Roundtable: Factors Contributing to “Criminalization of Blackness” and “Medicalization of Whiteness”

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Follow-up to research and community outreach on the re-classification and re-categorization of violent behaviors with particular emphasis on Blacks and people of the immediate African diaspora. “Criminalization of Blackness and medicalization of whiteness” (Nancy Heitzeg 2013) must be challenged by re-conceptualizing certain incidents of domestic violence, “street crimes” such as gang violence, substance abuse, and other forms of violence often categorized as “criminal” without consideration given to possible medical conditions, mental health, self-harm, and suicide. The oft debated “suicide by cop” will also be discussed while also highlighting how this does not negate legal responsibilities of law enforcement. This roundtable is also a follow-up to Afejuku and Dennis’s ASC 2015 roundtable titled “Careers in Criminal Justice and Related Fields: Networking among People of the African Diaspora” in which we encouraged networking of careers in law, criminal justice, criminology, and sociology among Black/immediate African diaspora students, faculty at various levels, and practitioners. Networking encourages community activism, public policy, and presents experiences, expertise, and interests of Black/African diaspora students, faculty, and practitioners to be applied to research and community outreach. This moves us closer toward the re-classification and re-categorizing of behaviors on the part of Blacks/African diaspora often labeled “criminal”.

Sub Unit

• Area XIII: Roundtable Sessions

Chair

• Kimya N. Dennis, Salem College

Discussants

• Alero Afejuku, Argosy University

• Cyntoria Johnson, Georgia State University