Racial Profiling of the Black Male

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Racial Profiling of the Black Male
Racial profiling occurs when authority uses someone’s race or ethnicity to decide whether or not to use enforcement. This controversial act is highly illegal and is mostly caused by stereotypes of certain races and ethnicities. Black males are mostly targeted due to the color of their skin, the type of car they drive, the genre of music they are listening to and how they are dressed. Some call this act DWB, driving while black. Black males are stopped and searched constantly with no probable cause just because of their race and gender. If a group of black males are riding in a car with hats on, and loud music they are more likely to get stopped than a group of white males doing the same thing. It is strongly believed that black males are racially profiled more often than any other race.
In an ABC news article, an african american male was stopped and handcuffed by two undercover cops after buying a Ferragamo belt from the department store Barney’s. He was falsely accused of his card being fake and having fraudulent identification. Even after showing identification that matched the credentials for his purchase, the employees still did not believe his information was correct. He was suspicious to the employees due to the color of his skin and his gender. Because of his race and gender, should he have not been able to afford the belt and why did he have to purchase the belt fraudulently? These are questions that should constantly be asked to society each day. The stereotype of black people is they are poor, criminals and undereducated. According to Lorie Fridell, a 2001 Gallup poll indicated that 44% of blacks surveyed believed that “police have stopped them at some point in their life because o...

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...gender is not always correct, they will soon negate this tactic. When the controversial issue between race, gender and criminality stops being such a huge issue, racial profiling will be no longer useful.

Works Cited

"Barneys Department Store Accused of Racially Profiling Customers." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Oct. 2013. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.

Braham, Peter "Racial Discrimination." Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity & Culture. London: Sage UK, 2003. Credo Reference. Web. 4 April 2014.

Fridell, Lorie "Profiling, Racial." Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 3 April 2014.
Fruitvale Station. Dir. Ryan Coogler. Perf. Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer. Significant Productions, 2013. Film.
FRIEDERSDORF, CONOR. Conservative Hypocrisy on Racial Profiling and Affirmative Action. 2013. N.p.

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