{"id":163,"date":"2014-02-18T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=163"},"modified":"2015-10-13T19:09:52","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T19:09:52","slug":"race-and-self-defense-in-the-courtroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2014\/02\/18\/race-and-self-defense-in-the-courtroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Race and Self-Defense in the Courtroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend saw a verdict in the trial of Michael Dunn, accused of killing Florida teen Jordan Davis in 2012. The jury found Dunn guilty on three counts of attempted murder, but declared a mistrial on the murder charge for Davis\u2019 death. According to reports from Al Jazeera America,<\/a>\u00a0Dunn\u2019s attorney argued that \u201cthere were no signs Dunn was planning the shooting, only firing his gun when he saw Davis wielding a weapon from inside the vehicle and felt threatened.\u201d However, Dunn is white and Davis was black and\u2014with echoes of the George Zimmerman trial still fresh in public memory\u2014supporters of the prosecution argue that shooting was racially motivated and premeditated.<\/p>\n

In cases like these, the argument often breaks down to whether violence was racially-motivated or a \u201ccolorblind\u201d act of self-defense. However, race structures all<\/em> parts of the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

Self-defense isn\u2019t as colorblind as we think. Research in social psychology shows that race affects the way we perceive and react to threatening situations.<\/h5>\n