Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The impact of racial profiling on the community
The impact of racial profiling on the community
The impact of racial profiling on the community
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The impact of racial profiling on the community
Racial Profiling has been an issue in America since before most people can remember. Benjamin Todd Jealous once said that “Racial profiling punishes innocent individuals for the past actions of those who look and sound like them. It misdirects crucial resources and undercuts the trust needed between law enforcement and the communities they serve. It has no place in our national discourse, and no place in our nation 's police departments.” (Huffingtonpost.com) From the time that the Civil rights movement began to the rioting in Baltimore, New York many things have changed, but not enough to benefit us all living here in the United States. A person of color remains 31% more likely to get pulled over in a traffic stop. African Americans have Black men and women alike must be strong-minded because daily interactions with police officers and the public can be mentally exhausting. Black men are however more like than women to deal with these looks of terror on people’s faces and the aftermath of what happens. When staples speaks of his feeling after his encounter with a white woman he says he was surprised, embarrassed and dismayed. This is the initial reaction of a majority of people this happens to. Questions they ask themselves afterwards may include “Do I look dangerous?” or “Will there be a day that this doesn’t happen to me?”, questions that cause feelings of self doubt and hopelessness . Staples also states the he grew well acquainted with but never comfortable with people who crossed to the other side of the street rather than pass by him. Taking extra precautions that would be otherwise unnecessary for a trip to the store like carrying a camera and proof that they work where they claim they do. In the article “The Disproportionate Risk of Driving While Black” written by the New York Times, Rufus Scales was driving his younger brother Devin to his haircutting class. Two police pulled them over for minor infractions that included expired license plates and failing to hang a flag from scrap metal in the bed of the truck. Rufus was assaulted by the officers and left the scene with four traffic tickets, a charge for The riots and looting in Ferguson, Missouri after police shot and killed Michael Brown were devastating. Costing Ferguson about $4.2 million dollars when rioting ended was a financial burden to the county. Hospitalization for victims of racial profiling is an extra cost to them and an extra cost to the government. Police targeting African Americans in traffic stops and on the street leads to confrontation and the physical injury of the person of color. It is unnecessary for these encounters to occur or for hospitalization to be the result. The Arizona county will be paying for the injustices of their police officers for the next year. The monetary cost could have been avoided if the justice system was not
First of all, racial profiling is unfair to its victims . Racial profiling is seen through the police in “Hounding the Innocent”, which is unfair since a person shouldn’t be pulled over more because of their race and that many of these stops have little to no connection to an actual crime. “Young black and Hispanic males are being stopped, frisked, and harassed in breathtaking numbers” (Herbert, 29) This is unfair to all victims of racial
Racial profiling is a wide spread term in the American justice system today, but what does it really mean? Is racial profiling just a term cooked up by criminals looking for a way to get out of trouble and have a scapegoat for their crimes? Is it really occurring in our justice system, and if so is it done intentionally? Most importantly, if racial profiling exists what steps do we take to correct it? The answer to these questions are almost impossible to find, racial profiling is one of many things within our justice system that can be disputed from any angle and has no clear cut answers. All that can be done is to study it from different views and sources and come up with one’s own conclusion on the issue.
Have you ever been followed by store officials or security while shopping in a department store? At first, all of the attention can be flattering but quickly becomes insulting once you realize they’re not following you to offer any assistance. Instead because of how you look you fit a certain profile that causes store officials to think you’ve come to their store to steal. This type of behavior is called racial profiling. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, racial profiling refers to the discrimination practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Citizens need to be more aware of racial profiling and make laws that racial profiling should be illegal. Racial profiling is carried out by law enforcement airport security, and other security personnel that look to profile the minorities for no reason. Heather Sally Newton Driscoll ebscohost.com stated “The practice of profiling is rooted in centuries of discrimination and is based on stereotypes that have long been disproved. Profiling holds on entire population accountable for the committed by a small minority”.
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
Before any argument can be made against racial profiling, it is important to understand what racial profiling is. The American Civil Liberties Union, defines racial profiling as "the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin"(Racial Profiling: Definition). Using this definition we can determine that racial profiling excludes any evidence of wrong-doing and relies solely on the characteristics listed above. We can also see that racial profiling is different from criminal profiling, which uses evidence of wrong-doing and facts which can include information obtained from outside sources and evidence gathered from investigation. Based on these definitions, I will show that racial profiling is unfair and ineffective because it relies on stereotyping, encourages discrimination, and in many cases can be circumvented.
