Operationalizing a Conceptual Model of Colorism in Local Policing

Abstract

This thought experiment uses agent-based modeling (computational simulation) to demonstrate how colorism might operate within a local policing context. Colorism is the allocation of privilege and disadvantage based on skin color, with a prejudice for lighter skin. Colorism might help to explain some of the racial disparities in the US’ criminal justice system. I use simulated scenarios to explore the plausibility of this notion in the form of two questions: (1) How might colorism function within an organization, and (2) What might occur when managers apply the typical dilemmatic responses to detected colorism? The simulated world consists of three citizen-groups (lights, mediums, and darks), five policy responses to detected colorism, and two policing behaviors (fair and biased). Using NetLogo, one hundred simulations were conducted for each policy response and analyzed using one-way ANOVA and pairwise comparison of means. When the tenets of colorism were applied to a simulated organizational setting, only some of the tenets held true. For instance, those in the middle of the skin color spectrum experienced higher rates of incarceration when aggressive steps were taken to counter colorism, which ran counter to the expectations of the thought experiment. The study identified an opportunity to expand the description of colorism to help describe the plight of those in the middle of the skin color spectrum. The major contributions from this work include a conceptual model that describes the relationship between the distinct levels of colorism, and it progresses the notion of interactive colorism. The study also explored conditional statements that can be converted into hypotheses for future experiments.

Appendices

Appendix A: Appraisal of the Literature and the Components of the Conceptual Model

Biased Mental Models and Decision Making

When individuals must make decisions in a short time frame, they tend to rely on established stereotypes (Olson, 2016) or biased judgments (Chin-Quee, 1992; Pratto & Bargh, 1991). Local police have the arduous responsibility of enforcing the law, and sometimes they must make crucial decisions within a short time frame. This constraint is further complicated by the condition of heterogeneity between a police officer and a citizen. Even in instances of homogeneity between a police officer and a citizen, there still exist held beliefs that may run counter to the present reality. The need to quickly react to a crisis or respond to a situation that is laden with unknowns may cause a police officer to rely heavily on biased mental models. In the following paragraphs, the discussion will gradually draw connections between individual biased decisions and aspects of risk perception, colorism, and organizational socialization.

Perceived Risk and Danger

Our ascribed mental models can influence our perceptions of risk. A study conducted by Ronquillo et al. (2007) used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology to monitor the brain activity of subjects as they viewed images of people who varied in skin color. They found that dark-skinned Whites elicited greater amygdala activity—“perception of a potential threat”—than light-skinned Whites (Ronquillo et al., 2007). The findings from this study suggest that skin color can inform perceptions of threat. Another study conducted by Eberhardt et al. (2006) reviewed a database containing approximately 600 cases of defendants who were “death-eligible” and eventually moved on to the penalty phase. The authors found that stereotypical Black features were positively correlated with the likelihood of receiving the death sentence (Eberhardt et al., 2006). A third study (Kahn & Davies, 2011) found that perceived stereotypical physical traits (e.g., dark skin, broad nose) of Black people “can increase the accessibility of stereotypes linking Blacks with danger.” Lupton (1999) argued that the perception of someone posing a risk can be tied to how we identify people who need to be brought back into control. She concludes that the label of “dangerous” will evoke a natural urge to exert control over the threat to ensure safety. If we combine Lupton’s explanation of risk perception with what we know about biased mental models, we should expect the following:

• If a police officer perceives Racial Group A as more dangerous than Racial Group B, then the police officer will try to control Racial Group A more than Racial Group B.

Descriptions of Colorism

This part of the review will briefly summarize the prominent definitions of colorism and the associated dimensions of the concept. There are two definitions of colorism that capture the crux of the available definitions. The first definition captures the social function of colorism:

The allocation of privilege and disadvantage according to the lightness or darkness of one’s skin, with favoritism typically granted to those with lighter skin (Burke & Embrich, 2008, p. 17).

The second definition captures the sociopsychological function of colorism:

…a system of hierarchical perceptions of value and discriminatory treatment based upon skin tone (Blay, 2011).

Collectively, these definitions describe a social system that ascribes privilege/value to light skin and subject people with dark skin to discriminatory treatment. The key component here is Blay’s use of the word “hierarchical,” which suggests that there exists a scale of privilege and discrimination that is dependent upon a skin color spectrum. In short, the lighter the skin, the more privilege one will be afforded, and the darker the skin, the more one will be subjected to discrimination (see Fig. 1).

