Racial Profiling is Crippling Communities

Racial Profiling is Crippling Communities

Introduction:

Racial Profiling creates an unsettling atmosphere for all minorities around the

world, portraying a sense of unsafety within their community. It seems as if there is no justice for racialized people, no one to turn to when in need of help. In simpler words, my focus within this essay is to prove that racial profiling is wrong and absolutely needs to be abolished. Currently, communities are insurmountably divided. Back in the day, everyone looked out for eachother, now, we selfishly satisfy our own needs.

What is Racial Profiling and Where is it Found:

Taking advantage of a person’s race, ethnicity, religion or place of origin as a reason to suspect that they have committed a crime is wrong. However it is still an ongoing problem and many are people affected, such as Latinos, African Americans and Muslims. For instance, a security officer might follow an African American because he speculates that they are more likely to steal from a store. Or maybe at an interview, a Muslim will not get the job since the employer assumes he is a danger to other workers. This is the damage that racial profiling has created for several years with the help of stereotypes. Often, people may even stereotype others unconsciously in view of the fact that it allows us to organize and simplify complex situations in order to has an advantage in understanding, predicting what could happen and possibly control a problematic situation. Additionally, stereotyping is frequently underestimated or forgotten in law enforcement and public spheres. An example of this occurred on September 1st, 2016, when an officer, Betty Shelby, fatally shot an unarmed black man by the name of Terence Crutcher. Instead of responding to verbal communications, Mr. Crutcher slowly walked away from the police with his hands in the air, and in result, Betty shot the man and killed him. We need to speak out, we need to show that this is a concern that definitely should be taken seriously. As Benjamin Jealous once stated, “Racial profiling punishes 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”.

The Effects of Racial Profiling:

Victims of racial profiling pay the price psychologically, physically and financially. The American Psychological Association states that the common symptoms emotionally, are post-traumatic stress disorder and other tension-related disorders, perception of race-related threats along with failure to use available community resources. High amounts of stress can lead a person down a dangerous path, causing involvements in smoking, drinking, drugs and in severe cases, suicide. Not surprisingly, a new study from Kathryn Freeman Anderson found that 18.2 percent of black participants experienced emotional stress and 9.8 percent undergo physical stress. Comparatively, only 3.5 and 1.6 percent of whites come across psychologically and physically stress. Furthermore, research psychologists have discovered that the societal effects of profiling include feelings of racism, fear and financial costs. As stated by the OHRC, racial profiling also impacts the victims family, friends and even neighbours. As a matter of fact, racial profiling is also found in education systems and affects student’s lives and future goals along with their performance in school by a significant amount. A witness of this act is a heartbroken mother that says "My eldest son was one of the first victims of zero tolerance and this meant for him to lose two years of his school, his high school. ... Nobody was willing to take him. You know, it was very hard for him to go back and complete his high school. Not only because the schools didn't want him, but also because he had lost interest...” then sadly adds "When you are a young person and people think you are bad, what is the point of behaving well anyway, if they are going to treat you like a criminal, why should you even bother trying to, you know, be better? ... My fear is that one of these days my kids are going to be a little too fed up with this and they are going to have an attitude, and they are going to be arrested.” As presented, the consequences of a student being treated as an outsider can cause a loss of education and educational opportunities as well as a negative physiological impact, promotion to antisocial behaviour, increase in criminal activities, a loss of interest and trust in schools self-esteem and confidence issues. Somewhere else in the community, the exact thing is repeated and another innocent individual is victimized. Racialized people (especially immigrants) feel rejected since they are more likely to be insulted, seen as a threat and examined by the police. Later on, this is what leads to discrimination. The symptoms of discrimination are proven to increase the risk of stress, depression, the common cold, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and mortality. In addition, other studies have shown that racial discrimination result in a great difference in housing, education, employment, economic status, arrests and court sentences. As the discrimination worsens, they will no longer feel as though they are a citizen in their own hometown.

