Racial Profiling: Societal Inequalities
by Tai S.
Main Points:
Personal narrative and intro. of racial profilings impact
Racial profilings impact on the black community
Racial profiling at the airport
Racial profiling at the borders and beyond
Solutions to the problem
Racial profiling has had a personal impact on my life. Two incidents in particular have come too close to home. In one incident, my aunt and uncle were stopped at the airport, and interrogated for several hours because their name was similar to someone on Homeland Securities watch list. They are law abiding people who were traumatized by what they felt as unfair treatment, to be singled out because their name was Arabic and they were Muslim. In another incident, a close friend of the family was detained for 6 months in prison because he had traveled for a wedding from the USA to England and back to the USA in a short period of time, bringing him under the radar of Homeland Security. He was detained in prison with no probable cause, putting his family in hardship because he was the only breadwinner. Upon his release, there was no apology or acknowledgement of his false imprisonment. Therefore for me, racial profiling is an injustice that should never be acceptable in any civilized modern society.
Racial profiling is defined by the ACLU 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.”(Behnke) Yet even with this definition we do not take the account of racial profiling that occurs in everyday life, when a person is judged by their race or ethnicity. Racial profiling can also mean preventing a certain race from migrating, owning a home, driving a car or getting a better education based on a preconceived belief that they are inferior, criminals, terrorists, or they will be involved in suspicious activity because of their race. Racial profiling is apparent in many parts of society and is most apparent for minorities. Whether it is in schools, neighborhoods, airplane check-ins, while driving a car, walking down a street and in the justice system, it is a concern that affects many minority groups. Racial profiling prevents an individual from feeling safe, it creates mistrust in authorities, it is a detriment to self dignity and self worth.
For blacks in particular it is an ingrained part of their lives, due to a long history of injustices and enslavements, that has kept them unfairly victim to a system of poverty, lack of education, and opportunities, and implicit and explicit biases. Even though racism has been banned since the 1960s, we still see the use of racial profiling by law enforcement, housing managers, school teachers and bank loan officers. Blacks are disproportionately stopped by police officers, “in North Carolina’s third-largest city, officers pulled over African-American drivers for traffic violations at a rate far out of proportion with their share of the local driving population. They used their discretion to search black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists — even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white.”(Lafraniere) Officers were more likely to stop a driver if he was black, and use force at a higher rate, even if the driver did not show resistance. Blacks are even more disproportionately represented in traffic courts, where they are given citations at a larger rate than their white counterparts for such things as broken brake lights, a missing front license plate, and failure to signal a lane change. In California the rate is so significant that it was posted in an San Francisco Chronicle article on Racial Profiling. Here is data collected from that article:
(Gardiner)
With the issue of housing, it is more stark in the racial biases that occur. For example, “Celeste Barker, an African-American woman living in Ohio, was interested in a townhouse she had seen listed for rent. But when she went to the rental office to get more information, the property manager told her the house was no longer available. Barker reported the incident to a local fair housing group, which assigned a white person and a black person to call the agency on the same property. The property manager made an appointment for the white person to view the house the next day. She told the black caller that the house was not available. Barker's experience reflects the challenges renters and buyers of color face when trying to find homes. A 2012 Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report found that people of color looking to rent apartments and buy houses were told about fewer available properties than white people, sometimes even told (falsely) that nothing was available.”(Behnke) When it comes to home loans, and buying a home, bankers can make it difficult for minorities to get a loan. “When homebuyers of color seek home loans to help cover the cost of their purchase, they run into obstacles that echo 20th-century red-lining practices. In 2013, Black and Latino homebuyers were denied loans more than twice as often as white buyers with similar financial profiles. This is one of the reasons why home ownership in the United States is lower among people of color than among white people. In 2016, 42% of Black households and 45% of Latino households owned a home, compared to 72% of White households.”(Behnke) With the issue of schools and education, we see a vicious cycle of students who are suspended due to family issues, who subsequently are not on track to keep up with their classmates, are then at risk with trouble with the justice system and eventually are not given better chances in the workforce, that leads to eventual poverty, leading back to the beginning of the cycle. According to Nicolas Zill in his article The Black-White Divide in Suspensions: What Is the Role of Family? “Black students are more likely to get in trouble in school and to end up suspended, compared to white students. This racial disparity in school discipline is both a cause and consequence of enduring racial inequality in America. And it is important because it means that black students, especially black boys, are more likely to end up on the wrong track: getting less schooling, heading towards trouble with the criminal justice system, and, later in life, having fewer opportunities in the labor force.1 What has been called the “school-to-prison pipeline” often starts in the principal’s office and ends in prison, with school suspensions increasing the risk that black boys, in particular, end up incarcerated.” (Institute for Family Studies)
(Behnke)
For Arab Americans and Muslims in general, racial profiling has increased and become most prominent after 9/11. Many Arabs, Somalians, South East Asians and other Muslim groups have come under the watchful eye of Homeland Security. At airports around the country, especially large metropolitan airports have seen a rise in security checks of these Muslim groups because of suspicious activity such as speaking Arabic, texting in the Arabic language, and looking like a terrorist. In one example, two men, Abobakkr Dirar and Mohamed Elamin, both black American citizens and Muslim, were kicked off a plane because they were texting in Arabic. A passenger, who did not speak or write Arabic, sitting next to the two men, saw them texting in Arabic and started to panic. He then complained to the flight attendant of the suspicious activity before exiting the plane. After receiving the complaint, Dirac and Elamin were pulled off the plane. “Dirar and Elamin arrived hours later than their original flight to San Francisco, according to the complaint (filed against the airline), and “were too humiliated and traumatized by Defendant’s actions to enjoy their trip…When we traveled that day, we were not treated the same as other people, and it made me feel like I was not equal to other people,” Dirar said in a statement. “I don’t want this to happen again, to anyone, Muslim or non Muslim.”(aviationpros.com) In another example, a UCBerkley student, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, was asked to leave an airplane because he was speaking in Arabic to a family member on his phone.(The New York Times ) Makhzoomi’s statement to the flight manager who escorted him off the plane, “This is Islamophobia”. In many unreported cases, Arabs or other Muslim individuals are detained without due process, without any evidence, but solely on suspicion based on racial profiling. They may be detained for several months or even years with no evidence against them except on suspicions based on ethnicity.
