Racial Distrust in Institutions

Institutions such as policing (1) (2) and healthcare (3) have historically had issues with racism.

Distrust Among Ethnic Minorities

In the UK, ethnic minorities are routinely over-policed (4) and experience higher rates of use of force (5). Furthermore, the majority of complaints of police misconduct are dismissed (6). The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry is well documented (7) and there have been several similar reports, with recommendations and changes to the policy made (8) (9), however, distrust remains higher amongst ethnic minorities (10).

This lack of trust leads to fear of and hesitancy to cooperate with the police (11), as well as hesitancy to report crime and misconduct. When technology is applied to policing that already produces racist outcomes, there is an increased risk of exacerbating existing distrust.

Medical Distrust

Medical Racism has been in the spotlight due to reports about disproportionate maternal mortality and health affecting racial minorities in the UK and US (12) (13) and COVID 19 vaccine hesitancy (14). These are just two recent areas that have sparked conversations about how racially marginalised communities navigate healthcare and have a distrust of Western medicine.

Equally, we’ve seen how algorithms can lead to worse medical outcomes for Black people and their access to medical resources (15) and without corrective action, the legacy of medical racism will continue, now aided by technology.

Have a look through some of the references listed below, what are your thoughts on the points raised here?

References:

1. Suzella Palmer, 201. ‘Dutty Babylon’: policing Black communities and the politics of resistance, Center for Crime and Justice.
2. Anna North, 2020. How racist policing took over American cities, explained by a historian, Vox.
3. Ayah Nurridin, Graham Mooney & Alexander I R White, 2020. Reckoning with histories of medical racism and violence in the USA, The Lancet.
4. Peter Keeling, 2016.No respect: Young BAME men, the police and stop and search, Criminal Justice Alliance.
5. UK Government, 2019. Police use of force statistics, England and Wales: April 2018 to March 2019.
6. David Burke, 2021. “Disgusting” figures show 97% of police accused of racism face no action, The Mirror.
7. William MacPherson of Cluny, 1999. The Stepehn Lawrence Inquiry.
8. Calum Leslie, 2020.Police racism inquiries in the UK: Do they change how things work? BBC.
9. Jason Bennetto, 2012. Police and racism: What has been achieved 10 years after the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report? Equality and Human Rights Commission.
10. Ben Bowling and Coretta Phillips, 2010. Policing ethinic minority communities, London School of Economics and Political Science.
11. Peter Keeling, 2017. No respect: Young BAME men, the police and stop and search Briefing, Criminal Justice Alliance.
12. Jamila K. Taylor, 2020. Structural Racism and Maternal Health Among Black Women, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.
13. Lilian Anekwe, 2020. Ethnic disparities in maternal care, The BMJ.
14. Mohammad S Razai, Tasnime Osama, Douglas G J McKechnie & Azeem Majeed, 2021. Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minority groups, The BMJ.
15. Ziad Obermeyer, Brian Powers, Christine Vogeli & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2019. Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations, Science Magazine.