The term ‘African American’ has been in common usage in the United States since the late 1980s, when greater numbers of African Americans began to adopt the term self-referentially. A ‘blue curtain’ has descended within police departments in the United States, bringing to a standstill the progress made by black officers.
Efforts to enhance Black representation in city police organizations in the United States have met with resistance from many quarters, including many police unions that have charged ‘reverse discrimination’. The Reagan Administration sought the reversal of affirmative action consent decrees previously approved by the U. S. Justice Department. Nevertheless, considerable progress was made toward increasing Black representation in police bureaucracies during the decade 1975-1985.
Among 46 large city police departments, the mean Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Index was .57 in 1975, rising dramatically to .75 by 1985. This research shows, however, that as Black percentages in city labor forces increase, a corresponding decline occurs in police department EEO indexes, a measure of representatives, suggesting the likelihood of continuing resistance to affirmative action effort. Regression results also show Black mayors, Black police chiefs, and affirmative action consent decrees emerging in 1985 as the most powerful variables associated with increasing Black percentages in police sworn ranks.
The gains of the 1970s and ’80s, when large numbers of United States law enforcement agencies were desegregated, has been replaced by work environments in which black officers are often treated unfairly in promotions, salaries, discipline and training, and are frequently subject to racist jokes from white co-workers.
Traditionally, police officers have created within their department’s strong informal groups with a distinctive police subculture, known as the ‘blue curtain’. But black officers in often reported being isolated by white officers whose “‘old boy networks’ have become operating centers for racism” (1994, Wycoff)..............
