The debate over the linking, both intentional and not, of criminality and race is pressing in this chapter of the CQ Reader.  The embodiment, in my mind, of racial tension in the United States today is the state of policing and race. A whole section of this chapter is devoted to exploring the answer to the hypothetical question ,”Would improving police interactions with African Americans significantly advance race relations in America.” If I were to critique this as a research question for our class, I would certainly be wary. After all, what is a “significant advance”? With such a subjective, heated issue, I was not surprised the amount of dissent documented amongst scholars, activists, and professionals within the section.

The larger cultural discussion about race in America has been kicked off, in many ways, by new technological abilities to broadcast the inferior treatment of African Americans by police and otherwise. Police video has become what one Professor dubbed the, “C-span” of the streets; however, though the videos have begun to verify the claims of inequality that have rung hollow for centuries, they are not always the most reliable source, nor do they tell totally the plight of minorities in this country. The merits of police video– now done through popular “bodycams”– can be debated ad infinitum, but the real question to ask, the question that should be asked, is whether the treatment of African Americans by police is the problem, or if it is simply symptomatic of a larger issue within the American social framework. Movement affiliates with Black Lives Matter seem to fall in the latter camp, arguing that “discriminatory law enforcement” is not the worst problem to be faced by African Americans today. I agree with this synthesis. It is hard to say that policing is the only problem when disparity and inequality seeps into nearly every other area of Black life in this country. Schools are lacking, economic opportunity is too. Racism is a being not limited to handcuffs and prison cells.

The characterization of police videos as the “C-span of the streets” is more accurate when refined to include most other aspects of African American existence in the United States. Like the channel itself, which has a limited viewership only of those who are most devoted and who stand to be impacted most by changes in the status-quo, the circulation of information regarding race in the United States stands to be digested by those who already understand the situation, as it is their day-to-day reality. Perhaps if Black life was televised more like the “FoxNews of the streets” something productive to “significantly advance” race relations could be done.