Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:08:58.179Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - “Black Cop”: It’s a Blue Thing (or Is It?)

from Part I - Policing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2022

Gregory S. Parks
Affiliation:
Wake Forest University, North Carolina
Frank Rudy Cooper
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Get access

Summary

Kami Chavis utilizes KRS-One’s 1993 song “Black Cop” to consider the contradictions inherent in being a black police officer. The song reveals the complex role that black police officers play in the subjugation of black communities. In the song, black officers are portrayed as utilizing the same street justice and harassment as their white counterparts to “oversee” black people, just as plantation owners and enslavers used black overseers on plantations to keep enslaved people subjugated. In fact, the lyrics suggest the deliberate use of the black officer to effectuation the continued oppression of the black community. The George Floyd death was the last ember to land upon a long-burning fire that would spread throughout the country. In response to protests against police brutality, several municipalities made significant and broad changes to their police practices. Among these changes are demands to diversify the police, arguing that if there were just more black officers, this might ameliorate the complaints of racial profiling and police violence against blacks. However, a careful analysis of Black Cop and its enduring themes require us to examine this proposition.

Type
Chapter
Information
Fight the Power
Law and Policy through Hip-Hop Songs
, pp. 55 - 74
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×