Risking Race: Risk Assessment and the Policing of Blackness in the United States
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Date
2024-12-19
Authors
Scott, Brett
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This dissertation explores how risk governance has produced racial inequality in the United States. It is particularly interested in understanding how race informs the ways that risk is defined, assessed, experienced and policed. My primary argument is that risk is a condition of Blackness in the United States because Black people are necessarily and always connected to risk. Anti-Black racism is often mediated through the distinct relationship that Black populations have with risk, risk assessment and risk governance. Black Americans are subjected to structural violences that are often justified because under the guise of risk prevention. Black folk have been socially constructed as risky and therefore in need of control and domination. However, it isn’t simply that Black people are viewed as risks to others, but that there is a feedback loop to designation which puts Blacks at risk for harm because of their status as risky people. The dual position that Black people hold as both the bearers and bringers of risk remains an under-theorized form of racial inequality because society tends to view risk from a lens of colorblind objectivity. Nevertheless, inequalities in how risk is defined, assessed, and police continue to widen the gap between Black and white Americans and, as this study show, these inequalities exist in a multitude of institutions including the insurance market, housing industry and the criminal justice system. This dissertation takes seriously the problem of risk inequality as it plays out along racial lines in the United States. This work is a welcome addition to political science because critically engaging with the racial inequalities of risk governance allows for an analysis of racial inequality that is often overlooked by policy makers and academics alike. I hope is that this study is a springboard for future research that seeks to understand the complexities of racial inequalities in a modern world that is increasingly focused on risk prevention and mitigation.
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Keywords
Criminal Justice, Housing, Insurance, Racial inequality, Racism, Risk