The Role Of Racism In Policing And The Justice System

Canada is a multicultural society that is known to be prideful of its diversity, safety, and characterized by inclusivity and fairness. Canada is portrayed to be a great place to live in because of various opportunities, benefits and presumed notion that it is free of racial oppression. While the idea of Canada sounds nice there are various issues such as racial discrimination as a result of racial profiling/policing that is enforced in marginalized communities. The stereotypes of racialized individuals, specifically black and brown bodies as deviant, dangerous, and criminal has reinforced the policing strategies, which are run on bias. War on Drugs particular focus on black communities has become a reality that black bodies have been experiencing,
Specifically, racism in these structures is informed by the colonial presence and enforcement of Europeans. Prior to colonialism, racial groups were not a concept, the idea of race was socially constructed as a mechanism to garner control over social relations. Here, racial hierarchies were born, imbued with notions of superiority and inferiority. In the white settler nation, this racial organization acted as the foundation and force to restrict the social, economic and political upward mobility of racialized groups. As a result of this structure, racialized groups continue to navigate a social climate founded upon this social organization. In this way, racial meanings for non-European groups have remained stagnant, impacting the nature of every micro and macro institution, including policing and
On the other hand, racialized people especially that of black and brown men are overrepresented as the perpetrators of the crime or the criminal (Allspach, 2018a). This can be explained through the criminalization of race, which is equating certain crimes with racialized groups (Jiwani, 2002). Jiwani (2002) states, “racialized groups have been historically the targets of moral panics and continue to be stereotyped as the criminal other”. This notion can be recognized as anti-black ideologies exist in institutions of our social world, at macro and micro levels. Anti blackness reinforces racism as it is the force of the social, economic, and political marginalization of black people. Anti black policies and practices are embedded in our social structures and institutions that reflect and reinforce ideologies that degrade and ostracize black bodies, which is rooted in the history and experience of enslavement and colonization. Although Canada likes to project the notion that diversity is our strength it is not enough. In fact the impact of slavery and racial oppression has reinforced racial hierarchies, that now is deployed in policing, as racial profiling, carding, and the War on Drugs (WOD) has