Racial and Religious Profiling and the Obama Election

Police brutality, racial profiling and conflict between the African American community and the police have been seen as problems for many years. Will relationships change between blacks and the police since the election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American President? Experts don't think that's enough to effect the change.

Despite the fact that Obama was elected in November 2008 as President of the United States, there have been incidents that reflect racial profiling, according to those examining this issue. Three young men, all under age 25, were shot and killed in the months just after the election, all shot in the back, according to reports. Dr. Delores Jones-Brown, a Professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, maintains that things aren't changing as fast as some might want them to do in the matter of racial profiling, police brutality and how relationships exist in the African American community between the community and the police.

Amnesty International reveals the issues annually and declares that racial profiling raises antagonisms and makes us all less safe. This organization points out that it is important to make every effort to change relationships to be more positive and recommends legislation to counter racial profiling. 26 states have no law against racial profiling, according to their reports, and 46 states have no protection for religious minorities on the matter of profiling. This has led to conflicts and concerns in various parts of the country, as documented in the news of different confrontations.

The American Civil Liberties Union has gone on record as being concerned about religious profiling. They have brought charges against JetBlue Airways and the Transportation Security Administration for requiring an American of Arab descent from getting on board an airplane with a T-shirt with the words, "We Will Not Be Silent" written in both English and Arabic. This was one of a number of issues cited by the American Civil Liberties Union with respect to profiling.

Following the appointment of Eric Holder as Attorney General, some hope that this new individual of African American ancestry will make inroads into the issue of racial profiling and the relationships between minorities and the police and other authorities. He declared the United States a "nation of cowards" in dealing with the issues of race. What happens during the Obama administration and his appointment are yet to be known, but if Holder's words and the incidents following Obama's election are any indication, there may still be work to do on the matter of relationships among security officials, the police and minority communities.

Sources

The Crime Report
thecrimereport.org/2009/01/30/race-and-the-police-can-a-black-president-change-the-game/
Race and the Police: Can a Black President Change the Game

Amnesty International
www.amnestyusa.org/us-human-rights/racial-profiling/page.do
Racial Profiling

American Civil Liberties Union
www.aclu.org/racialjustice/racialprofiling/index.html
We Will Not Be Silent Lawsuit Against TSA, JetBlue Charges Racial Discrimination and Free Speech Violation

MSNBC
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29260098/
Holder: A 'Nation of Cowards" on Race