The Connection Between Blacks As Apes And Police Brutality

Talking on television is always a challenge cause you're trying to get out your points in the very limited amount of time the medium allows. I was trying to get a few more details into my MSNBC appearance yesterday but didn't get it all out.

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I mentioned that a psychologist at UCLA has studied the link between seeing blacks as apes, monkeys, etc and treating them brutally. In addition, he has expanded this work to encompass deep academic research into the causes of police discrimination and brutality. This is the connection I was able to draw in my closing line on air, but I didn't have time to give full references.

Now, I'll do you one better. The psychologist is Dr. Phillip A. Goff. I actually attended undergrad with him which is why I'm familiar with his work. He's been putting me on to his analysis and the applications of his research for years, and I'm finally in a position to help bring it to a larger audience. He was the first person I called after I saw the cartoon, and the timing around this cartoon, the Oscar Grant murder and upcoming events next week could not provide a better introduction to his work.

In short, what Dr. Goff and his colleagues have found is a clear connection between the psychology of racism and real harm to black people. Further, they have been working with police departments across the nation to study their records, analyze their people and adjust their training in order to save the lives of black people and improve the effectiveness of policing. This is truly where the academy meets the streets.

Next week in NYC, on February 26, there will be a summit on racial and gender bias in policing and the need to expand these studies and their remedies. Here's an article Dr. Goff wrote yesterday in response to the NY Post cartoon. I strongly urge you to read the entire thing and follow the links.

Little Things Are Still a Big Deal

By: Phillip Atiba Goff

I cannot imagine that 10 minutes passed from the time it first appeared online to the time my phone rang early this morning. The New York Post had published a (now controversial) cartoon depicting two police officers that had shot a monkey -- one of them quipping, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

The cartoon -- you see it here -- was clearly referencing the recent odd-ball news item, that a woman from Stamford, Conn., had been mauled by her pet chimpanzee and that the animal had to be "put down," as it were, to preserve public safety. But the political commentary seemed an odd juxtaposition to the visual. Could the cartoon have been suggesting that Barack Obama, principal champion of the bill and our first black president, was somehow chimp-like?

Though much of the reaction to the cartoon has been outrage at the implication that our 44th president is remotely simian, there have been other messages in the blogosphere as well. A few pleaded with us to see reason in this post-Obama era. They begged us to understand that the cartoonist clearly meant to impugn congress, Wall Street executives and academic economists and that there was no racial subtext to the piece. Others saw the cartoon as racist but declined to become outraged. Saw the injustice in the image, but saw it as a minor injustice, not one worth worrying too much about. After all, having a black president means that America is post-racial and does not need to worry about petty things like harmless pictures in a paper.

The messages in my inbox mirrored the commentaries I saw online. A few (though not many) defending the cartoon. Many more exasperated with indifference. All of them insisted this was a little thing.

The best science available suggests otherwise.

For the better part of the past seven years, my colleagues and I have conducted research on the psychological phenomenon of dehumanization. Specifically, we have examined cognitive associations between African Americans and non-human apes. And the association leads to bad things. When we began the research, we were skeptical of whether or not participants even knew that people of African descent were caricatured as ape-like -- as less than human -- throughout the better part of the past 400 years. And, in fact, many were not. However, even those who were unaware of this historical association demonstrated a cognitive association between blacks and apes. That is, when they thought of apes, they thought of blacks and vice versa -- when they thought of blacks, they thought of apes.

But the fact of this cognitive association was not the most disturbing part of the research. Rather, it was the fact that the association between blacks and apes could lead to violence.

In one study, participants who were made to think about apes were more likely to support police violence against black (but not white) criminal suspects. The association actually caused them to endorse anti-black violence. Most disturbing of all, however, was a study of media coverage and the death penalty. Looking at a sample of death-eligible cases in Philadelphia from 1979 to 1999, the more that media coverage used ape-like metaphors to describe a murder trial (i.e. "urban jungle," "aping the suspects behavior," etc.) the more likely black suspects, but not white suspects were to be put to death.

Not surprisingly, black suspects were much more likely to be described in ape-like terms. And they were more frequently executed by the state.

Similar psychological mechanisms of discrimination are at work in the bloated incarceration rates of young black men, the trenchant educational achievement gap between blacks and whites, and the racial bias evidenced in law enforcement officer's use of force. Though some are demonstrating leadership towards equality, we find that many of our nation's oldest racial shames have persisted into a period when a black person can reasonably aspire to the highest office in the land.

