Race, Agency, Blame and Gender: Narratives on Police use of Force in a South Carolina High School

Race, Agency, Blame and Gender: Narratives on Police use of Force in a South Carolina High School

Kyle Dunn

How do the police, media and other parties use language to frame blame agency and race? This paper explores this question in the incident that happened at Spring Valley High South Carolina. This exploration is done to better understand how parties frame these complex issues of race, blame and agency on the level of language. In this incident the schools resource officer removed a student from her desk through a questionable amount of force. This was all captured on video and was covered by major news organizations and social media. More specifically this paper, looks at how people defending the student and officer frame race, agency, blame, and gender. This is accomplished through analyzing 6 online news articles of the incident. Who mentions Race, blame, agency, and gender was collected and analyzed. Furthermore, a literature review of cultural, and linguistic anthropological sources was conducted to provide theoretical context and to help better understand the data. In doing so this paper illustrates the linkage between ideology and narrative in police officers explanation for their use of force. It also illustrates how news organizations when trying to be unbiased, reinforce systematic racism through un-even representation.