Diversifying police forces has been suggested to improve “police-minority relations” amidst national uprisings against police violence. Yet, little research investigates how police and black civilians—two groups invoked in discourse on “police-minority relations”—understand the function of diversity interventions. We draw on 100 in-depth interviews with 60 black women civilians and 40 police from various racial and ethnic backgrounds to explore how they understand the function of racial diversity in policing. Findings highlight discrepancies in how these two groups frame the utility of racial diversity in policing, revealing conflicting epistemologies of race and racism. Police draw on an epistemology of racial ignorance (Mills 1997, 2007, 2015) to selectively accommodate race-conscious critique while denying the history and power dynamics between the institution and minority communities. Conversely, black women civilians, grounded in a standpoint epistemology (Collins, 1986, 2009), emphasize the historical roots of policing, along with collective memories, and lived experiences to understand the relationship between the institution and minority communities. Through a comparative analysis of these frames, we theorize dominant/state-sponsored discourse on diversity and police-minority relations as form of racecraft (Fields & Fields 2012, 2014) that serves to legitimize negligible institutional change to policing in an era of renewed scrutiny of police racism.

中文翻译：

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多元化官员：警察和黑人女性平民对警务中种族和种族主义的认识论

有人建议在全国范围内反对警察暴力的起义中，实现警察部队的多元化，以改善“警察与少数族裔的关系”。然而，很少有研究调查警察和黑人平民——在“警察与少数族裔关系”的讨论中被提及的两个群体——如何理解多样性干预的功能。我们对 60 名黑人女性平民和 40 名来自不同种族和族裔背景的警察进行了 100 次深度访谈，探讨他们如何理解种族多样性在警务中的作用。调查结果突显了这两个群体在如何构建种族多样性在警务中的效用方面的差异，揭示了种族和种族主义的相互冲突的认识论。警察利用种族无知的认识论（Mills 1997、2007、2015）来选择性地适应种族意识的批评，同时否认该机构与少数族裔社区之间的历史和权力动态。相反，基于立场认识论（Collins，1986，2009）的黑人女性平民强调警务的历史根源，以及集体记忆和生活经验，以理解该机构与少数群体社区之间的关系。通过对这些框警察的种族主义。