ABSTRACT
In summer 2001, the NYPD, the City Council of New York and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the City University of New York launched the NYPD Police Leadership Certificate Program, which provides members of the NYPD with free tuition and books for selected university courses with police-only enrollment. One of the required undergraduate courses is Anthropology 130: Policing in a Multiracial and Multicultural City. This chapter, based on over 15 years of teaching this course, provides two examples of what an anthropology of race and law enforcement can teach a classroom of police about the complex problems they face. The first example illustrates how statistical framings of crime and race enable non-particularized suspicion of Black people. The second illustrates how cultural mythology, largely transmitted through film and TV, encourages suspicion associated with Muslim religious practice. These anthropological lessons analyze cultural meanings and institutional practices in order to cultivate officers’ critical awareness of how distorting stereotypes encourage generalized racial suspicion and undermine public safety.
