Racism, Stereotyping, and Police Brutality Theme Analysis

All American Boys is centered around an incident of police brutality: Paul Galluzzo’s violent arrest of Rashad at Jerry’s convenience store. The novel shows how the attack shocks and disturbs the town of Springfield, while also emphasizing that this incident is representative of a broader problem of racist police violence that affects the entire country. Meanwhile, Mrs. Fitzgerald’s stories about the civil rights movement indicate that police racism and brutality are not recent problems, but rather a long-lasting, substantial part of American history. For several of the characters, and particularly Quinn, the incident at Jerry’s serves as a wake-up call to the reality of racism in America. Crucially, this extends beyond the particular issue of police brutality and into less severe manifestations of racism, such as the differential treatment of black students versus white students at Springfield High.

Not only does the novel depict the different ways in which racism manifests itself in everyday life, it also explores the fundamental reasons that racism exists, showing how it can be perpetuated even by those who do not mean to cause harm. The novel indicates that police brutality is based on the psychological foundation of stereotypes, hypocrisy, and fear, which are exacerbated by the abuse of power and excessive authority. Quinn realizes that he harbors an irrational fear of black people based on the stereotypes that black people are tough, violent “thugs.” Although he does not consciously harbor racist beliefs, his subconscious fear causes him to behave in a way that perpetuates racism.

The novel also emphasizes that while white people may be more susceptible to believing such negative stereotypes, these stereotypes can also affect black people too. Toward the end of the narrative, Rashad’s father, David, reveals that while he was working as a cop he shot a black man, Darnell Shackleford, whom he believed was the perpetrator of a crime. In fact, it was David’s own unconscious bias which led him to believe this; in reality, Darnell was being attacked by a white man and was simply trying to pull out his inhaler, not a gun. This incident suggests that the animosity between black people and the police is bigger than individuals––rather than being grounded in the race or beliefs of a given police officer, it is a structural issue. David’s conscious and subconscious biases, along with his role as a police officer, compel him to shoot someone who looks like his own son. This demonstrates the insidious power of racism and suggests that it is perhaps unrealistic to imagine that anyone—even black people themselves—can erase racist stereotypes from their thinking on their own. Instead, these stereotypes must be tackled collectively (as the students and teachers at Springfield Central High attempt through their organization of the protest) in order to create lasting change.

Racism and stereotypes do not just impact the way the black characters in the novel interact with the police. Rather, racism affects many aspects of the black characters’ lives. For example, David disapproves of Spoony’s clothes and dreadlocks, and when Rashad tells his father the story of what happened at Jerry’s, one of the first questions David asks is if Rashad was wearing baggy pants. The reasoning behind this is that black hairstyles and clothing associated with black culture (particularly poorer black communities) are associated with negative stereotypes about black people.

David believes that black people should strive to defy such stereotypes, which is part of the reason why he embraces police and military uniforms as a standard of discipline, responsibility, and assimilation to white, “American” culture. Thinking like this is often called “respectability politics,” a phrase that refers to the pressure for minorities to conform to a (conservative) idea of respectability as a way of protecting oneself from racism. David’s actions prove that both black and white people can be guilty of inflicting respectability politics on black people. As the novel shows, the problem with respectability politics is that it places the blame and responsibility of repelling racism onto black people. This logic is backwards, because it is black people who are the victims of racism; regardless of how they dress and behave, they cannot exempt themselves from racism, and should not be forced to take on that responsibility.

Another important aspect of the novel’s portrayal of racism lies in the issue of stereotypes and hypocrisy. As a young black man, Rashad is subject to the racist assumptions that he is violent, steals, and uses drugs. In reality, he does none of these things; he specifically mentions that he has never stolen anything and, later in the novel, English points out that Rashad has also never used drugs. Quinn, meanwhile, who is celebrated as an “all-American boy” whose father is a town hero, admits to having stolen alcohol from Jerry’s and smoked marijuana. While the novel doesn’t suggest that either of these acts is particularly unforgiveable, it does show that Quinn’s white privilege allows him to escape from such misdemeanors without consequences, whereas Rashad is punished simply for the assumption that he steals. Racial stereotyping is thus revealed to be self-perpetuating, creating a vicious cycle of negative expectations, stereotypes, and brutality.

The novel was written in response to the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, two black teenagers shot and killed by white people who were not convicted of the murders. Martin was 17 (a year older than Rashad) and only carrying a bag of skittles when George Zimmerman shot him; the detail that Rashad is holding a bag of chips when he is arrested and beaten by Paul recalls Martin and the skittles. Mike Brown, meanwhile, was killed by a police officer while his hands were in the air. Again, this is linked to the brutality with which Paul treats Rashad even though he is unarmed and innocent. The killings of Martin and Brown helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement, which tackles the issues of anti-black racism, police brutality, and mass incarceration. All-American Boys contributes to the ongoing conversation around these issues and highlights the way in which young people are often at the forefront of anti-racist activism in the contemporary moment.