Dr. Dennis Rome, of the University of Wisconsin at Parkside, will deliver a lecture titled “The Color of Skin is the Color of Crime in America: Debunking the Myth of the African American Criminal.” The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 1, on the stage of Harton Theater on the campus of Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia
Rome’s lecture will illustrate how the African American male criminal stereotype has come to be used as a general definition of crime. He concludes that both the news media and entertainment outlets must discontinue their practice of equating young African American males with aggressiveness, lawlessness, and violence if we are ever to truly abolish racism in this country.
Rome is a professor in the Criminal Justice Department at the University of Wisconsin at Parkside. He is a Fulbright Scholar and a Carnegie National Scholar. He also serves as the director of the Honors Program for the American Sociological Association. In addition, Rome was recently appointed by Sen. Alan Lasee and Rep. Steve Wickert to serve as a public member of the Special Committee on Expunction of Criminal Records.
Rome earned his bachelor’s degree from Bradley University, a master’s degree from Howard University, and a Ph.D. from Washington State University. His areas of interest include criminology, race relations, and mass media. He is the author of Black Demons: The Media’s Depiction of the African American Male Criminal Stereotype, as well as several research articles and book chapters.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Donations, small and large, toward the Kathleen Mallory Distinguished Lecture Series endowment fund will be gratefully accepted at the door.
For more information, call Dr. Linda Tucker at 870-235-4210.