I mention these depressing findings because it is tempting to ignore them in the wake of President Obama's inauguration -- to downplay the significance of "isolated events" of bigotry and "harmless words or pictures." But precisely because the dream of post-raciality is seductive for so many, it is all the more important that we not forget that cartoons like the one in today's New York Post are never isolated-and consequently, never harmless.

Today's Post cartoon is not far removed from the "Curious George" Obama sock puppet, a "Curious George" Obama T-shirt, a Japanese advertisement depicting Obama as a monkey, and countless other Obama/monkey comparisons that cropped up throughout the year-long Democratic primary and presidential campaigns. Psychological science has long known that words and pictures, far from harmless, can be the very instruments of dehumanization necessary for collective violence-regardless of how innocently they are intended.

As we live through this historic presidency, there will doubtless be more of these moments of impolitic insensitivity. Some will be more egregious than others. But, as a scientist, my sincerest hope for us all is that we not be biased by the desire to see our struggle towards racial equality as over. The evidence is too clear that the little things are still a big deal.

* * *

Phillip Atiba Goff is an assistant professor on the department of psychology at the University of California and the executive director of research for the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity. The consortium is hosting the first Summit for Police Leadership in Equity on Feb. 26 in New York City. High-ranking representatives from 15 of the largest municipal police departments in North America will be attending to discuss a new model for research collaborations that would -- for the first time -- allow independent researchers to gain unprecedented access to law enforcement personnel, policies and records.

Although the release of another racist cartoon can be seen as repetitive, annoying and a distraction, I'm glad at the opportunity this moment gives us. Usually, something like this goes down, we get fired up, maybe protest, threaten some advertisers and that's it. What we're trying to do at JJP and the broader "we" in this new generation of informed, networked activists, however, is bring more insight and intelligence to the discussion and ultimately, change the world for the better.

Please pass this post far and wide, especially to activists and those in the media. Digg it, post to Facebook, etc.

Comments

[melpol]

Racists and rapists and other violators of civil rights are mostly members of the “Moral Majority” and are in opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. They are for outlawing abortion and censorship of media outlets that promote an “anti-family” agenda. Traditional family values are enforced in opposition to recognition, and acceptance of homosexual marriage. Only the Justice Department can take on the “Moral Majority” and return civil rights to minority Americans. Thousands of Helo-ports staffed by fair minded justice department employees have to be placed all over the nation. Upon notice of a civil right violation they will immediately be dispatched to the site and ass whip the violator. Major infractions of the Equal Rights Amendment will be dealt with more severely by jail time.

[Ravyn]

My first reaction in seeing this cartoon was not only was Obama being portrayed as a chimp but as an assassinated chimp. You don't have to go far online to find extreme racist comments about Obama filled with pure hatred. Black history is filled with stories of pure racism in America's history and of blacks frequently being portrayed in newspapers and on posters as nothing more than apes, in order to degrade them, justify treating them no better than animals and justifying segregation, withholding the right to vote, etc. It would be nice to think that in 2009 we're all beyond this but unfortunately there really is still a segment of the American population today that is extremely uncomfortable with having a black for president and seems to literally think this spells the end to the US as we know it. Of course it is looney but it can't be dismissed because some of these people are positively seething with anger and hatred judging from their online comments on various news websites. Anything inflammatory like this cartoon is dangerous and could be the spark which incites someone to take violent action. Right after the election an African American woman told me she was counting the days he had been in office so far as if she didn't expect him to survive his term because of his race.

[wanttruth]

The cartoon was disgusting! I'm glad the New York Post is getting heat for it. If this cartoon is a part of a pattern, then, someone needs to clean house.

[NDNlady]

Racist stereotypes in cartoon caricatures are undoubtably successful at de-humanizing their subjects, leading at worst to violence, at best to a denial of human rights. Look at the racist portrayals of Jewish people in Nazi progaganda. One cartoonist who contributed such drawings found himself on trial for war crimes. And as Dr. Goff points out, there is a long history of these stereotypes of African-Americans and their connection to violence. So why are comparable racist caricatures of American Indian people still making millions of dollars a year for major league sports franchises?? America, expand the conversation!

[Balzac]

Rupert Murdoch owns New York Post. They portrayed our president as a crazy dead chimpanzee.

Rupert Murdoch also owns Fox Noise and John Gibson compared our Attorney General, Eric Holder to an escaped monkey at a zoo, saying Eric Holder has a "blue scrotum" like that monkey.

This was, perhaps, John Gibson's reaction to Eric Holder saying that some Americans are behaving in a cowardly way towards the issues of ethnic relations.

Does Rupert Murdoch think he can get away with such blatant racism directed against elected officials of our government?

