white people perceive black children as being older than they are and by a significant number of years, as well as less innocent than white children.
What that translate into is black children not being given the same level of protection and protective thoughts the majority of adults - and society - have (has) about/for children.
This perception, rooted in racism, means black children won't get the same benefit of the doubt that white children get and will get harsher treatment and penalties from authority figures.
If you see black children as older than they actually are, and automatically less innocent because of their skin hue, then you're going to treat that child as you would an adult in terms of punishments and how you react to a situation.
Skin hue, for racists, can determine whether a cop attempts to de-escalate a situation or simply start shooting. Think on that.
So even though those studies have been shared on DU and people have commented on, been appalled by, and rallying against such racist thinking, some don't apply what those studies tell them to everyday life and various events that take place.
Either they forgot, didn't think to look for that racist perception in themselves, or see it as two separate things - an abstract study that showed the racist thought application of seeing black children as adults and what they must think of as real life. Even though those studies accurately reflect real life for black children and black families.
And it's not just black children - brown children as well. Adam Toledo was 13 - a child. Yet racists in the news media refer to him as a man. And they do so knowing full the implications because they fully understand how to use those racist perceptions to stoke anger in others.
Study: Police see black children as less innocent and less young than white children
In a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers asked college students and police officers to estimate the ages of young children who they were told had committed a crime (both misdemeanors and felonies). In both groups, respondents were far more likely to overestimate the ages of young black boys than young white boys; they were also less likely to view black children as innocent.
"Children in most societies are considered to be in a distinct group with characteristics such as innocence and the need for protection," study author and professor of psychology at UCLA Phillip Atiba Goff said of the study. "Our research found that black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent."
The goal of the study, according to researchers, was to determine the extent to which respondents dehumanized young black children, and how this racist dehumanization can lead to violence and unjust treatment. "
f human childhood affords protections against harsh, adult-like treatment, then in contexts where these children are dehumanized, they can be treated with adult severity" -- specifically in the criminal justice system, researchers wrote.
There was also a correlation between the police officers' responses and their record of using force against people suspected of a crime, specifically young black boys, though Goff noted that "future research should try to clarify the relationship between dehumanization and racial disparities in police use of force."
Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood
This groundbreaking study by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality provides—for the first time— data showing that adults view Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, especially in the age range of 5–14. The report builds on similar results that have emerged from studies of adult perceptions of Black boys. In 2014, for example, research by Professor Phillip Goff and colleagues revealed that beginning at the age of 10, Black boys are more likely than their white peers to be misperceived as older, viewed as guilty of suspected crimes, and face police violence if accused of a crime.
Given established discrepancies in law enforcement and juvenile court practices that disproportionately affect Black girls, the perception of Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like may contribute to more punitive exercise of discretion by those in positions of authority, greater use of force, and harsher penalties.
I've started and stopped several posts over the last week or so only to be so disgusted and saddened by things that I deleted them. I kept one saved draft. Using it as a reference now for links, though I'm not posting a link to studies from the past - could be construed as a negative call out. Wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong perception.
= new reply since forum marked as read
