Friday, March 14, 2014

APA just verified what every mother/father of a black boy knows

Summary of: The Essence of Innocence: Consequences of Dehumanizing Black Children. Research by Phillip Atiba Goff, Matthew Christian Jackson, Brooke Allison Lewis Di Leone, Carmen Marie Culotta and Natalie Ann DiTomasso.
Black boys as young as 10 may not be viewed in the same light of childhood innocence as their white peers, but are instead more likely to be mistaken as older, be perceived as guilty and face police violence if accused of a crime, according to new research. “Children in most societies are considered to be in a distinct group with characteristics such as innocence and the need for protection. Our research found that black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent,” said the lead author.
This is one of the main reasons we have a Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline in this country.

Its time we all asked ourselves: What do I see?

4 comments:

  1. SP, (shock) is that snow you are featuring at a time when some of us can't wait for winter to be over?

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    Replies
    1. Phew! Thanks for the clarification. ;) I see white fluffy-looking stuff and all I see and think is 'O lord, not more snow!'

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  2. Thanks for posting this. It's true - this is something every black person knows. This is a conversation that white people should be having - privately in their homes, amongst other whites - in churches, at work, at school. This should be considered important for whites to know about this and begin to change.

    I noticed, and I think a lot of people noticed, that when Trayvon was shot, it was a black problem, a black conversation, black people were invited on talk shows to talk about it. Had it been a white teen murdered by a black man, guess what, it would've been a black problem, black people would've been invited to talk about it.

    If this above situation was something that black people could solve, we would've done it years ago. It's not our problem. It's a problem for the white community to finally, finally, finally address.

    ReplyDelete

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