ABSTRACT
Everyday racism is grounded in a hierarchy of racial statuses, as well as in the rationalization of racial difference by white Americans. This African-American officer laments not being treated with respect as a person or as a police officer. Our experiential-racism perspective suggests that for discriminatory practices to occur systematically, there must be attitudes and ideological rationalizations that stimulate and legitimize discriminatory practices over the short and the long term. The negative attitudes and images of whites stereotype, problematize, and denigrate black Americans as individuals and as a group.1 The problematizing and denigrating operate to legitimize and rationalize discrimination against African Americans.
