Examples of racial profiling include using ones race to target specific drivers for traffic violations and destinies for illegal contraband; another prime example is the targeting of Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians since 9/1 1 in regards to minor immigrant violations without any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon (UCLA, 2005). Without a doubt, racial profiling occurs on a daily basis all over the world; however let’s focus on racial profiling in the United States and specifically right here in our homeland, Michigan.
Background & History When did racial profiling first begin? Even though racial profiling still exists today, it Is not a recently new phenomenon. Racial profiling can date back to the sass hen slavery was a common way of life for many African Americans. Like present-day racial profiling, ones skin color is what has made them subject to discriminatory treatment from law enforcement (Rushing, K. , 2013). In South Carolina, white men policed the black slaves on plantations and hunted for escaped slaves; this was referred to as “slave patrol”.
Most slaves were not free, and if they were they had to carry freedom papers or a pass to prove that they had permission to be off of the plantation (Rushing, K.. 2013). If a black person was found to have run away they were beaten, whipped or even killed as the consequence. Even into the 20th century, after slavery, blacks were again forced into another form of involuntary servitude called convict leasing; this is where they were leased to work for private companies, whether It be on plantations or railroads and coal mines (Rushing, K. , 2013).
Regardless of what the 14th amendment states In the Constitution, laws were still broken and applied differently to blacks and whites. This became a major Issue when the War on Drugs began in 1982. Reagan wanted to stop drug use and sales with ruthless sentencing laws: they focused on urban black neighborhoods to promote anti-drug efforts. Although the prison population tripled there were substantial racial disparities; in 2010 the LIST Bureau of Justice Statistics indicated that black males had an imprisonment rate that was nearly seven times higher than white men (Rushing, K. 2013). And the rate of incarceration among black women was almost three times that of white women; a Human Rights Watch study in 2009 showed that blacks are arrested at much higher rates than whites even though they commit drug offense at comparable rates (Rushing, K. , 2013). Racial profiling Isn’t specifically focused on drug offenses but focuses on any form of crime being committed by any person who Isn’t of white decent.
There are many notorious Instances where racial profiling has occurred Including bicycling while black and brown In Standpoint, Michigan, walking while black and brown in New York City, and gang database racial profiling in Orange because they were riding their bicycles through a white suburb. The UCLA Joined the suite against Standpoint, Michigan, to represent the youths. They argued that the “bicyclists were stopped in this predominantly white suburb of Detroit because of their race and not because they were doing anything wrong” (UCLA, 2005).
In 1996 a memo sent to the Standpoint City Manager had a statement from the former police chief that he instructed his officers to investigate any black youths riding through Standpoint subdivisions. Through extensive searching of police logs, it was found that Standpoint had over 100 incidents between 1995 and 1998 Just like this one (UCLA, 2005). In New York City police department report in December 1999, the stop and frisk practices showed to be greatly based on race. In NYC, blacks make up 25. 6% of the city population, Hispanics 23. 7% and whites are 43. 4% of NYC population.
However, according to the report, 50. % of all persons stopped were black, 33% were Hispanic, and only 12. 9% were white. As you can see, more than half of the individuals who were stopped were black, 62. 7% to be exact (UCLA, 2013). In Orange County, California Latino, Asians and African Americans were more than 90% of the 20,221 men and women in the Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking System (UCLA, 2013). Clearly this database record shows racial profiling occurred when the total population in the database made up less than half of Orange County’s population.
This is when the California Advisory Committee of the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights and the UCLA stepped in. One other instance of racial profiling I’d like to discuss occurred in Mauricio County, Arizona. A court ruled in May 2013 that “sheriff Joe Rapids routine handling of people of Latino descent amounted to racial and ethnic profiling”; according to CNN, the sheriffs office had a history of targeting vehicles with those having darker skin, examining them more strictly and taking them into custody more often than others (CNN, 2014).
Judge Murray Snow ordered a monitor to oversee retraining in this office and to create a community advisory board to prevent further racial profiling; retraining and monitoring the sheriffs office will cost he county $21 over the next year and a half (CNN, 2014). As you can see from the information above, racial profiling is still an issue in present America.