In the video presented below, it clearly demonstrates how racial profiling can decide the way a racialized person lives their life. Within this document, there are three people of different races who go undercover and pretend to look for a job, shopping and renting an apartment. Keep in mind that as each of them do every task, they are wearing the same clothes, asking the same questions and at the same place. In conclusion, the film shows how racial profiling affected each person’s experience and the different ways they were treated because of their skin colour. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjmdwwuhepg)

Why Racial Profiling Does Not Work:

The following evidence will conclude the reasons that racial profiling does not work and should be therefore, discontinued. Unfortunately, profiling plays a strong role within our police departments, justice system and various other public areas. But why? A valid reason for law enforcement officers to target minorities, particularly Black and Hispanic drivers, is the common belief that they are more likely to be violating laws, particularly drug laws than whites. On the contrary, studies in 2001 from the U.S. Department of Justice report on 1,272,282 citizen-police showed that although most African-Americans and Hispanics were more likely to have their vehicle stopped and searched for contrabands, their result of carrying illegal goods in vehicles was less than a white person’s. In addition, evidence states that 1 in 3 white people carry contraband, whereas for black people, it is 1 in 5. This discovery made experts realize that focusing more on one group will allow other crime committing groups to do illegal acts unchallenged. Even if additional felony is done by a particular race or religion, it still makes up a small percentage of the population and will always be more probable that an individual of the majority group has engaged in criminal activity. In simpler terms, just because some race participated in an act against the law, does not mean that a person belonging to that race committed a crime as well. Similarly, when the U.S. Customs Service eliminated racial profiling when searching for passengers carrying contraband, they were 75% more successful. Believe it or not, a large stereotypical part of social media influences greatly in racial profiling. This is not consequential but rather done purposely in order to uphold white privileges and demonized people of colour. The media represents this imagery in numerous ways. For example, they show white people’s accomplishments and and people of colour’s alleged crimes. They chose charming photos of white people and ‘incriminating’ photos of victims of colour. They emphasize that a hateful white person acted alone, while casting people of colour as stereotypes of their race. This does not signify that all white individuals are evil, people just need to start opening their eyes and be fully aware of the dark side of the media. Racial profiling does not work, only manipulation does.

How Did Racial Profiling Influence The Presidential Election:

"I think profiling is something that we're going to have to start thinking about as a country" Trump told CBS. As many people are aware, Donald Trump has been proposing to ban muslims from entering the United States from the start of the elections, which may be a great reason for his winning in the presidency. Many statistics support this theory. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 66% of likely republican voters favor a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the United States. However, amongst all voters, 46% favor a temporary ban on Muslims entering America, while 40% are opposed and 14% are undecided. In another survey, before the San Bernardino incident, 49% of U.S. voters said Islam as practiced today encourages more violence than most other religions, and 71% thought that religious Islamic leaders are responsible to emphasize the peaceful beliefs of their faith to persuade muslims to reevaluate their view on Islam. Unfortunately, the percentage of banning muslims increased in favour by 8.5% after the Orlando shooting. As displayed, the majority of the population is willing to agree in banning an entire religion from a country or, claiming that Islam is a religion of violence without doing self-research and yet basing it off opinion, not fact. Imagine. If your friend came out of a bar stumbling, talking with a slur and then suddenly throwing up, but he tells you he’s not drunk or even slightly intoxicated, would you believe him? Same goes for any religion. Just because a terrorist group claims that they are creating violence under the orders of their religion, certainly does not mean that their claims are true. For example, murder is strictly forbidden in the Qur’an. The verse 6:151 in the Qur’an states, “do not kill a soul that God has made sacrosanct, save lawfully”. 5:53 then continues to add, “whoso kills a soul, unless it be for murder or for weak corruption in the land, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind; and he who saves a life, it shall be as if he had given life to all mankind”. In simpler words, the context means that if you murder another soul, the sin will be viewed as if you killed every living being created, and if you save a life, the reward will be as though you saved all of humanity. Furthermore, the majority of Donald Trump’s voters are working-class white people without a college education. Daniel Cox, research director of the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, states that the rest of his white voters were not only feeling a threat of social change, but a reduction in power with the rapid increase in racialized people in the United States and therefore, hoping Trump would change that. Cox then adds "White conservative men are seeing a cultural displacement. Their influence in the culture is being challenged and is receding.” This statement is supported by a recent Pew Research Center study which confirmed that 45 percent of whites thought race relations were generally bad, in comparison with 61 percent of African-Americans and 58 percent of Hispanics. In addition, 41 percent of white individuals believe too much attention is being drawn towards racial issues, whereas 25 percent of blacks and 22 percent of latinos agree. Some people supported Trump because they hated muslims, others wanted white people to sustain their higher power in social status and most thought that Trump would protect them from Muslims and Mexicans with the help of racial profiling. This is the man who sexually assaulted many women, this is the man who disrespects other minorities and now, this is the man that is the president of America.

