The Facts About Police Brutality - Harvard Professor Roland Fryer
- jeanne7629
- Oct 6
- 1 min read
Updated: Oct 22
This was a fascinating and eye-opening conversation with Harvard economist Roland Fryer. He challenged the widespread assumption that police shootings show racial bias, finding none at that level, while noting clear disparities in lower-level uses of force.
What struck me most, though, were two things:
the public’s reaction to his research, and
the fact that, despite the evidence, many refused to believe the findings, and even more discouragingly, no one seemed to take it as a cue to begin building stronger, more constructive relationships between communities and the police.
The final part of the interview hit closest to home. Fryer pointed out how often people want to be seen as being on the “right side” of an issue, which led into a broader discussion on academia. Many respected institutions, he argued, now feel constrained by prevailing ideas: if research doesn’t align with the moment, it may never see daylight. As one host bluntly put it: “in recent years, on social issues and sensitive subjects, the pursuit of truth has taken a beating.”
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, especially from those in academia. Does it reflect your experience?
I found this both surprising and deeply resonant, since it speaks to one of the reasons I created TTA. I don’t want taboos, I want to spark conversations about the unspoken or less popular ideas so we can understand them better.
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