Acculturation in Policing

Lets start off by defining what acculturation means. Acculturation are attitudes and/or beliefs modified as a result of contact with a different culture. There are 2 different models that can show this. The first model is the Linear Model, this is when acculturation is weakening of ethnic identity. The other model is the 2 Dimensional Model.

The two dimensional model is also known as Berry's Two Dimensional Model. There are 4 possible outcomes to the acculturation. The first outcome is assimilation. When this happens it is usually a movement towards the dominant culture. The second outcome is integration. integration is when you synthesis the two cultures. In other words, you are able to equally function in both cultures. The third outcome is rejection. Rejection happens when you are reaffirming the tradition culture. Lastly, the other outcome is marginalization. This is alienation from both cultures.

It is hard to describe and go into detail with acculturation in policing, but lets try and work through this.

With police brutality the model I will be using today will be the Berrys 2 Dimensional Model to describe acculturation. 

In the video above, you will see an officer playing with the neighborhood kids. With all the negative media going around, this may sound unheard of. We always hear all the negative stuff about police officers and how they want to pull their guns out any chance they get, or that they abuse there power. Even in the video the lady pointed out that when she say the cop car, she was worried for herself and her kids because of the negative stigma that they have. This video can be see as a integration outcome.

 

I believe that this is an integration outcome to the 2 dimension model because it is playing to cultures. Like yes, they have a job and sometimes that job includes being violent but that is not the only thing police officers do. The second part of their job is to serve for the community. This man is in uniform playing football with the neighborhood children. They are able to function into both cultures. He is doing his job by enforcing the law but he is also making sure that the neighborhood is okay.

 

Sometimes we often only see the bad in people when something is done but then we forget about all the good stuff that they do. I also once heard that "People do not like cops, until you need them" which I can see as true. People fear these officers but when they are in need of help that is the first person they call to solve all kinds of problems. I am not justifying that some stuff that police do are okay but sometimes we must step back from the media and see what is really is going on. What is being displayed? What is being hidden? What is being exploited? Is everything we hear in the media true? We also cannot judge the mistake of one officer on all of them. They are their own person and make their own decisions. We should look at both sides of the story. In every story there are 3 sides; His side, her side and the truth. 

TV Race and Class Representation in Everybody Hates Chris Sitcom

A sitcom is usually a situation comedy, half hour series. Within these half hour serious there is usually a problem that gets solved by the end of the show. Examples of sitcoms are: Family Guy, Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother. We study sitcoms because some shows support the status quo while allowing for contrary readings, we like that it is simple, easy, and we know what to kind of expect.

Frames the Working Class  are defined by 5 different characteristics of the working class that are shown in media specifically television shows such as Everybody Hates Chris.

1. Bad Taste
2. Lack of Intelligence
3. Disinterested in Politics
4. Poor Work Ethic
5. Dysfunctional Family 

I will be evaluating the television sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. In this sitcom the minority representation is more of a ridicule. A ridicule means that minorities specifically in this sitcom African Americans are there for amusement, they are not laughing with you, however they are laughing at you. The reporting policy regarding minorities (the issues) is police brutality. In the first video, a son is sitting down with his mother and a guy from a college to discuss  his plans for college. In the meeting, the college professor ask the mom how long she has had a heroin addiction, he then ask if she has multiple fathers for her children. This is indicating bad taste and also possible lack of intelligence and poor work ethnic. After she says that they have one father, he asks if she is aware of the fathers name. She then begins to feel very disrespected because these are stereotypes that are held against African Americans. At the end of the video 4 cops burst into the household during the interview with guns pointed at all the African Americans, one officer says "step away from the white man, out the pamphlets down" The bring Chris down to the floor as well as the college interviewer and they apologize to the white man but not Chris. This can be seen as a Dysfunctional family.

