ST. CLOUD TIMES — Dr. Mary Clifford noticed it in the textbooks.
Rather, the St. Cloud State University criminal justice faculty member noticed what was missing.
Fifteen years ago and more recently — five or seven years ago — textbooks used in the department did not discuss racism in the context of policing. Missing were mentions of violent disruptions like the 1992 riots following the beating of Rodney King by four Los Angeles policemen, or the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. Missing were mentions of convict leasing and slave patrols.
“When you start looking back even within your discipline, and you start seeing, wait, we’re not covering some of these real landmark situations within our field, why is that?” Clifford said.
Clifford said one cannot say every policing system or criminal justice system is intentionally racist, but looking back at how the system of policing was designed, it takes an intentional refocus to reset and create something separates from “that legacy of slavery and control by race in this country.”
