THE IMPETUS FOR THE RACIST AND ANTI-RACIST EVENTS IN CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE COLLECTION
George Floyd pleaded for his life as White law enforcement officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on the 47-year old, Black man’s neck. George Floyd begged for his life for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, as law enforcement officers Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao stood by and prevented onlookers from intervening. These officers did nothing to protect the life of a helpless and handcuffed human being. Citizens in the street pleaded on behalf of George Floyd. They, too, were powerless to prevent his death. Why did George Floyd lose his life at the hands of individuals who were sworn to protect, serve, and uphold the law? Why couldn’t George Floyd’s life be saved?
This is a pivotal moment for criminal justice education in the United States. As we grapple with the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Daniel Prude at the hands of police, we recognize that this is not the first time we have witnessed police violence against black and brown bodies. Some well-known cases are: the 1918 Porvenir Massacre; the 1921 Tulsa Massacre; the lynching of Mary Turner in 1931; the lynching of teenager Emmett Till in 1955; the 1964 murder of 15-year old James Powell; the 1976 point-blank murder of 15-year old Randolph Evans; the 1985 murder of Edmund Perry; the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, who was shot 19 times; the shooting of Sean Bell in 2006; and the 2013 murder of 13-year old Andy Lopez, who was shot 7 times.
RACISM IN CRIMINOLOGY AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Racism permeates criminology and the criminal justice system, and it manifests in the continued use of policies, procedures, and practices that disproportionately disadvantage poor communities of color. These communities have been decimated by a system that has failed to confront the reality that the presence of penal capital (i.e., probation, parole, police, courts, etc.) often results in assaults on people of color, the destruction of their families, and terror within their communities. The historical legacy of racist criminal legal practices cannot be denied. The criminal justice system and its actors, among others, have maintained slavery, enforced Jim Crow laws, protected the lynchers, advocated for racist drug laws, and ignored the cries to protect indigenous women.
ANTI-RACISM IN CRIMINOLOGY AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Many have attempted to ameliorate the negative impacts of racist policies and confront the racist system. Sheriffs have been murdered trying to protect the accused from lynch mobs, lawyers have achieved justice for the wrongfully accused and convicted, whistleblowers have uncovered corruption and racial profiling, legislators have banned the box that disclosed a criminal conviction on job applications, voters have corrected the injustices of felon disenfranchisement, police officers have advocated for changes to drug laws, and criminologists have highlighted the harms of mass incarceration, prison overcrowding, and zero-tolerance policing.
CCJEM’S ROLE IN PREPARING STUDENTS ENTERING THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE FIELDS
The complicated legacy of racism and antiracism in criminology and the criminal justice system should be known to every graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from California State University, Long Beach.
The faculty in the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management are responsible for preparing students pursuing various careers, particularly those in the criminal justice fields. To fulfill that responsibility, we seek to ensure that our graduates are given the historical knowledge and critical thinking skills to confront the entrenched racism that they will undoubtedly encounter in courtrooms, police departments, prison facilities, government agencies, and other public and private arenas. To fulfill our mission to educate students and meet two of our program learning outcomes (Analyze the role of ethics, diversity, culture, racism, white supremacy, political power, and corporate power on the components of the criminal justice system [Program Learning Objective (PLO) # 3] and Examine the role of criminology as theory and criminal justice as practice in perpetuating and/or challenging oppressive hierarchies [PLO #4]), we must provide opportunities for students to understand the system, confront it, and choose whether and how to be anti-racist.
To arm them with such power, we created the Racist and Anti-Racist Events in Criminology and Criminal Justice Collection.