In the second video Chris is thrown in jail at the age of thirteen because of a racial profile saying that he "fit the description "of the person who was identified as robbing a white males house. When you look at the video of what the man actually described he said that it was a black man, medium completion, 6 foot 4 inches, brown eyes, yellow beanie, dark pants, size 14 dark shoes, and birth mark on back of left wrist. You it very apparent and said in the show that all the officer heard was, was that the person who robbed him was black.

I have noticed that within the sitcom although it is funny and points out the negative stereotypes that we have as African Americans it fails to say what to do. I see this show as funny but in reality majority of it is regarding racism that does not get fixed. In reality, we are ridicule, we are the joke essentially. There are a few positive attributes like the father working but he works so much that he is unable to see his wife or kids often. This is not showing a single parent household but they portray all the stereotypes of an African American. It does not help that he is the only black kid in his classes and he gets talked down to all the time. There are some sitcoms that try and make life as a person of color specifically black people, seem like everything is "okay" such as the Cosby Show. This show does not attempt to make life as a black person to seem "okay". They point out what is wrong but fail to address what they can do to fix the problem, instead it seems as if black people are the joke.

Framing Police Brutality

We often hear of the word "framing" but do we truly know what it means? Framing by definition is “selecting some aspects of a perceived reality and making them more salient in a communicating text.” Framing does 4 things

1.      Promotes a particular problem

2.      Causal Interpretation

3.      Moral Evaluation

4.      Treatment Commendation

This is identifying a problem, seeing who is responsible for the problem identified, seeing how media is telling you how to feel, and how to react and fix the problem identified. In this video you can see that the media text I have selected makes certain parts of information more salient, which essentially leads the audience to one perception of reality.

This video is showing two men with the same views on police brutality but difference of opinion when Black Lives Matter subject is brought up. The homicide detective and the police officer agreed that people are over reacting to the police brutality and basically saying it does not exists. The police man on the right agreed. They had the same views when it came to police brutality but when the conversation went to Black Lives Matter occurred the detective on the left said that he thinks that is appropriate to fight or black lives matter but the way they are going about the situation he did not agree with. He also said that he was for "All Lives Matter" instead of "Black Lives Matter" but when bringing that up to the cop you can see the frustration in his voice that he disagreed with anything the detective had to say about Black Lives Matter and said that he was only contributing to the problem. One frame in this video is: Police Brutalty and Black Lives Matter within the community. 

1.      The problem with this media text is Police Brutality and Black Lives Matter

2.      The person responsible are Police Officers around the country

3.      Misuse of weapons, and also knowing what is legal v what is not legal for cops to do.

4.      In order to fix this problem, we protest until the unlawful killings are put to a stop.

This media text is a prime example that the media will only show us only a piece of information that they make more noticeable and meaningful to make us think or feel a certain way. I think that it is great that they showed to differences of opinion on the subject, and also but they barely showed any representation of the other opinions out there on black lives matter. They only showed the people who have authority on society and although they were people of color but still only showed what they want the public to think. If you look at who holds power in society it is typically white, able-bodied, males. These people run the corporations are ran by those people, therefore they can say what get aired and what does not which can control how we think of police brutality. If they show a black man that is against police brutality, and thinks Black Lives Matter is just a joke that can affect how someone sees it. Being an African American women myself, hearing someone of my race expressing their ideas that this is bogus, I may not be persuaded to think differently but it can definitely have some effect on how I view the situation because of how they feel, which is what the media wants us to do. They want us to question what we believe, and persuade us to think the way that they want us to think.

Another frame that we can look at is the detective:

1. The problem the detective sees is how the community goes about spreading the word of Black Lives Matter.
2. The community who are doing rally's and protest are seen as the people responsible for the problem
3. Media is telling people watching to go about the situation and feel different. 
4. In order to fix this problem we must find a different and more efficient way of handling things more efficiently. 

This is problematic because we need people to be on the same page in order to make change in society, This matters because this is a national issue that has yet to see change.