Racial Profiling

Since the birth of our nation, racial profiling has been an issue longstanding and troubling among minority groups and still continues to exhibit severe consequences in communities.

Firstly, racial profiling will always exist in a diverse country, and it is ignorant to think that with the melting pot culture and races America has, that everyone will be treated the same way. From the beginning of mankind to the current times today, people have and will always keep being identified by their color. Stereotypes will always stay, since the old generation teaches their thoughts to the next, and when the next generation has their children, they too will teach what they learned. Stereotypes towards multiple races are known by everybody, so when meeting new people, past experiences and teachings already create

Racial Profiling has been around for many decades, but over the past few years it has gotten even worse. It has gotten to the point where children are supposed to be the most comfortable and open. Also, it has gotten to the point where even children's sports games are having a racial issue. Children shouldn’t feel like outsiders, just because of the color of their skin. Lastly, they shouldn’t they should stop doing what they love the most just because someone out there is making a racial or racist statement.

Through research it is believed that the practice of racial profiling began around the 1970s by law enforcement. This was a time at which drug trafficking was impacting the entire world. Law enforcement would do what they could in order to capture these criminals. Profiling is used in policing and has been proven to be a very impacted strategy. There is fine line between profiling and racially profiling which leans more towards stereotyping as well. A profile is essentially a collection of facts that have

Racial Profiling compromises the very fabric that America is built on. With Constitutional laws that protect us as American citizens from any mistreatment or discrimination, Racial Profiling is still being practiced , and it violates our human rights, and causes distrust in the very police officers that are in charge of keeping our communities safe, and disbelief in the Constitution that should afford all American citizens equal rights.

Racial profiling dates back to as earlier as the 1700s. It was during this time, that many African Americans were used as slaves, and those African Americans who were free were required to carry registry papers to claim they were indeed free. Though they were free, those African Americans were still racially profiled in Southern states. Some of the southern states even sent out special slave patrols that would hunt for what they believed to be escaped slaves. Members of these groups, if they found free African Americans accused them of being runaway slaves (Gale Opposing). After the Civil War, laws such as segregation laws, and Jim Crow laws were created to form more separation. These laws kept blacks and whites separate in public places such as restrooms, churches, public transportation, restaurants, and schools (Gale Opposing). Laws today for racial profiling may have changed, but attitudes toward it have not. We find that years later racial profiling continues, and many people are suspected of committing crimes for little more than the color of their skin. Police today use more racially driven practices to try and accuse many of crimes (Gale Opposing). Practices such as "Stop and Frisk" have proven to be more hurtful than useful, with data supporting that this practice has no proven practical use these actions are seen as a serious act of unfair racial scrutiny and are of no use in society today.

Racial profiling has been an issue in the United States that dates back to the times of slavery. Over the past four hundred years there have been several official active laws that specifically discriminated and targeted African Americans.

Does racial profiling exist here in the United States? The answer to that question is yes. First of all what is racial profiling? Racial profiling is an illegal method the police you to top a person or person on the bases of their race. Racial profiling happen to blacks and Hispanics more then it does to the Caucasians.

Racial discrimination as gone on for decades in many diverse ways. One sole practice is through racial profiling. Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. And law enforcement has been using it consciously and unconsciously for several years. Racial profiling is untrustworthy because it discriminates people of the minority, especially African Americans.

Racism exists in our American justice system… many years later. Many assume that racial profiling is a problem that just arose recently, due to multiple infamous incidents where “justice” was served to innocent victims. Most people have this assumption because the extremes of racial profiling has been making national headlines. When in fact racial profiling has been around and in use since the 1700s. By definition racial profiling is the use of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or national origin by law enforcement agents as a factor in deciding whom to investigate, arrest or detain absent evidence of a specific crime or criminal behavior. In other terms it is using racism and stereotypes to assume the worst of people. Racial profiling is executed by law enforcements by multiple tactics, such as a stop and frisk , vehicle or bag search search, a pat down, etc based on the police having a reasonable suspicion that the individual is going to commit or has already committed a crime whether it is a felony or misdemeanor. Racial profiling has destroyed our trust in police officers due to the fact that the law enforcements can use this to their advantage by using discrimination to interrogate citizens or immigrants, whom are by a large percentage African American or a minority. According to the U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics, African American males have a one-in-three chance of going to jail in their lifetime, a rate more than six times higher than whites (Knafo,2013). This statistic however is not based on crime rates yet based on illegal drug offenses. Although most african americans are incarcerated due to drug crimes it is a proven statistic that African Americans are ten times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes than the rate of white men.

Racial profiling still exists in America. "Racial profiling" refers to law enforcement strategies and practices that single out individuals as objects of suspicion solely on the basis of mainly their race. Prejudice and racial profiling of law enforcement is responsible for many false arrests, convictions, and countless deaths of blacks in the United States. This is one of the main difficulties of life and obstacles minorities have to face in their life because for one they are a minority and two because of their skin color. Police racial profiling is an ongoing problem that blacks in America have been facing with for over thousands of years dating back to before Blacks got their freedom. With the recent acts that are happenings in Ferguson and Eric Garner, to what happened to Rodney King, I believe it is only right to discuss the history of prejudice and racial profiling and how it relates to the discriminatory acts of police and judicial system towards blacks in the United States. Most importantly, I will discuss how America can help make a change of action to put an end to the Police racial profiling and brutality that still exists in this nation.

Racial profiling has been a big problem since the beginning of time, but does everybody know what racial profiling is and how it's used? American Civil Liberties Union indicated the definition of racial profiling is: “The use of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or national origin by law enforcement agents as a factor in deciding whom to investigate, arrest or detain absent evidence of a specific crime or criminal behavior” (Rushing 2). The definition stated above shows how unfair this can be if you fit into any of the categories listed. The definition doesn’t state how it is used and how often it is used. Racial profiling has been part of the U.S. criminal justice system for as long as there has been a U.S. criminal justice system, and part of North American colonial justice systems in the centuries prior to its formation. This shows that since the first people moved to this land, there has been racial profiling used by law enforcement agencies in order to keep the country safe. Now that the definition of racial profiling has been stated above and how racial profiling is used. Let's look at some examples or racial profiling in history and modern day.

Racial profiling is out of control in the United States! Laws have been passed to ensure the equality of everyone in this country, but yet we are still seeing discrimination and racial profiling. Racial profiling is where government officials make decisions basked on your ethnicity and not your action. Legislation, Bureaucracy and Interest groups make up the Iron triangle; witch makes laws to protect the people from things such as racial profiling.

Racial profiling has become a severe obstacle in the U.S. today though most Americans know very little of this vital issue. Every day, people are being pulled over, harassed, and even killed for being of a certain race. There are new laws that politicians are trying to pass that promote racial discrimination. Racial profiling is immoral and does not increase public safety.

“Racial Profiling “or Racial Discrimination”, are phrases that both derive from root word “Racism” which dates back as early as the eighteenth century. According to PBS.Org, “Racism exists when one ethnic group or historical collective dominates, excludes, or seeks to eliminate another based on differences that are hereditary and unalterable.” In addition it states that the idea of race, (meaning “like” or “kind”) “Became more widely used during the eighteenth century and crystalized into a distinct reference for Africans, Indians and Europeans.” Racial profiling is very significant to the citizens of our country because it politically, economically and socially divides both our country symmetrically in half.