The previous authors state that colorism operates within the larger context of racism (Hunter, 2002; Norwood, 2013; Russell et al., 2013; Wilder, 2008). Much like racism, colorism is a structure that functions at the individual and institutional level (Wilder, 2008). For this discussion, individual colorism encompasses internalized perceptions of skin color that can either be projected onto others or serve as an ideological reference for one’s self-identity (Burton, Bonilla‐Silva, Ray, Buckelew & Freeman, 2010). The previous studies have associated individual colorism to self-deprecating practices such as skin bleaching (Blay, 2011; Herring, 2002; Risman, 2004) and held perceptions of the worthiness of others (Eberhardt, Goff, Purdie, & Davies, 2004; Eberhardt et al., 2006; Viglione et al., 2011). Institutional colorism encompasses a sustained system of biased norms, de facto policies, and formal policies that result in more discrimination of people with darker skin (Smart, 2018). Typically, evidence of institutional colorism is embedded in organizational and/or social outcomes. The previous studies have presented evidence of institutional colorism in the topic areas of socioeconomic attainment (Edwards, 1973; Hill, 2000; Hughes & Hertel, 1990), criminal stereotyping (Dixon & Maddox, 2005), and Title VII cases (Harris, 2008; Russell et al., 2013; Smart, 2018).

The literature briefly mentions a third level of colorism referred to as interactional or interactive colorism. To get a sense of how interactive colorism might function, we turn to the work of J. Wilder. It is important to note that her research is set within the context of familial and educational settings. Wilder (2008) described interactional colorism as ritual behavior that perpetuates the continuum of colorism ideology. She states that young Black girls develop their perceptions of skin color by watching what older Black women do (Wilder, 2008). What we can gather from Wilder’s description of interactional colorism is that colorism can transfer from the affected to the unaffected. If we were to apply Wilder’s argument to the setting of a local police department, we can imagine that colorism ideology would spread in a similar fashion. Behaviors that are affected by colorism would influence the learning process of impressionable police officers, resulting in the spread of colorism ideology.

Herring et al. (2004) expanded the definition of colorism with the use of two key adjectives, intra-racial and interracial. The authors state that “intra-racial colorism occurs when members of a racial group make distinctions based on skin color between members of their own race” (Herring et al., 2004, p. 3). Interracial colorism “occurs when members of one racial group make distinctions based on skin color between members of another racial group” (Herring, Keith, & Horton, 2004, p. 3). Earlier studies of colorism were limited to in-group analysis; however, these two dimensions give license to researchers to explore inequality based on skin color across all racial categories. As it relates to racial discrimination, Herring et al.’s contribution lessens the import of the discriminator’s race and the condition of shared race between the instigator and the target.

The Dark–Light Paradigm (DLP)

Baynes (1997) argued for a more expansive paradigm for race studies and proposed that we shift our thinking toward a dark–light paradigm. He offers a departure from the standard Black–White paradigm, which is the DLP. In Baynes’ DLP, colorism is the central focus. One notable advantage of the DLP is that skin color is viewed along a continuum that can include all racial categories (Baynes, 1997). In the USA, dark skin is typically ascribed to Blacks. However, the DLP acknowledges that other racial categories have dark-skinned individuals who may be subject to skin color discrimination (Baynes, 1997). Baynes (1997) conducted a survey to determine perceptions of discrimination toward Blacks and Latinos. Of the 143 anonymous respondents, 75% identified as White, 7% as Black, 8% as Latino, 6% as Asian/Pacific American, and 3% as other. Most of the respondents, in all the racial categories, believed that “Whites treat dark-skinned Blacks worse than light-skinned Blacks” (Baynes, 1997, p. 43). The author asked a similar survey question regarding Latinos and skin color discrimination, and majority of the respondents believed that “Whites discriminate more against dark-skinned Latinos than their lighter counterparts” (Baynes, 1997, p. 182). The approach taken by Baynes added an element of specificity to discrimination that is typically overlooked in race studies.

Given what we now know about colorism, the working example is altered to reflect skin color as the focus instead of racial categories:

• If a police officer perceives dark-skinned citizens as more dangerous than light-skinned citizens, then the police officer will try to control dark-skinned citizens more than light-skinned citizens.

In the following section, we will further the discussion of the least explored level of skin color bias, interactive colorism.

