Abstract
In the United States, while deaths of Black individuals at the hands of
the police occur at unbelievable rates, many continue to proclaim that
we live in a post-racial society or that racism is an artifact of the
past. Psychologists can, and indeed must, make a unique contribution to
conversations about recent race-related events such as Ferguson and the
#BlackLivesMatter movement. On the one year anniversary of the
shooting of Michael Brown, this letter briefly highlights several
phenomena established in psychological literature on racial biases such
as the Superhumanization bias and findings from Shoot, Don’t Shoot
paradigms that may increase public awareness on acknowledging
contemporary racial disparity and inequity.