The Color of Crime (Second Edition): Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment, and Other Macroaggressions / Edition 2

by Katheryn Russell-Brown

Overview

A lucid and forceful volume that explores the tacit and subtle ways the American justice system links deviance to people of color

When The Color of Crime was first published ten years ago, it was heralded as a path-breaking book on race and crime. Now, in its tenth anniversary year, Katheryn Russell-Brown’s book is more relevant than ever. The Jena Six, Duke Lacrosse Team, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, James Byrd, and all of those victimized in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are just a few of the racially fueled cases that have made headlines in the past decade.

Russell-Brown continues to ask, why do Black and White Americans perceive police actions so differently? Is White fear of Black crime justified? Do African Americans really protect their own? Should they? And why are we still talking about O.J.? Russell-Brown surveys the landscape of American crime and identifies some of the country’s most significant racial pathologies. In this new edition, each chapter is updated and revised, and two new chapters have been added. Enriched with twenty-five new cases, the explosive and troublesome chapter on “Racial Hoaxes” demonstrates that “playing the race card” is still a popular ploy.

The Color of Crime is a lucid and forceful volume that calls for continued vigilance on the part of journalists, scholars, and policymakers alike. Through her innovative analysis of cases, ideological and media trends, issues, and practices that resonate below the public radar even in the new century, Russell-Brown explores the tacit and subtle ways that deviance is systematically linked to people of color. Her findings are impossible to ignore.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814776186
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2008
Series:	Critical America , #45
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	223
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Katheryn Russell-Brown is Levin, Mabie, and Levin Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. She is the author of Protecting Our Own: Race, Crime, and African Americans and Underground Codes: Race, Crime, and Related Fires, and has also written three children’s books, including She Was the First! The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Media Messages
2 The Skin Game
3 History’s Strange Fruit
4 Discrimination or Disparity?
5 Are We Still Talking about O. J.?
6 Racial Hoaxes
7 White Crime
8 Race and Crime Literacy
Appendix A: Traffic Stops Statistics Study Act of 2000
Appendix B: Racial Hoaxes: Summaries of Ninety-Two Cases
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

"Praise for the first edition: "Russell brilliantly scrutinizes the demonization of black men in the mass media and criminal justice system. Since slavery whites have fabricated fictions of dangerous black men and a distinctive 'black crime,' while playing down the real dominance of (unnamed) 'white crime.' Russell demonstrates that media distortions and racial hoaxes grow from and feed black demonization. Reviewing the failure of reforms to create a fair criminal justice system, and society, she offers imaginative, workable solutions."

Joe R. Feagin

"Praise for the first edition: "A groundbreaking and extremely innovative book."

Thomas J. Bernard

"Praise for the first edition: "As American are becoming increasingly sensitized to ingrained racial pathologies, Katheryn Russell's book, particularly her highly original chapter on racial hoaxes, is a crucial addition to the national discussion on race."

Jody Armour