Organizational Socialization and Interactive Colorism

Van Maanen (1975) explored the concept of organizational socialization—“the process by which an organizational member learns the required behaviors and supportive attitudes necessary to participate as a member of an organization” (p. 1). Van Maanen selected 136 new police recruits to participate in a study. He found that recruits were rewarded for laying low or not causing disruption to the status quo (Van Maanen, 1975). By the 6 month of the recruits’ training cycle, the job-related attitudes of the recruits began to mirror those of their more experienced colleagues (Kravetz, 2017; Van Maanen, 1975). The author states that this behavior served as a recruit’s buffer from negative treatment by the department, supervisors, and fellow officers (Van Maanen, 1975).

A similar and more recent study conducted by Oberfield (2012) explores the influence of socialization and self-selection on police’ perceptions of force. Oberfield selected 80 police academy graduates who were newly assigned to a police department. Through quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, the author found that a police officer’s views on the use of force are associated with formal organizational influences (e.g., supervision, training) and informal organizational influences (e.g., co-workers, culture, and associations) (Oberfield, 2012). Conti (2009) argued that “subscription to or [deviation] from established [policing] rituals is taken as evidence of personal character and assists in driving [police] recruits through a moral career, in which they can evolve to an idealized status of police officer” (p. 409). He also associates the mechanisms of shaming and socialization to rituals (Conti, 2009). These studies offer support for Wilder’s (2008) description of how colorism ideology might spread by way of observational learning and/or rituals.

All three of these articles highlight the powerful influence that organizational socialization might have on individual behavior within a police department. The subjects in Van Maanen’s study were willing to abandon their ideas of good policing to fit in and gain favor in the department. With organizational socialization having this type of influence on the collective individual behaviors within a police department, the environment is fertile ground for the spread of biases like colorism. More importantly, these studies suggest that if biased behaviors are accepted as the norm, they are likely to morph into shared conventions (Douglas, 1986) and go unchallenged (Smart, 2018). These mid-level conditions serve as an ideal platform for the spread of colorism—referred to here as interactive colorism or the transfer of skin color bias (Smart, 2018; Wilder, 2008). From this point forward, any mention of interactive colorism will also denote the function of organizational socialization. Now that we have a general understanding of how interactive colorism might operate within a policing context, the working example is adjusted to reflect this mid-level activity:

• If a police department maintains a shared convention that dark-skinned citizens are more dangerous than light-skinned citizens, then police departments will try to control dark-skinned citizens more than light-skinned citizens.

The Conceptual Model

The conceptual model for this project derives from the appraised literature, and it depicts how colorism might metastasize from the individual to the institutional level. It is important to note that the elements of the conceptual model were designed based on the previous findings and well-grounded arguments; no preexisting datasets were used to design the conceptual model for this thought experiment. The previous studies have focused on individual and institutional colorism, and there is limited literature that provides an explanation that describes the relationship between the three distinct levels of colorism. In addition, the body of knowledge has been developed across disciplines, but not in a way that would speak to the internal workings of an organization. The proposed conceptual model is an attempt to bridge this gap in the literature and to link the disparate knowledge.

The conceptual model is depicted in Fig. 2, and it is conveyed in the following manner. By way of organizational socialization, colorism can change from being an individual phenomenon to an interactive phenomenon; an individual affected by colorism can influence the decision-making model of an unaffected individual. Over time, the spread of the bias will morph into a shared convention, which can lead to biased outcomes. A type of computer simulation, agent-based modeling, will be used to conduct several thought experiments that will simulate each facet of the conceptual model. A description of agent-based modeling and the details of the simulations are provided in the following section.

Appendix B: Additional Tables

See Tables 6, 7, 8.

Table 6 Average number of incarcerated after two phases of interactive colorism

Table 7 Average incarcerated citizen-agents for 100 simulations of each policy response

Table 8 Incarceration outcomes for each phase of interactive colorism for policy responses (PR) 2, 3, and 4

Appendix C: Instructions on Accessing the Agent-Based Model and the Code Set

Instructions on Access the Agent-Based Model

To access the agent-based model that was used for this project, you may download the program using this link: https://goo.gl/vjVSJM. For the program to run, you must also download and install a copy of NetLogo 5.3.1, which can be found via this link: https://goo.gl/qiLWvy. Instructions on how to use the model can be found under the “Info” tab.