Black in Blue

Unlike popular T.V. shows depicting black police officers in stations filled with officers of color, most U.S. police forces are glaringly white. In most cities African Americans have only recently gained entrance-but by no means full acceptance-to this exclusive club.

Black in Blue is the first in-depth book to expose the day-to-day racism that black officers face on the job. Authors Kenneth H. Bolton, Jr. and Joe R. Feagin interviewed veteran African-American police officers in the South to present a shocking portrait of passed-over promotions, racially hostile coworkers, and an unreceptive white public. Black senior officers as well as officers on the beat express frustration at racial battles in the station and on the street-from a lack of trust by many whites to a sense of betrayal by some other African Americans.

Tracing the roots of this historically all-white institution, the authors show how racism permeated the fabric of the first police agencies. For centuries, white Americans have used their monopoly of police power to control African Americans. Today, communities of color are still the focus of disproportionate policing efforts in the U.S., and most police forces still reflect the biases of the white public.

Timely and controversial, Black in Blue effectively and eloquently argues that the future of the country depends on the full desegregation of its policing organizations, which have too long buttressed U.S. racial oppression.

From New York to Los Angeles, police departments across the country are consistently accused of racism. Although historically white police precincts have been slowly integrating over the past few decades, African-American officers still encounter racism on the job. Bolton and Feagin have interviewed fifty veteran African-American police officers to provide real-life and vivid examples of the difficulties and discrimination these officers face everyday inside and outside the police station from barriers in hiring and getting promoted to lack of trust from citizens and members of black community.

Interviews with veteran African-American police officers in the South present a shocking portrait of passed-over promotions, racially hostile coworkers, and an unreceptive white public in this in-depth expos of day-to-day racism.