Reading Pullman’s “Checklists for assessing eyewitness testimony” excerpt seemed very thought provoking up until I reached the “Your Turn” and realized that this was nothing new for people of Color (P.O.C) the racial minority; Asians, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, African Americans. For centuries, America has subconsciously reminded minorities of their perception of our worth through racism and stereotypes. Multiple false indictments, convictions, justifications of murder, and the list goes on. “[Many] are incarcerated as a result of eyewitness testimony, simply because we have greater confidence in what we think we see than what our capacity to see really warrants”, so when Pullman prompted the reading of “False Memories” by William Cromie, the initial thought that came to mind is “This isn’t new, at least not to me”. Minorities know this tale is as old as time. Being placed in different places at different time or otherwise known as “being in the wrong place at the wrong time”. Vague descriptions of criminals that fit stereotypical features of P.O.C due to “memory”. Instead of very specific attributions to suspects results in many P.O.C fitting profiles and committing crimes that they were never in the vicinity of. We know that we could’ve been in our bed sleeping but somehow we we’re actually robbing a gas station at 3 in the morning. We also could’ve been casually coming home from a party but coincidentally fitting the description of an “disruptive black male” and arrested or even worse killed for “resisting” harassment due to a terrible description.
Oscar Grant. Trayvon Martin. Tamir Rice. Jordan Edwards.
These are just the unfortunate popular names of the few black men that have been wrongfully killed. The devastating reality is that there are thousands of people wrongly convicted and indicted every year, 70% of the makeup being minorities according to “The Innocence Project”.
Angel Gonzalez. A Hispanic male that served 20 years in prison for being wrongly convicted of rape.
James Bain. A African American male that served 35 years in prison for being wrongly convicted of rape and kidnapping.
Antonio Beaver. A African American male who served 10 years for a wrongly convicted carjacking.
While reading the studies of how the brain processes different images, sounds, and other sensory feelings it led me to think “Why is this not recognized more throughout the judicial system?” well, there’s no 100% way to determine real and false memories, the article states however there is a way to view what parts of the brain are used when reevaluating vivid and unclear memories as well as sensory feelings that trigger the same emotion or feeling can often construe memory. Cromie uses examples by psychologist David Schacter who conducted a study which monitored the brain pattern of college students who were asked to listen to related words then rely on their memory to repeat back which words they remembered. For example, students heard words such as “chocolate”, “sugar”, “candy”, “sour”, and “bitter” however 60% of students remembered hearing the word “sweet” although it was never mentioned.
Which brings me to question “Are synonymous associations with images more memorable than the actual image?” and furthermore in relation to the subject, “Are the images displayed throughout mainstream media a bigger representation of how witnesses identify suspects oppose to who they actually saw?” For such a massive assumption it prompted me to dig a bit deeper.
“The Opportunity Agenda” an organization founded to “work with social justice groups, leaders, and movements to advance solutions that expand opportunity for everyone” conducted research on “Media Representations and Impact on the lives of Black Men and Boys” covering many conscious and subconscious actions of mainstream media portraying harmful and deterring stereotypes of black men. One of their assertions is that there is a constant association of criminal nature and black men displayed in the media.
In a survey of local Chicago news reports (between 1993-1994) blacks were four times more likely to include mugshots than their white counterparts. (The Opportunity Agenda, p.24,2011)
Further research conducted has discovered that African Americans are socially misrepresented in media. Studies have shown that news stories are more likely to interview unemployed and low-income areas for blacks as representation of the community oppose to the average socio-class of middle and upper class areas. (The Opportunity Agenda, p.24, 2011)
Now some may argue that media is not related to the sociological mindset of the general public and has no correlation to the increase of convictions of African-Americans.
Edith Greene, author of “Media effects in jurors” analyzed the behavior of jurors in relation to media to convey its influence and impact. She co
However, a General Social Survey in 1990 determined that 54% of Caucasian Americans believed blacks were violence.
Edith Green, author of “Media effects in Jurors”, found data to support the effects of the media in criminal cases. A study determined that viewers who consumed more than 4 hours of television on a daily basis were more likely than people who consumed less than that to endorse television related crime cases.
From my personal research to Cromie’s discovery of falsified visual images and Pullman’s assessment of the accuracy of testimony, it is very likely that most jurors are very influenced by the environment and images surrounding them which means that as an society we must eliminate stereotypes and false representations ethnically and economically in order to achieve the “just” and “fair” aphorism America abides by.
Works Cited
“Racial Equity Tools.” • Racial Equity Tools, www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/Media-Impact-onLives-of-Black-Men-and-Boys-OppAgenda.pdf%C2%A0.
Cromie, Wililam J. “False Memories.” Meta Religion, www.meta-religion.com/Psychiatry/False_memories/false_memories.html.
Greene, Elizabeth. “Media Effects on Jurors.” Law and Human Behavior, vol. 14, no. 5, 1990, pp. 439–450.
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