[JohnBryansFontaine]

From New American Blogs, LBuhl:

http://newamericandimensions.com/blog/+delonas+beware+of+dog+alabama&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us


...Some might have given the cartoonist a little more slack if he had not used the symbolism of the “Beware of Dog” sign and made one of the two cops black.

The use of vicious police dogs and fire hoses against black children in Birmingham, Alabama by klansman and sheriff “Bull” Connor was one of the flashpoints that allowed the civil rights movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, to get the attention of the whole world.

[JohnBryansFontaine]

A second reference:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Did-Rupert-Murdoch-Knowing-by-E-Nelson-090218-816.html

[cobobs]

Symbols are the stock in trade of the cartoonist. That is why cartoons have power. At some level, this cartoonist has to have known what American national demons he was invoking with his drawing. If he was in the zone, channeling dark imagery from his unconscious, what were his editors doing?

Sheesh...

[neoprimordial]

If you are in touch with who you are as a human being, do you really need corroboration from psychological studies and experts when you recognize something as slyly offensive? I don't think so. Still, I very much applaud your pointing out the insidious problem of dehumanization. I've argued (unpublished) that every genocide begins with that act.

There's a great Star Trek episode from the original series ("Spock's Brain"?) where Capt. Kirk and the crew visit some planet and the men are caveman-primitive and the women are, essentially, beautiful bimbos in a high-tech environment. At one point the crew confronts one of the bimbos and she says, "you are not morg, you are not i-morg"--meaning she doesn't recognize them as part of the known spectrum of humanity/humanoid life on that planet. This is, unfortunately, exactly what has been happening to Black people for centuries.

They are "other," so much so that they aren't recognized as having the same physical, cultural, spiritual, and emotional mores as everyone else. It's an ingrained behavioral response and something that is, obviously, easily overlooked when you get a cartoon like the New York Post's and people asking "what's all the fuss?" They're not aware of American history, and thus doomed to repeat it.

[kkg58]

Of course you don't need the corroboration, but for it to valid to the general population, you nee the psychological studies and experts. It gives support as to why something is offensive to those who say that you are being ridiculous.

[joy316]

Thank you for sharing the research that explains much.

[waltn]

Barratunde, I appreciate your analysis and presentation of the history and facts. The New York Post was out of line and completely wrong to publish this cartoon.

[isonomist]

Cartoonists are going to have a hard time with this presidency if we're going to get all excited over this. The president of the United States has traditionally been the target of degrading, dehumanizing mockery (recent examples that come to mind are the George W. Bush/chimp faces montage, and fauxto's of "W" as Dick Cheney's puppet). No physical feature has ever been off-limits; big noses, height, physique, age. Presidents have been portrayed as evil and even demonic. If anything the vast bulk of reporters have been very restrained in this manner. This cartoon however refers to the authorship of a piece of rather contoversal legislation. I don't know if the cartoonist intended to make a racial reference or not, but if a cartoonist and his editor have to run every cartoon even loosely related to the president simply because he has more melanin in his skin that other presidents have had, that strikes me as being rather discriminatory in of itself.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

Show me a caroon when the president was S.H.@.T. by a person in so call legal authority such as the police.

When Lincoln was, what cartoon did they do? Was it a monkey?
When Kennedy was, what cartoon did they do? Was it a monkey?

When any other animal was put down to include apes. Did the cartoonist reference to a whiteskin or more melanin skin person? I am old enough to have lived American history of cartoonist extremely cheap, condesending matter to earn a living. It did not add to the advancement of the society for years it validated the lowest form of humans.

We have reached the level American children are being entertained by computer software that has nothing but volience in a cartoon version. Who can K.$.L.L. the most is the winner.

While other children in other countries are learning how to improve the world, our are learning how to destroy it.

[kkg58]

the caricature of Bush to a chimp was due to Bush's perceived lack of intelligence, making his intelligence equivalent to that of a chimp -- with black people it is the dehumanization that is the point -- that a black person is somehow not quite human! two completely different situations. White people are not typically derided in the media or literature as being ape-like.

[michaelstreet246]

I think it's high time we all grew up . How long are we blacks going to walk around with a chip on our shoulder over things that happened before we were even born . If you look in a mirror and see a monkey or chimp then you should be offended , but my brothers and sisters of all races I don't see it when I look at my handsome face .

[SJBrown]

How long are we blacks going to walk around with a chip on our shoulder over things that happened before we were even born .

What does this refer to? Explain.

