Street/Crime: From Rodney King's Beating to Michael Brown's Shooting

How Does Racial Context Matter?: Family Preparation‐for‐Bias Messages and Racial Coping Reported by Black Youth

“…In contrast, some Black parents feel helpless to protect youth from police (Gandbhir & Foster, 2015). Interactions with the police such as police harassment or police involvement due to an escalation between watchful store employees and Black youth (e.g, Gabbidon, 2003) could result in juvenile justice involvement or even youths' death (e.g., Rabinowitz, 2015). Thus, contextual differences in families' ability to intervene and appraisal of youths' consequences may be linked to coping responses families suggest in their messages (Garc ıa Coll et al, 1996;Hughes et al, 2009).…”

Who Is the One Being Disrespectful? Understanding and Deconstructing the Criminalization of Elementary School Boys of Color

“…Despite the superpredator thesis having proven to be decidedly false, it remains a woven part of the normal and ordinary views of our society (Miller, Potter, & Kappeler, 2006). We can see this in specific examples, such as the successful legal defense of Michael Brown’s murderer, who despite being the same size, claimed he felt like a child against Hulk Hogan and that Michael Brown looked “like a demon” (Bonilla & Rosa, 2015; Rabinowitz, 2015). Along with specific and elevated examples, the superpredator myth is also woven into normal and ordinary daily representations of our urban youth of color (Vitale, 2018):Television news shows, with an aura of objectivity, take seriously the discourse of the youth as “superpredator,” disproportionately use images of street crime that highlight African Americans or Latinos as perpetrators, and sensationalize those participating in any youth violence as inherently violent “gangbangers” capable of spontaneous and unpremeditated violent attacks .…”

“…Despite the superpredator thesis having proven to be decidedly false, it remains a woven part of the normal and ordinary views of our society (Miller, Potter, & Kappeler, 2006). We can see this in specific examples, such as the successful legal defense of Michael Brown's murderer, who despite being the same size, claimed he felt like a child against Hulk Hogan and that Michael Brown looked "like a demon" (Bonilla & Rosa, 2015;Rabinowitz, 2015). Along with specific and elevated examples, the superpredator myth is also woven into normal and ordinary daily representations of our urban youth of color (Vitale, 2018):…”

In the Wakes of Rodney King: Militant Evidence and Media Activism in the Age of Viral Black Death

“…During the trial, officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed Brown, described him, much like the LAPD officers did in the King trial, as looking "like a demon" and described that he "felt like a five-year-old holding on to Hulk Hogan." 45 In the trial of George Zimmerman, who murdered seventeen-yearold Trayvon Martin, Martin was cast as "an aspiring street tough" and "would-be thug." 46 The defense team displayed pictures of Martin taken from his cell phone that showed him with gold teeth and giving the middle finger, as well as other innocuous images recast from typical to threatening.…”