Is Racial Profiling Ever Justified?
YES. In many cases racial profiling can be effective despite how politically incorrect and controversial the issue may be. It happens to be a hot topic up for debate, especially after the September 11th attacks. In this country many crimes are solved and others are prevented using varying degrees of racial profiling, you can narrow a search and better your chances of catching a criminal. For instance when a robbery has occurred and the subject has been described only as wearing a white t-shirt, compared to when the subject is described as a white male wearing a white t-shirt, the search has a higher likelihood of success.
American views have changed significantly after the events of September 11th. A recent national poll states that 58% of Americans agree that people of Middle Eastern decent (even those who are legal U.S. citizens) should be subject to racial profiling in terms of intensive security and special scrutiny. No one can deny that our federal government uses racial profiling in countless forms to protect us from terrorist activities. In the United States numerous citizens define racial profiling as the stopping or searching of minorities, such as African Americans and/or Hispanics, without probable cause and based solely on their ethnicity. In fact racial profiling is more likely to mean more national security based investigations involving terrorist activities, where it has been unquestionably useful and effective in seizing criminals and terrorists. We will never be able to do away with racial profiling exclusively because it has worked in the past. If it didn’t work, there would be no argument. ~Emily W. | NO. The United States of America was founded under the belief that "all men are created equal", yet this equality has yet to be demonstrated in the mindset of the population. One's ethnicity has been deemed justifiable evidence for unreasonable search and seizure, and the 'Land of the Free' has become a misnomer. The central argument for racial profiling claims that based on statistics, minorities are more likely to commit a crime as compared to Caucasians of the same age. However, these statistics have been drawn from policing performed using racial profiling, and is thus skewed by our own ignorance. This evidence, simple percentages and numbers, has the power to influence racism in a country where equality is a stated right in our constitution. Our racism has been deemed acceptable for the “protection” from those who look different than us. We are adamantly creating a generation of hatred, allowing our children to grow up with an inequitable prejudice based on the color of one’s skin.
A psychological study performed by Claude Steel has shown that a negative stereotype placed on a group has the influence to affect their actions to fit their typecast. We are innately vulnerable to the opinions of others to the point where eventually we become our negative stereotype simply because it is expected of us. From this, it is obvious that a racially unbiased court of law would not only eliminate inaccurate verdicts but also diminish the overall crime rates of the nation. Skin color does not mark one as a criminal, race does not associate with crime, and who a person is cannot be determined in a glance. Discrimination based on race undermines the basic human rights to which every person is entitled, the freedoms given to us by laws that men of all colors died to uphold. Racial profiling is an ineffective law enforcement tool and is profoundly unjust not only for the minorities, but also to the generations this bigotry will influence. Racial profiling displays a moral injustice; made up of the impassioned hatred for specific races, justified by a few statistics. ~Amanda Swoger |