[michaelstreet246]

I will explain as best as I can . After all I have a right to an opinion too . Well over a hundred years ago maybe longer my ancesters were sold into slavery . They were employed in cotton fields and all sorts of manual labor that the lazy white man didn't want to do . Now I can hate the white man for this , But guess what if I can't shake the past I am destained to live in it . There are still people that hate people based solely on the color of their skin this is wrong and this is on both sides . we can preach equality but if it's one sided then do we blame the white devil ? How can we if we are just has bad as they are ?

[MsMadame]

What a simplistic statement.

A course in social psychology would shame you into 'snatching' back your comment.

What do you think was here before you were born? That has been passed down intergener­ationally? Racism and a rigged system of laws.

The 17th Century system is alive and kicking in new style and approach.

Do you think it would be alright for someone to draw ovens and than mention our Jewish brothers.

You do not understand symbolism. Black males do not walk around with chips on thier shoulders bullies do and we aren't the bully.

Black males want equal opportunity and not to suffer from the envy and inferiority complex of men who control the systems.

And DNA remembers!

[ohioan73]

I feel the same way. I don't think of myself as a monkey and I don;t think other black people see themselves that way. This seems to be an argument between white people. They are the ones apparently that think we look like monkeys and that goes for the bigots and the non-bigots that come to our "rescue". Its been proven time and time again that mainstream America is in serious need of intellectual evolution and blacks aren't the ones who need to "get over racism". Everybody else needs to stop being a hater first.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

Don't hold your breath on the "everybody else needs to stop being a hater first ".

When each generation is being taught the same message on how to treat people who look different from themselves. The key word is LOOK, it is ok to treat them less than human.

New Yorkers pride themselves on being rude, and disrespectful towards each other and total strangers from anywhere. The song they take pride in the most say, if you can make it there. you can make it anywhere, is very telling how ruff life in New York is. When 9/11/01 hit, people all over the world who did not know how rude new yorker were greived for them and all of Americans.

They changed their minds after they saw what we did to the people in Iraq.

[juanjorhe]

I don't see it either, however the connection isn't the one we (as blacks) make. We see ourselves as regular (in my case exceptional) beautiful people. Its the connection that others make. If they see us as nothing more than animals then animals is how they will be willing to treat us.

[Nommo]

Look around you. What happened yesterday was, presumably, after you were born. In other words,
these things continue to happen, only slightly different than they did prior to your birth. If ever you saw a monkey in the mirror, such wonder drugs as they concocted ever prior to your birth might be called for.

In other words, you are addressing the aggrieved. Not those who bring the grief. You are misdirected. Maybe you ought to look around the back of the mirror.

[woodsywizz]

I'm a Freckled-American who grew up in Central Africa. Monkeys, chimps, gorillas, they all lived in the woods around us. No-one could possibly mistake an ape for a human.

But in the ignorant, racist pockets of American - sometimes only as small as a single mind - there is this peculiar mixing of anything African, as if sub-human.

I was given an African tribal name by the Esangbak of Mongo. They are the most amazing people - by "American" standards. No-one works harder, keeps their promises more faithfully, nor loves their families more. The greatest values of humanity can be found among the people I grew up with, learning the whole time. And they are not ignorant tribesman; among them are doctors, ministers, professors, and national leaders.

The finest people of Africa whom I know personally overarch the finest Americans I have met in 30-plus years in this country.

To compare dark-skinned apes with dark-skinned people is the simplest and stupidest of racist errors. And to pretend for a fraction of a second that there was no racist intent is the shabbiest of alibis. There can be no mistake. This is the most vile racism. Pure KKK.

Let there be no mistake, and let there be no forgiveness.

[EuroAllie]

I would agree with you if President Obama actually wrote the stimulus bill. I took the cartoon as reference to Reed and Pelosi who were the actual architects of the legislation.

[Nommo]

I'll bet you go with that literal interpretation of the bible, too.

[EuroAllie]

I'm not sure what you're infering but I'm no bible thumper. I don't even go to Church although I don't look down on people who do.

I read the Post and did not get a racial impression from this cartoon. I honestly thought it was a reflection on the Congressional leadership and their lack of fiscal control. As you can probably tell, I don't support the scope of this stimulus. I also don't support burning capital on something like this cartoon when there are much more blatant examples of racism in our society that warrant more attention.

[SJBrown]

It was one monkey and even if you pick from member of Congress as the target, it is still unacceptable to suggest that that writer of the stimulus bill should be killed. Instead, imagine it was a reference to you personally. Would you laugh? Would you find it acceptable?

[maggiee]

Right on, Baratunde! The intent of the cartoonist is completely beside the point. It is all about perception. I think about how this cartoon looks outside the country... It's sickening because that perception tells me how far we have to go. This is one ugly cartoon.