Racial Profiling on a Tuesday

Racial Profiling has been a big issue in the United States ever since people were kidnapped off of the coast of Africa and were enslaved in the U.S. In a more modern present day people of multiple races and ages are racially profiled. We see this recurring pattern happen among minorities in this country. Some may think that it is coincidence or that people of color are constantly being arrested or searched because they are bad people. It is not that people of color are bad people or misbehave. There is more to it than that, there is a bigger factor in play. There has been a social structure built in order to discriminate and disadvantage people of color. This type of system is what is responsible for the police brutality, racism and racial profiling people of color face everyday in this country.

An article by the editorial board from the New York Times states that racial profiling starts as early as preschool. That consists of innocent four year old kids being racially profiled. Yale did a study on preschool teachers and their discriminatory behaviors. They had a teacher's black and white watch a dozen video clips of four well behaved kids, two boys one black and one white and two girls one black and one white, working and playing in a classroom. The teachers were asked to look for any problematic behavior. A computer tracked the eyes of all the teachers and found that both black and white teachers spent  most of their time watching the black children and mostly the boys. When the teachers were asked which child attracted the majority of their attention 42 percent said the black boy, 34 percent the white boy, 13 percent the white girl and 10 percent the black girl. This type of racial profiling that occurs at the preschool level leads to black preschoolers being four times as likely to be suspended as their white peers. This just goes to show the effects of preconceptions that have been engraved in the minds of Americans.

Police in the United States have been the most widely recognized offenders of racial profiling. To add onto the fact that racial profiling is patently illegal and is ineffective it is also violating the U.S. Constitution's core promises of equal protection under the law to all and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.This type of behavior only discredits the police and also causes people to lose trust in the police. Some racial preconceptions that people and police have have has been fueled by the rhetoric of anti immigration. This type of trend leads to many immigrants living in fear and has greatly impacted the Latino community. Growing up in a community with a significant Latino population I have experienced racial profiling in action.

I can remember driving down the street with my dad on a summer afternoon. We were following following speed and other traffic laws just like everyone else. I can remember vividly looking at the rear view mirror and seeing police lights. We had been pulled over and the officer came up to the window and my dad asked him if there was problem. The officer replied that he couldn't read my dads license plate and proceeded  to ask for my dad's identification and registration. The cop ran my dads information came back and returned his information and we were on our way. I had no idea that police officers read every license plate the goes by. Oh wait they don't. My dad had been stopped and checked because of the color of his skin.

I had another friend who was Mexican and undocumented  that was simply jogging down his street and was stopped by two cops. He asked them what he had done wrong. The police officer responded and said he was stopped for wearing khakis and then quickly asked for his name and identification. Since my friend was undocumented he was very hesitant to respond to the police officer giving his brother a chance to tell him that he didn't have to give them any information. Luckily the police decided to leave rather than making it a problem

Even though these stories do not show some of the severe effects that take place from racial profiling they do show how easy it can be for a police officer to do so. The officers from my examples have been influenced by the same type of preconceptions that the preschool teachers were influenced by. Racial profiling is responsible for much of the unlawful searches and unfair treatment that occurs within our country everyday. It is this type of behavior that causes people of color to become marginalized and for some to live in fear.

References

“Racial Profiling.” American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU, 2 Feb. 2016.Web. 18 Apr. 2017

Editorial  Board. “Racial Profiling in Preschool.” The New York Times. The New York Time, 08 Oct. 2016. Web. 18 Apr. 2017

Jost, Kenneth. “Racial Profiling.” CQ Researcher by CQ Press. CQ Researcher, 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 18 Apr. 2017