"For police accountability, look beyond individual racial bias"

"Case studies reveal that a fuller examination may lead to a more accurate accounting. “Because of the way the media and popular discourse treat civil rights and social justice, we assume the problem lives inside somebody’s mind or heart,” said Phillip Atiba Goff, president of the Center for Policing Equity (CPE) at the University of California at Los Angeles. “But then we get stuck in conversations about character rather than solutions.” In other words, to stop police violence, focusing on individual bias among officers is not enough. Rather, a “race and …” approach that tackles problems at a granular level holds the most potential for change...

The study found some negative feelings toward blacks among some officers, but it also found that officers who felt well treated by the department used less force, as did those whose identities as cops were very important to them... Another key consideration is how important masculinity is to an officer’s sense of self...

Goff’s work has shown that masculinity factors into police violence as well. “An officer who feels a need to demonstrate his masculinity may be more likely to use force in general, but particularly against people who threaten his self-concept as a man,” he said. “If African-Americans are seen as hypermasculine, then the officer will feel more threatened. ” This can be true whether or not the officer exhibits clear racial bias."
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/9/ferguson-police-accountabilityracelaborgender.html

This doesn't surprise me, and it is soooo intersectional. Blackness is so gendered!