How we can turn racism into a solvable problem -- and improve policing | Phillip Atiba Goff

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2019

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we define racism as behaviors instead of feelings, we can measure it -- and transform it from an impossible problem into a solvable one, says justice scientist Phillip Atiba Goff. In an actionable talk, he shares his work at the Center for Policing Equity, an organization that helps police departments diagnose and track racial gaps in policing in order to eliminate them. Learn more about their data-driven approach -- and how you can get involved with the work that still needs to be done. (This ambitious plan is part of theAudacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features justice activist Philip Atiba Goff recorded live at TED 2019.
0:08.0	This ambitious idea is part of the Audacious Project.
0:11.9	Ted's initiative to inspire and fund global change.
0:15.9	Learn more at audaciousproject.org.
0:20.2	When people meet me for the first time on my job,
0:23.7	they often feel inspired to share a revelation they've had about me.
0:27.2	And it kind of goes something like this.
0:29.8	Hey, I know why police chiefs like to share their deep, dark secrets with you.
0:34.5	Phil with your PhD in psychology and your shiny bald head, you're basically
0:39.3	the black doctor, Phil, right? And for each and every person who's ever said that to me, I do
0:44.2	want to say thank you, because that was the first time I ever heard that joke.
0:49.0	But for everybody else, I really hope you'll believe me when I tell you, no police chief
0:53.7	likes talking to me because they think I'm a clinical psychologist, me when I tell you. No police chief likes talking to me because they
0:55.3	think I'm a clinical psychologist. And also, I'm not. I have no idea what your mother did to you,
1:00.0	and I can't help. Now, police chiefs like talking to me because I'm an expert on a problem that
1:06.4	feels impossible for them to solve. Racism in their profession.
1:13.2	Now, my expertise comes from being a scientist who studies how our minds learn to associate blackness and crime
1:17.5	and misperceive black children as older than they actually are.
1:21.1	And it also comes from studying actual police behavior,
1:24.0	which is how I know that every year,
1:26.2	about one in five adults in the United States
1:28.1	has contact with law enforcement. Out of those, about a million are targeted for police use of force.
	...

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