Racial Profiling Essay

Racial Profiling Essay

A racial profiling essay must start with the definition of racial profiling, namely that it refers to having unwarranted suspicion of a person as being engaged in criminal behavior due to the color of their skin.

A racial profiling essay must draw attention to the fact that the practice of racial profiling is evident during routine checks when a car driven by a black person is singled out for more attention then a car driven by a white person. Even though this tendency to single out black people as potential criminals is evident in contemporary society it has actually been a part and parcel of American culture from the time when the blacks served as slaves.

According to Tracey Maclin professor of the Boston University School of Law, the roots of racial profiling is traceable to, “….a time in early American society when court officials permitted constables and ordinary citizens the right to ‘take up’ all black persons seen ‘gadding abroad’ …” (Meeks, p. 5). And this attitude of suspicion towards black people continues to this day despite the abolishment of slavery.

Here are some questions that can be brought up by a racial profiling essay:

• Can racial profiling be used as a viable tool to reduce crime? According to the New Century Foundations report African-Americans are responsible for 90% of interracial violence in the USA. This report stated that African-Americans are more prone to violent crimes against whites. On this basis the foundation justifies racial profiling as a means to reduce crime.
• Is the frequent use of racial profiling in everyday life something that can be condoned as a means of safety? For example taxi drivers may habitually avoid black neighborhoods
• Does racial profiling prove that cops are racist? Your racial profiling essay can discuss the pros and cons both for and against such an argument
• The sociologist Jackson Toby believes that racial profiling plays a crucial role in modern criminology by drawing attention to the fact that two years after adopting the racial profiling by the New York City Transit Police, felonies reduced by a massive 30%.

Anti-racial profiling

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is against racial profiling unlike the New Century Foundations report. The ACLU backs its anti-racial profiling stance by the fact that five times more whites are drug users as compared to blacks. Davis believes that racial profiling leads to an erosion of trust between the community and law enforcement agencies and so racial profiling cannot be a part of a just society - since it gives whites and unfair advantage over whites. These are important points to be cover by a racial profiling essay