Racial Profiling And The United States

What makes America? Is it the freedoms granted to any American citizen? Is it the way the founding fathers fought for their own freedom against Britain? Is it instead the racial history behind this nation? America, since its origins has been a country of immigrants and for immigrants, yet since its origins, there has been discriminatory laws against blacks, Latinos, Asians, and every other race that is not considered white or Caucasian. Has this country that has been based upon racial profiling, that has fought wars as one nation (and even against themselves at one point), and has triumphed through the Civil Rights movement finally succumbed to justice or is racial profiling just as prominent today? Racial profiling still exists in America because ____________________, ___________________, and _____________________. (3 reasons stated in thesis)

Racial profiling in law enforcement is referenced when a law enforcement officer targets an individual for suspicion of a crime. A broader definition of racial profiling in law enforcements is when a law enforcement officer, uses an individual’s race or ethnicity, age , time of the day (usually later in the day), dress code and also location to accuse a person of a crime. In today’s world the term racial profiling can be viewed in various view points, because of people having different opinions on the term, many disagreements occur. Some people believe that specific incidents are not cases of racial profiling and others think otherwise, needless to say an argument occurs.

The issue of racial profiling in America is one of great importance to the future of American society. This issue is not new to our society; racism and stereotyping are issues that date back to many years ago. Racial profiling in America is on that needs to be addressed by the government and society if we ever want America to truly be, The Land of The Free.

Hypothesis: The events of September 11th has caused racial profiling, a practice that was vilified by many just months ago, to become a common and accepted practice used by the government, airline officials, police agencies, and the American public. Profiling has also become a necessary tool used to prevent further terrorist attacks on the United States.

Criminal justice professionals can lower the controversy surrounding profiling in law enforcement by eliminating the practice altogether. There is more than enough meta-analysis data available to substantiate that the practice of profiling is discriminatory and violates an individual’s constitutional right to have access to equal protection. For most people, when we recognize anything that does not work we either get rid of it or attempt to fix it so that it is actually useful. The same philosophy has to be applied to racial profiling. If there is to be any solution to eliminating racial profiling there must be a proper balance between the constitutional safeguard of equal protection and police policies that use race appropriately (Jones, 2006).

America has a long history of perpetrating great injustices against minority groups during wartime. The author of “Freedom vs. Security” and chief Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria traces these acts of racial profiling all the way back to 1790 during the French-American War (Zakaria 308). Such injustices are usually “overreactions to a limited threat” (Zakaria 309). Zakaria identifies the current mistreatment of Middle Eastern-Muslims within the United States as a similar overreaction (Zakaria 309). In the war on terror, an unfair emphasis has been placed on the race and religion of terrorism suspects. This use of racial profiling as a tool in the war on terrorism is questionable at best. Alternatives such as smart profiling may be promising,

The attacks on US soil on September 11th of the year 2001 caused an impact on the US. Most importantly its citizens. From safety concerns to the economy the impacts were all over the nation. One of these outcomes was racial profiling. This meant to people that looked to be from Saudi Arabia to suffer a form of hatred. Since that day many people have a picture ingrained in their heads about what a terrorist looks like. However, as an organization debates racial profiling is not effective in finding terrorists instead a waste of time.

Today er live in a society that people believe in America as the melting pot. But in actual reality we are made up of a lot of racial profiling. “Racial profiling describes the practice of targeting or stopping an individual based primarily on his or her race rather than any individualized suspicion” (Warren 2009:137). Racial profiling originated from criminal profiling. Mary Sell (2003) wrote: “Before you solve a problem you have to understand it. Therefore, it is necessary to explain criminal profiling before explaining racial profiling ‘(Gillis 2001:201). In our society you would think that this would not be a problem because we are in the 20th century. But racial profiling has become a national problem and has spread to the public eyes

Once the patriot act was enacted racial and ethnic profiling spiked. Now Muslim men are 65% more likely to be stopped for “random searches” at transportation hubs such as airports. According to Ibrahim Hooper, “American Muslims have already lost many their civil rights and All Muslims are considered suspects” (Bork). The biggest sign of this is supposedly ethnic profiling that is now occurring all over the country but mostly in airports but other places as well. “This form of discrimination is felt to be

Imagine you get shot because of your skin color. Your skin color that you can’t change. For that reason you get killed or discriminated. Racial profiling is a practice that some law enforcement use when it comes to someone being suspicious because of their race, ethnicity and religion. In 2004, 32 million people reported that they were unfairly singled out by law enforcement because of their race, according to a new Amnesty International report (Goyette). One example of racial profiling is when 9/11 happened, Muslims have been more likely to be questioned more in airports. Historically speaking, racial profiling has been around since the 1700’s in the United States and it still a problem because innocent people are being targeted based on

Despite the Declaration’s daring words, not every group in modern America has an equal chance to pursue happiness. Specifically, minorities do not have legal equality because of continuous racial profiling. Law enforcement often targets minorities, such as Latinos and African Americans, for suspicion of a crime. Authorities base their suspicions on stereotypes but in doing so generalize these groups. Race has no effect on whether a person will commit an offense, and therefore should not matter. Furthermore, racial profiling brings police no closer to cracking the case. Instead, minorities are not able to live freely because law enforcement questions their actions, even believing that any financial success must have come from criminal activity—that

I grew up in a family where my father was a doctor and my mother a homemaker, both immigrants from Pakistan hoping to achieve the American dream. Growing up in a white-dominant community and attending a high school with predominantly, white students and teachers, I was restricted in my growth and freedom. I was treated differently by my friends, peers and faculty members as I tried to acclimate to the American culture. My low social status, identity as a student in my high school was due to my race and gender. My race, defined by my phenotypic traits, compelled my peers and teachers to treat me differently, because of association with an inferior race. Despite being born in America, my foreign looks and association with another country, led me to be captured by the chains of racial profiling. My family, my low-social status in a White-dominated institution and my membership in primary groups were all pivotal aspects that have allowed me to attend UC Davis, where I plan to combat the low expectations of my Pakistani race.

Racial profiling has been an issue in our police system for many years. Minorities throughout our country have been wrongfully stopped and frisked, most ending up arrested. Most cases go to extreme situations in which the cop becomes aggressive or without a warning start shooting. There is a strong belief that the true criminals are the ones with the handcuffs in their hands but not on their wrists. Of course there are police that are honest and law abiding, but there will always be the few who has the fault of prejudice. However there might be a logical explanation why some people feel the way they do towards others of different race.

Are the civil rights of a person being respected by the United States’ criminal justice system? Is the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution been violated, which states clearly the protection of individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government officials, meaning that police officers are not allow to search or arrest an individual, unless the police man have a permission or a warrant to do so from a judge. Unfortunately, nowadays one can see that multiple minority groups across the U.S. suffer some kind of discrimination by police officers known as racial profiling. It gives excessive power to law enforcement to misuse it against individuals based merely on their race, religion and color. For instance, police men often

Our country was founded on this idea of freedom and how America was this land of opportunity. Time and history tells us it was easier said than done because racism restricted certain groups from achieving that “opportunity”. This social issue still haunts today but manifest not whips and chains but through racial profiling. Racial profiling is unjust, and a poison to the ideas of Democracy because it generalizes a specific group as being criminal and therefore makes the rest society inherit the same perception. In our society today, we have both