Racial Profiling

Within the African American community is a running joke that they are guilty of DWB or "driving while back." Although this is looked at as a joke it reveals a truth that Black and Hispanic Americans are targeted in traffic stops more often then their Caucasian counterparts. Law Enforcement Officers use a combination of factors to determine who to pull over and it is considered their prerogative to act based on race. Is there ever an appropriate situation where it's okay to judge someone by the color of their skin or their perceived cultural characteristics? In this paper I will explore both sides of racial profiling in order to determine whether there is ever a suitable time and place for it.

Society seems to judge racial profiling solely on a case by case basis. Before September 11^th the only time racial profiling was utilized was during traffic stops. Some officers believe that racial profiling is a universal and time tested police tool. They feel that to exclude race as a factor would be unthinkable (2.) The defense behind excessive traffic stops is that black motorists are more likely to be carrying illegal drugs or other contraband. This probability of a successful search and seizure motivates officers to target African Americans more often than Caucasians. After September 11^th racial profiling can be found in line at airport security. Fear of terrorism, coupled with an unwavering belief that all Middle Easterners are terrorists, has caused a rise in the number of additional searches. According to a Gallup poll taken shortly after September 11^th, many people feel that racial profiling of Arabs is acceptable in the airports. (3) The acceptance of certain situations over others contributes to the debate on whether racial profiling is morally tolerable.

Racial profiling has many negative effects on society. One of them is the continued separation of the races. When African Americans and Latinos are routinely singled out they do not feel like they are part of the larger societal group. A disproportional number of minorities are stopped and searched compared to the general population. This leads to a feeling of intense discrimination and leads to the wrong person being arrested and convicted. Some critics argue that race should never be utilized as anything more than a physical descriptor. This would minimize the number of people being stopped and questioned based solely on the color of their skin. This would also help in situations where the victim may guess the wrong race.

There seems to only be one positive aspect to racial profiling and it's based on a hunch. According to an ABC news report in January of 2006, Target and Wal-Mart employees who noticed large purchases of Tracphones were able to alert the authorities and possibly prevent a national security issue. Tracphones are the disposable pay as you go phones that can be purchased without a credit card or any personal information. They're great for emergency phones but they are nearly impossible to trace. In this case the individuals were attempting to purchase 150 phones in one transaction and 60 in the other. The employees became suspicious and notified the police. In this situation those employees may have saved countless lives, but the men were Middle Eastern, and that is what caught their attention to begin with. If a group of teenage boys had been trying to make the purchase, I wonder if the authorities would have been notified. On the other hand I also wonder what would have happened if someone had notified the authorities about a group of men learning to fly who didn't care to learn how to land.

Racial profiling is everywhere and in certain instances, like the Tracphone purchases, can be a helpful tool for law enforcement. The problem is the abuse of power and the over use of racial profiling that becomes an issue. While driving while black may only be a minor inconvenience; being placed into custody for murder or robbery charges based exclusively on your skin color can be viewed as discrimination. With as far as we've come to make equality a reality there is still much that needs to be worked on. Law enforcement needs to find a way to use skin color and cultural affiliation as a singular descriptor and not as the only factor in locating suspects and wrong doers.