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.
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