For Hispanics and many other minority groups, racial profiling can lead not only to detainment but also deportation, and it’s all legal, according to Homeland Security. The Homeland Security stated that race and ethnicity is not being used for the criteria of detainment and deportation, instead it is based on “nationality”. So instead of it being about Hispanics, or Arabs, it is about the nation they are coming from such as Mexico, Guatemala, Yemen, China, and so on. Racial profiling is not only used at the borders but also across the country by the US Customs and Border Patrol(CBP), to detain and deport immigrants. In Michigan, a report of the ACLU came out stating the CBP is indeed using racial profiling. “The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU) and researcher Dr. Geoffrey Alan Boyce released a new report exposing how Border Patrol, an agency within U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), uses racial profiling to target immigrants from Latin America and other people of color throughout Michigan. The report also reveals how Border Patrol colludes with state and local police agencies to target, arrest, and deport immigrants, many of whom are longtime Michigan residents.”(aclu.org)
With all these examples of how racial profiling has an effect in people’s lives, we must come to the conclusion that it is detrimental to our society. It unfairly targets a minority group, putting them at risk for having to interact with the law enforcement authorities for no other basis but their race and ethnicity.
So, what can we do to make thing better:
Supplement policing with community based public help programs, allowing mental health counselors, crisis resolution workers, and emergency medical professionals to handle non-life threatening situations.
Review law enforcement contracts, reform is needed because contracts are structured in a way to protect officers from being disciplined. The laws of this country protect law enforcement from civil suits, there must be accountability.
Making sure all law enforcement officials carry a body camera as a way of protecting public safety.
Reforming federal sentencing guidelines, they are biased and result only in increasing the amount of people in prison without having a rehabilitation program in place.
Training of law enforcement agents to be sensitive to the community they serve.
Recruitment of law enforcement of all backgrounds, to make it more representative of the community they serve.
Data collection on racial profiling incidents to keep all members accountable for future improvements.
As individuals we must take the initiative to address all people with respect, judge not on the color of their skin but the content of their character.
Links to other related sources:
https://lernerbooks.com/shop/show/14622
https://www.aclu.org/other/racial-profiling-definition
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2003/June/racial_profiling_fact_sheet.pdf
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2022/california-racial-profiling-police-stops/
https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/ripa-board-report-2023.pdf
Reference:
Behnke Alison. Racial Profiling : Everyday Inequality. Twenty-First Century Books 2017. INSERT-MISSING-DATABASE-NAME https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1428514. Accessed 3 Feb. 2023.
College student is removed from flight after speaking Arabic on plane - The New York Times. College Student Is Removed From Flight After Speaking Arabic on Plane - The New York Times. (2016, April 20). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://hwpi.harvard.edu/pluralismarchive/news/college-student-removed-flight-after-speaking-arabic-plane-new-york-times
Gardiner, D., Neilson, S. (2022, July 14). Data on racial profiling in California shows the problem is only getting worse. The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2022/california-racial-profiling-police-stops/
Lafraniere, S., Lehren, A. W. (2015, October 24). The disproportionate risks of driving while black. The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html
Men Sue Alaska Airlines, alleging discrimination, after removal from ... (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.aviationpros.com/airlines/news/21276327/men-sue-alaska-airlines-alleging-discrimination-after-removal-from-flight
New ACLU of Michigan Report: Border patrol operates far from the border and uses racial profiling and state and local police to target Michigan immigrant communities. American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/new-aclu-michigan-report-border-patrol-operates-far-border-and-uses-racial-profiling
The black-white divide in suspensions:What is the role of family? Institute for Family Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-black-white-divide-in-suspensions-what-is-the-role-of-family
