Racial Profiling By: Kami Marsh

Racial Profiling “The consideration of race when developing a profile of suspected criminals; by extension, a form of racism involving police focus on people of certain racial groups when seeking suspected criminals.” (Dictionary.com) This is not however only used by police it is used by most people without realizing sometimes they are doing it. For example: Have you ever cross the street, get tense or held on to your significant others arm when you are walking down the street because an African American or Hispanic is walking by you? Companies do it every day when they ask you for you ethnicity and/or race on an application. Has there ever been a white and black couple that you looked at and wondered how/why they ended up together? All of those are considered a form of racial profiling.

Racial Profiling? You can only run so far from the truth. The article was written during 2000 Presidential campaign between George W. Bush and Al Gore. There was a debate going on regarding racial profiling, unfortunately the article doesn’t say what debate or I would be able to give more information. The author was reviewing the debate “in hopes to find something factual and true about racial profiling”. Unable to do so he wrote this article. He stated that the unfortunate truth about our world today is that racial profiling is that of a practice for policemen and with good reason. He proceed to show facts given from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Statistics. “…you will discover that in 1998, the most recent statistics available, blacks committed about 38 percent of the reported robberies while making up about 13 percent of the population. Consider further that nearly all of those robberies were committed by black males between the ages of 15 and 24, and you'll come to the realization that a tiny demographic group is responsible for a whole lot of trouble out there.” The article was pretty interesting in the fact that it was written by an anonymous LAPD police officer. I am not surprised to hear the opinion of a police officer be that there is racial profiling but for a good reason but even more interesting to me is the fact that he has the statistics to back it up. However, this is the only statistic that was given, is the more statistics on the same website to falsify his opinion?

Stop Racial Profiling The article was written from a gentlemen in Baltimore. The Governor at the time Governor Glendening had announced that he was going to sponsor a bill to end racial profiling. During that time the author and his family had been pulled over crossing state lines. They were going from Washington to Chicago. During the traffic which stop which he defends that there was no reason for him to be pulled over, he and his family had been pulled out of their vehicles, in the rain, so that the vehicle could be searched. A little earlier there had been a release that there was drug trafficking by African American people happening on interstate 95. With the belief that the policemen had to right to pull over basically any African American on that road they wanted to because of the report Mr. Wilkins and his family got pulled over. This outraged him and his family so they filed suit against the police department. During his search for information on police protocol on I-95 he found that “ during the years of 1996 – % of drivers on that Interstate were black yet they made up 75% of the traffic stops. Making it so that there were 500 African Americans pulled over to every 100 Caucasian. ” Robert Wilkins is a defense attorney for the state of Washington making it easier for him to fight it in court. After 2 different trials Robert Wilkins and his family won. His point of telling this story, “Where was Governor Glendening when all of this was going on?” For a man who announced that he is going to help stop racial profiling he wasn’t real quick to jump in and help stop the racial profiling on I-95. After hearing the story, however, you have to ask yourself is this a good example of how politicians say they want to help something but when push comes to shove they don’t do anything or is this an African American feeling like he is simply being picked on for being black?

Fact and Opinion The fact is that racial profiling is all over the place. Companies are doing it every day when they are asking candidates to state what ethnicity they are or what race they are. People do it without ever even realizing that they are committing racial profiling. It is problem that we have in our society and it needs to be fixed. I am more knowledgeable about racial profiling after having researched the topic more. It is something that I do sometimes and don’t really realize that I am doing it. I don’t feel as if I have a bias towards blacks, Hispanics, whites etc., I have even taken a few tests or surveys that have showed to not be bias but there are still times that I have the thoughts of crossing the street because an African American is walking towards me or I grab a hold of my boyfriends arm because a Hispanic is come past. These are all things that I need to stop doing. I need to work on them. I don’t ever mean to do these things, I never do them intentionally they just happen but I need to be more aware of my actions. I see that African Americans do still get treated differently because of their skin color and I don’t think it is right. I truly believe that a lot of statistics showing that they are committing most the crimes or they are more “at fault” for our society being unsafe is because of the theory that goes something like if you are thought to be no matter what you do then why not just do it. They are never given the benefit of the doubt that they are just a good for our society as causations are so if they are always occupied of doing wrong then why not do it. So looking at the situation whose fault is it really that African Americans have the higher statistics, ours or theirs?

Work Cited “World English Dictionary.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com LLC, 2003 – 2011, Web, July 24, 2011 Anonymous LAPD Officer. “Racial Profiling? You can only run so far from the truth.” Adversity.net, Adveristy.net Inc., October 16, 2000, Web, July 24, 2011 Wilkins, Robert. “Stop Racial Profiling.” articles.baltimoresun.com, The Baltimore Sun, July 20, 2000, Web, July 24, 2011