Exposed

• Author: David M. Tanovich
• Pages: 31-51

[31]

[2]

Exposed

singled out

The Cana dian me dia hav e never been shy in talking about

race. All too often, though, race talk in the media has not been posi-

tive. Rather, it has served only to perpetuate the many stereotypes

surrounding race and crime.1 By focusing on racialized suspects,

identifying gangs by racial origin, and describing in sensational

detail certain cr imes involving racialized suspects, the media are

one of the prime conveyors of the message that there is a link be-

tween race and crime. For example, in the summer of 2005, both

the Globe and Mail and the National Post published two large-size

photograph arrays of Toronto’s twenty and ten “most-wanted”

criminals.2 The National Post published its story following the

interim release of the Kingston Police study on racial prof‌iling.

The headline read, “The Truth About Racial Prof‌iling.” One of

the commentaries pointed out that a majority of the most wanted

were Black, in an apparent effort to convince readers that racial

prof‌iling is about disproportionate offending rates.3

part one: understanding racial profiling

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This inf‌lammatory exercise of journalistic prerogative failed to

ref‌lect on the fact that violent crimes make up a very small per-

centage of criminal activity and that the police are rarely thinking

about the “most wanted” when they are patrolling the streets and

conducting vehicle or pedestrian stops. Nor did the stories raise

the possibility of systemic bias in the creation of the most-wanted

lists. Indeed, federal prison data reveal just how misleading these

lists and other statistically inaccurate stereoty pes can be. In 2003,

69.8 percent of the offenders serving time in our federal prisons

for sex, homicide, and robbery offences (i.e., the most dangerous

offenders) were White. Blacks made up only 4 .8 percent of hom i-

cide offenders, 5.1 percent of sex offenders, and 6.7 percent of rob-

bery of fenders.4

And so, other than the usual disclaimer that “of course, not

all members of the community are criminals,” which arguably

serves to subtly reinforce the stereotype, the media often fail to

ref‌lect critically on issues surrounding race, crime, and policing.

In 2002 one media outlet engaged in a critical look at systemic

racism with a focus on the police. On October 19, 2002, readers

of the To ront o St ar woke up to a headline that read “Singled Out.”5

For the next week or so, the Star ran a series of articles which

focused much-needed attention on the issue of racial prof‌iling.6

The newspaper explained that its purpose was to “to seek out the

truth, to focus attention on practices and issues that need to be

discussed and addressed.… [to] detail troubling facts sur rounding

minorities and police.”7

The Toronto Star Findings

A large part of the Toro nt o S ta r ser ies focused on police d ata

that had been obtained by the newspaper through a Freedom of

Information request. Of particular interest were the traff‌ic-stop

statistics, as vehicle stops provide a low-visibility opportunity to

investigate the driver and passengers for possible criminal activ-

ity. The d ata revealed that Bl acks were dispropor tionately charge d