Reference to skin colour as an identifier in crime alerts adversely affects black communities, according to the new approach. As a solution, a suspect s race is no longer included in descriptions, which has its own drawbacks.

Cornell University in the US has approved a resolution that would remove a suspect s skin colour from crime alerts, arguing that its inclusion often encourages suspicion of black people and affects this group adversely.

The university s faculty senate passed the resolution in early April. The document says that reference to a possible black suspect in connection with a crime endangers black people in the community and incites violence against them. A background document added that black men made up 75 per cent of suspects whose race was identified since January 2019. The description of suspects is too general in many cases, and only racial identifiers get through to most people.

The move by Cornell University is similar to ones seen at other universities. Skin colour of suspects is no longer used in alerts by the University of Illinois in Chicago, Brown University or the University of Minnesota, although the latter allows descriptions of race to be included if the information is likely to lead to the identification of a suspect.

This practice, however, can have drawbacks. Anti-black racial slurs have recently appeared in the form of graffitis on the wall of Albion College in Michigan. Some wished for the death of black people, others were in support of the Ku Klux Clan.

Outraged by the incident, the student body began to demonstrate, assuming – due to the racist nature of the epithets – that the perpetrator was a white young man. Protesters said the graffitist had no place in the city.

Eventually, however, it turned out that the appalling slurs had been spray-painted by a young black man, who made a confession to police later. The college, however, neglected to reveal his racial identity. Instead, they merely stated that the student in question had been caught and suspended, and added that acts of racism are attributed to more than a single individual and an isolated case. Albion College is now reported to be committed to embarking on a path of healing with the entire community, and to continue to take action against racist acts.

It seems as if the college has kept quiet about the perpetrator to create the impression that the act was committed by a white student, Not the Bee reports. The case could set a dangerous precedent in US universities, where students are already ultra-sensitive to racial issues in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.