn’t be the cause if the identities had been swapped — an off duty Black cop killing an innocent White woman in her own home. It doesn’t take much to imagine the possible headlines, because we’ve already seen them too many times. I also find myself wondering if the cop would’ve shot the person if it had been a 26 year old White woman who answered the door, instead of Botham.
The best defense for White perpetrators of harm has historically been their “mental health” state. Whether it be mass shootings or cases like this, White criminals keep getting portrayed as troubled, mentally unstable, or confused/“dumb” (for White women especially). We have to be vigilant about questioning these narratives — such narratives are rarely used for people of color, while they serve to humanize white people who commit crimes in the media.
In addition, we ought to review the level of leniency shown in the investigation process of this “confused” perpetrator. Her search warrant was dropped because she was “cooperative.” They trusted her words at face value and are seeking a manslaughter charge (vs. murder) — for walking into someone’s house and killing an innocent man in the middle of the night. When a Black person is suspected to be a threat —selling CDs, walking around with a hoodie on carrying Skittles, selling cigarettes, or driving — “innocent until proven guilty” rule seems to vanish and they are immediately gunned down.
We can’t not talk about race in these incidents. Because they are about race.
In order to disrupt this harmful trend, we must challenge our thinking and reflect on the systemic patterns that continue to afford leniency and dignity to white police officers who kill black people for no good reason at all, while the lack thereof is true for those killed and those who continue to live in fear of being the next statistic.
Written at midnight with a lot of rage and not a lot of editing.
Please help me make the post better by providing any suggestions, edits, or feedback in the comments!