How to Resolve Racial Profiling:

Racial profiling has wounded tons of guiltless souls since the beginning of humanity. However, that does not obligate us to accept it and let it harm, others. Instead, everyone, no matter the age should try to eliminate profiling in any way possible. Begin by simply spreading awareness through social media, stay updated with news reports and articles on profiling, using hashtags such as #alllivesmatter, #stopandfrisk or #handsupdontshoot along with providing support to websites fighting against racial profiling. Do your own research, find reliable sites supplying statistics and learn more about current accidents that may have involved racial profiling and inform your peers, family as well as your neighbours. Another powerful action is standing up for yourself and others, strangers included. If you happen to witness a person disrespecting or insulting another individual due to their racial difference, immediately defend the victim by making sure that the accuser realizes what they did was unacceptable and thus can not be tolerated. Additionally, make friends with a person of a dissimilar colour, religion or background from your own and acknowledge the contrast between both of your cultures, personal histories and experiences with racial profiling. As you get older, progressively take stronger measures in order to terminate profiling such as building an organisation against the ongoing appearances of profiling in your community and schools. Creating petitions to force the government into forming new laws and joining clubs like ME to WE at your school is another excellent idea to make a difference. All it needs is patience and effort.

On the other hand, the government is undecided on making a change at the moment, but there are some laws and suggestions they are considering to establish. For example, the End Racial Profiling Act is a solution presented in the House by Representative John Conyers and to the Senate by Senator Ben Cardin on April 22, 2015 determined to resolve racial practices. The act would prohibit federal, state and local law enforcements from targeting citizens based on their race, religion, ethnicity or place of origin. The bill also includes an increase in the collection of data relating to racial profiling to accurately assess the extent of the problem and offers funds to retrain police officers more efficiently, to avoid the use of weapons made to kill. Furthermore, it requires the law enforcement agencies full cooperation to preserve sufficient policies and actions designed to end profiling. In addition, law enforcement agencies will be responsible in creating procedures for receiving, investigating and responding to complaints alleged to profiling and providing an injunctive relief to victims of racial profiling practices by the police. The End Racial Profiling Act will not resolve tension between communities and law enforcements, but it’s a start.

A personal suggestion of mine involves specifically targeting younger generations, working our way up from the roots. In other words, educating children at a young age at schools by adding racial profiling as a part of the Canadian curriculum so they are obligated to learn. However, the problem with this is that most children are primarily influenced by their parents at home. Well, mothers and fathers can help by bringing it up in conversations when talking to their kids, looking for teaching moments and most importantly, being a role model.

Why I Chose This Topic and My Personal Experiences:

Racial profiling is something I have experienced my entire life. My first contact with profiling happened in grade one with my music teacher. Although I was very young at the time which means my memory is quite fuzzy, I still remember how she would always criticize and pick on my coloured classmates including myself, even if we were better in playing instruments than most people in the class. I specifically recall that one day in grade 3 (I had the same music teacher) when school was coming to an end and at the beginning of class my teacher started to call everyone up individually to show us our final grade and obviously, my name was first on the list. So when I came up to her, I was notified that I received a B. Confused, knowing that I had full marks on both my test and was chosen by my peers to play a piece for some classes, I was expecting an A. However when I asked why my grade decreased she responded with the exact words “because you don’t deserve an A.” Now how would you expect a little girl to react? I immediately ran to the corner crying, and what did my teacher do? Nothing, she pretended like I was not even there.

Currently, although I have not had many major experiences with racial profiling, that does not mean I’m not constantly having small occurrences. For example, it is pretty much normal for me to be followed around stores and malls when I’m with my dad. With with other relatives wearing a hijab, strangers have the guts to tell us that we are terrorists and should go back to where we belong. Even my friends have the courage to say that to my face and insult Islam which honestly really hurts, joke or not. It still makes me feel frightened to tell people my own religion, because I’m too afraid to be judged.

Conclusion:

Provided this knowledge, I hope everyone understands the dangers of racial profiling, a complex understanding of what it is and the way it currently exists in our world of today. Maybe one day, when everyone realizes that under their colour, religion and background, we are all just human wanting what’s best for our future, racial profiling will come to an end.