The specter of racism: exploring White racial anxieties in the context of policing

Abstract

The connection between policing and whiteness remains an undertheorized area of police studies. In this article, I explore ordinary policing behaviors through the lens of critical whiteness studies in an effort to understand how White police officers actively make, or fail to make, meaning of race in the context of their work. Drawing on ethnographic work with three police departments in the Midwest, I describe the racial anxieties and insecurities White officers express at the possibility of being viewed as engaging in racializing behaviors. Of particular interest is the power of the crime control focus orienting everyday policing practice in displacing attention from the many ways race, and particularly whiteness, matters in policing. I conclude by discussing the implications this line of inquiry holds for making discussions about the role of white privilege in policing more productive.