Racism, Colorblindness, and Police Culture in Canada

Despite the amount of research on police culture, little is known about how police culture reinforces systemic racism in Canadian policing. In race and policing scholarship, less is known about how women police officers perpetuate systemic racism in policing. Based on 16 interviews with women police officers from a police organization in Alberta, this study examines how police culture reinforces systemic racism in Canadian policing. Using colorblind racism and intersectionality, the findings demonstrate that officers regularly say racist jokes to normalize racialized police violence. Officers emphasize warrior police culture and suspiciousness to physically assault and racially profile Indigenous people, including those living in encampments. Officers associate Blackness with criminality by reinforcing culturally racist stereotypes about Black Canadians, such as having criminal lifestyles. Furthermore, officers hold racist and xenophobic perceptions about refugees and when refugees call the police for help, officers culturally frame them as criminals and blame all refugees for an individual's criminal offense. White women officers were more likely than Black women and Biracial (Indigenous/White) women officers to reinforce the colorblind racist myth that racialized police violence is only an American problem, and that policing is a race-neutral practice.