In 2014, the death of Eric Garner in New York City raised controversial conversations and highlighted the issues of race, crime, and policing in neighborhoods that tend to be poor and racially isolated. Garner, an unarmed black man, was killed after being tackled and held in a “chokehold.” According to the AP Polls in December 2014, “Police killings of unarmed blacks were the most important news stories of 2014.” The problem is that young black men are targeted by police officers in which they have responded with the misuse of force and policy brutality. It is evident that this issue affects many people nationwide. The civilians do not trust the police department and the justice system because they hold the perceptions that police officers are immune from prosecution despite their actions. In particular, black individuals, specifically black males, do not feel safe in the presence of police officers because they are not held accountable for their mistakes.
Racial tension has been a part of America ever since the Civil War. Today we have a different issue with race, which is called racial profiling. Over the years, the relationship between the police and community of color has gone bitterly racial profiling. America’s society today tends to be tainted by racial profiling and stereotypes. These issues can have great effects on our society.
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
In Brent Staples’ "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space," Staples describes the issues, stereotypes, and criticisms he faces being a black man in public surroundings. Staples initiates his perspective by introducing the audience in to thinking he is committing a crime, but eventually reveals how the actions taken towards him are because of the fear linked to his labelled stereotypes of being rapists, gangsters and muggers. Staples continues to unfold the audience from a 20 year old experience and sheds light onto how regardless of proving his survival compared to the other stereotypical blacks with his education levels and work ethics being in the modern era, he is still in the same plight. Although Staples relates such burdens through his personal experiences rather than directly revealing the psychological impacts such actions have upon African Americans with research, he effectively uses emotion to explain the social effects and challenges they have faced to avoid causing a ruckus with the “white American” world while keeping his reference up to date and accordingly to his history.
In “Black Men in Public Spaces” the author talks about multiply situation where he was treated different for being an African American. Staples said,” I entered a jewelry store on the city’s affluent near North side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash” (161.) Then there is “Right Place, Wrong Face, which is focused on and African American man that is wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. White said, “I was searched, stripped of my backpack, put on my knees, handcuffed, and told to be quieted when I tried to ask questions” (229.) The two articles have many similarities. Both articles have two educated African America men who get treated different because of their race. Staples and White both have situations where they are being stereotyped by society because there black
It is especially prominent when a police officer pulls someone over for someone that is not even against the law, which leaves the citizens confused one what they did wrong. If the officer can not prove that what they pulled them over for was against the law, then they should let the people go immediately. Sadly, the police officer did find something, “a bag of cocaine” (Iannacci). This is the worst part, because a lot of the times the officers end up finding something and the way they found it is never taken into consideration. The officer pulled these people over for a broken tail light, which in the state of North Carolina, is okay as long as one is working. What is not mentioned is that “In the absence of any other facts indicating criminal
Racial profiling in America, as evidenced by recent events, has reached a critical breaking point. No longer can an African American, male or female, walk into a store, school, or any public place without fear of being stereotyped as a person of suspicion. Society constantly portrays the African American
Since the colonization of what was to become the United States of America, the injustice of racial prejudice has been a prominent characteristic of this country. As a result, Blacks and other Americans of color are often, if not always, victims of racial profiling and despite many efforts to achieve racial equality, prejudiced mindsets have remained with some people well into the 21st century. Consequently, this has prompted many Blacks to go to questionably extreme measure to protect their children from potentially becoming another casualty of racial discrimination. Many have chosen to just ignore the problem, however the reluctance to speak out against racial injustices only shows weakness among Blacks and other Americans of color.
Protests around the world have taken place to fight for justice in the black community. The immense number of deaths of unarmed black men and women is a clear sign that they are more likely to be killed by police than white people. Physical violence and excessive use of force by the U.S. police towards African Americans are seen in the news regularly. “People, including police officers, hold strong implicit associations between blacks, and probably Hispanics, and weapons, crime and aggression," said Jack Glaser. Police brutality statistics show that African Americans are three times more likely to be murdered by cops than any other race. Racial disparity in the United States is a coherent reason for the increase of criminal injustice in the United
Part of human nature is judging something by what surrounds it even if it is another human. Think of a community that has every color, every race, every religion, and every kind of person that community however, doesn’t value each other to some point which causes a problem, a problem that we call racism in today’s era, a problem that needs to be eliminated because it allows a gap that shouldn’t exist in our society. Our society must understand that it isn’t okay to discriminate someone for how they look or what they believe in or what color they happen to be, specifically speaking to those who aren’t smart enough to realize that discrimination isn’t making any change for the better nor is it allowing certain groups in the community to advocate