• About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Students Remember the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg
      Students Remember the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg
    • First-Year Students Reflect on Their Expectations for College, One Semester In
      First-Year Students Reflect on Their Expectations for College, One Semester In
    • “We Want to Fundamentally Change the Culture,” International Student Union says
      “We Want to Fundamentally Change the Culture,” International Student Union says
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
      Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
    • The block system is a joke
      The block system is a joke
    • Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
      Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • Harry Styles de-typifies masculinity in Vogue’s December Issue, but is this enough? (spoiler: it’s not)
      Harry Styles de-typifies masculinity in Vogue’s December Issue, but is this enough? (spoiler: it’s not)
    • Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
      Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
    • Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
      Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
  • Health and Wellness
    • No image
      Athletic impacts of Covid-19
    • No image
      A new kind of PE
    • No image
      Maintaining wellness as the cold sets in
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • Miscellanea
    • No image
      Remote students experience existential crises; change class years in email signatures
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
      Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
    • The Artichoke
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Tabitha Wilson OpinionsApril 25, 2018

Liberal cities are not immune to implicit bias and racist institutions

Photo Courtesy of The Grio

Last Monday, a Black Harvard University student was beaten by Cambridge Police while being arrested for public intoxication and nudity on Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square. Video shows police knocking undergraduate Selorm Ohene to the ground and repeatedly punching his torso as he cries for help. Eyewitnesses also stated that there was a pool of blood on the ground after the incident was over and that Ohene was placed on an ambulance stretcher. Many are outraged that a young, obviously intoxicated and confused student was the object of police brutality in such a liberal city. However, this is a naive position to have—liberal cities are not immune to brutality nor to racism. They still operate within a racist policing framework and most Americans, regardless of location, hold an implicit bias against Black people. This racism was also displayed a couple weeks ago in Philadelphia when two Black men were arrested in Starbucks while waiting to have a business meeting over coffee. When constructing a narrative around police brutality and implicit bias, liberal urban areas cannot be exempt. All Americans need to think about how they contribute to, or are complicit in, these scenarios regardless of where they live.

Incidents like the one in Philadelphia not only involve the police, but also the bystanders that called the authorities, who often act on their own implicit bias. Both of the aforementioned incidents would not have occurred if the victims were white. There are often multitudes of intoxicated students outside of fraternity houses who don’t have the police called on them. If anything, medical assistance would have been called for a Harvard student rather than the police beating him. Furthermore, coffee meetings happen daily at nearly every Starbucks in the country and patrons aren’t arrested for not purchasing coffee within the first few minutes of arriving. These incidents have a primary bias, which initially gets authorities involved, and is then escalated by the police. The barista who called the authorities on the two Black men in Starbucks felt threatened enough by these men to do so. This disproportionate response highlights exactly how implicit bias works: Black people are implicitly viewed as threatening, and situations that are completely normal and nonthreatening are suddenly viewed as potentially dangerous. If the authorities are then involved, the situation escalates and unfortunately usually includes violence. As a result of implicit bias, situations aren’t de-escalated; for example, the Starbucks barista didn’t ask the men if they wanted to purchase anything or if they were waiting on anyone. A situation that could have been a micro-aggression turned into two wrongful arrests.

Furthermore, most people are unaware of their implicit bias and the devastating effects it can have. It important to make a distinction that people with implicit biases are not necessarily bad people; implicit biases are the effect of continued negative media portrayal of Black people. However, implicit biases can be reduced over time as people realize that they have them and actively work against them. I commend Starbucks for closing their stores to teach their employees about implicit bias and how to act more fairly to customers. I believe that more companies and institutions should follow suit and conduct similar trainings. Police officers should definitely require implicit bias training so that they react appropriately to situations involving people of color. Being in a liberal area doesn’t automatically undo one’s implicit bias, and this topic is often overlooked when we have conversations about race and what constitutes racism.

In addition to implicit bias, liberal cities also have institutional bias and problematic policing, just like less liberal cities. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in Boston, 63 percent of police stops from 2007 to 2010 targeted Black residents, while Black people make up less than a quarter of the total population. These numbers are on par with the rest of the nation, and Boston’s liberal government and policies don’t spare it from problematic policing and police brutality. Looking at these statistics, it is easy to see why the incident at Harvard occurred. Similarly, in New York City over half of the people stopped by the police from 2002 to 2017 were Black and 80 percent were innocent, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. All too often, we conflate liberality with equality. Left-leaning people tend to think that the areas in which they live are more immune to these nation-wide issues. Not facing these issues invalidates real experiences that Black people face in more liberal places and allows a large number of people to be complacent with current injustices. Black residents still face discrimination and racist institutions regardless of where they live, and its important to recognize our biases and seek to change them.

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleLetter to the Editor
Next articleStudent salaries and stipends: How do we determine who gets paid?

You may also like

A piece of pizza missing topings.

Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?

The block system is a joke

Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls

1 Comment

  • Man with the Axe says:
    April 25, 2018 at 9:50 PM

    Would you sit in a Starbucks without ordering, and continue to sit and not order when asked to order or leave by both employees and police? Is that appropriate conduct? Did these two black men want to be arrested? It sure seems like it.

    Do you think the police should not use moderate force to arrest a naked lunatic who is assaulting women on the stree, and who resists arrest?

    These are not cases of implicit bias. They are cases of black men behaving badly. White men are kicked out of restaurants and bars and coffee shops and no one cares. Crazy white men are shot and arrested every day and no one cares. You probably don’t even know about the recent shooting of a crazed white student at the University of Chicago, because he is white. No one cares.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Man with the Axe Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

  • Harry Styles de-typifies masculinity in Vogue’s December Iss...
  • Students Remember the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2021 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top