Most people can identify explicit racism in a heartbeat.
From use of the “N word” against Black people, to saying immigrants come from “shithole countries” to separating children from their parents for the crime of being children of people attempting to seek a better life, explicit racism is easy to spot.
More difficult to identify, however, is implicit racism or implicit bias. The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University defines implicit bias as referring “to the attitude or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious manner.” The key word in that definition is “unconscious.” We may be engaging in implicit racism or bias without even knowing we are doing it.
Implicit racism comes to the forefront in the Season 22 opener of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The episode, titled “Guardians and Gladiators” opens with a confrontation in Central Park between a White woman and a Black man who is exercising. The woman claims the man is “scaring her son,” similar to “Central Park Karen” Amy Cooper over the summer.
From the start, it is clear this case will be different from others tackled by SVU. When Captain Benson (Mariska Hargitay) arrives on scene with Sergeant Tutuola (Ice T) Detective Rollins (Kelli Giddish) and Officer Kat Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder), the Black man, named Jayvon Brown, is in handcuffs, the responding officers having discovered Jayvon has two outstanding warrants (for protesting). Soon, an injured man who appears to have been the victim of a sexual assault is discovered and Jayvon is immediately arrested on suspicion of attacking the man.
Jayvon is quickly able to prove his innocence, but then the other shoe drops. As the squad rushes to figure out who actually hurt the man in the park, Jayvon sues the NYPD and both Olivia and Fin are named in the lawsuit.
The deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police and the resulting protests sparked a discussion of police procedurals like SVU and how they would address their own characters’ complicity in a racist criminal justice system. SVU, as demonstrated in this premiere episode, is ready to meet the challenge head-on.
At first, both Benson and Fin are insistent that Benson could never be racist. In fact, Fin goes so far as to defend Deputy Chief Christian Garland (Demore Barnes, in his first SVU appearance as a series regular) about Benson: “I’ve worked with Captain Benson for over 20 years. Her only bias is for the victim.”
And the episode allows Fin to consider his own qualms about being a Black police officer. During a scene with Jayvon, Jayvon asks, “I expect this nonsense from her. But doesn’t this get old for you, man?” And Fin also seems to be aware of his other colleagues’ biases, particularly Carisi (Peter Scanavino), telling him, “You can take the cop out of Staten Island.”
Midway through the episode, Benson has an interview with the Internal Affairs Bureau regarding Jayvon’s arrest. Benson insists she did everything by the book and the circumstances would not be different with a White man. Benson’s interviewer, a Black woman, stops the interview and tells Benson she’s seen two types of police officers in these interviews: Gladiators and Guardians. The Gladiators are the good ole boys we saw at protests over the summer. The Guardians, however, are their own breed: “[They] never seen themselves as racist but are in denial about their complicity in the systematic racism of the NYPD.”
This interview, coupled with a discussion with her son Noah (Ryan Buggle) force Benson to consider her own biases and how they affect her choices as a cop. In the closing moments, Benson goes to Jayvon, who has lost his job due to his arrest, and informs him about the woman who reported Jayvon being charged with filing a false report. Benson’s report is hard comforting to Jayvon, whose anger is certainly justified and he knows it: “Don’t tell me I have a right to my anger. I already know that.”
The episode closes with Benson telling Jayvon that NYPD —and Benson specifically—have a lot of work to do. It’s clear SVU isn’t done addressing implicit bias in policing and if this premiere episode is any indication, it will do so thoughtfully and with grace.
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