Old Habbits Die Hard

Racism is a very serious issue in today’s society. African Americans have had to deal with racism for many centuries, and although times are changing racism is still a serious problem in the United States. More than half of all black men and twenty-five percent of black females feel that they have been racially profiled and wrongly treated by police (Healey 266). What exactly is racial profiling? “Racial profiling is discrimination based on a stereotypical judgment of a person’s group membership” (Healey 148). Countless African Americans will face discrimination and stereotyping in their everyday lives. They have to unfairly deal with stereotyping and discrimination based on nothing besides the color of their skin. Majority of the white population will never have to face the hardships of dealing with such discrimination. Even though African Americans have come a long way since slavery, they still experience racial profiling, prejudice, and discrimination in today’s times because of the way they are treated in stores, airports, and most importantly, are more susceptible to being pulled over by the police, in the United States it is embarrassing that this is still taking place and there needs to be actual consequences when people discriminate based on color.
White privilege becomes apparent in everyday situations. It is not a secret that African Americans are unfairly mistreated. An African American cannot even go to stores and other public places without being profiled and discriminated against whereas a white person would go about their day without any problems. For example, a qualitative phenomenological study to describe the individual occurrences of perceived discrimination among African Americans. This study contains interviews of fifteen African American men and women living in Topeka, Kansas, and their personal experiences with profiling and discrimination in stores and other public places. One individual said: You might walk into the gas station, and when you walk in they will position themselves so they can watch you. They’ll try to look like they’re hanging something on the racks and all the time watching you over the counter. (Birzer & Smith-Mahdi 27) This unfair treatment of African Americans causes such stores and public places such as gas stations in the last incident to lose business. One participant stated that he had found out which stores participated in the prejudiced ways, and he chooses not to go to those businesses even if it is not convenient (Birzer & Smith-Mahdi 27). Clothing stores are no different. Another participant shared their experiences with clothing stores and had said “… when I go to clothing stores, I’ll look up and there’ll be other folks in the store and they’re watching me while the store is being stolen blind two isles over” (Birzer & Smith-Mahdi 27). White privilege is very apparent in situations like that. It is not that whites do not participate in illegal acts of theft, but the fact that African Americans are so stereotyped that they are labeled as the race that steals. Instead of fairly watching every race in the store for theft incidences, the workers will target African Americans because they believe that they are more likely to steal, when in reality the color of someone’s skin does not determine their character or values. While African Americans are followed, closely watched, and sometimes harassed for shopping at a given store, Whites are able to shop in peace because of the unfair prejudgment of the store owners. Another instance of racial profiling that has become very apparent is how African Americans are treated at airports. “Such practices are not new; today, such practices are simply done in a different way under different circumstances” (Gabbidon et al. 344). Just as racial profiling is not a new problem, concerns about airport security is also not a new problem. A poll of public opinions on racial profiling had been done asking if the participants believed if they that they had ever been racially profiled. Given, more Blacks than Whites believed they had been racially profiled. Only 20.2% of the Whites said that they had been profiled and 91.6% of Blacks said that they had. Another question had asked if the participants believe racial profiling was okay. Both Blacks and Whites believed that it was not appropriate (Gabbidon et al. 348). If the majority feels as if racial profiling is not justified, then why is it still happening? The events on September 11, 2001 have raised concerns regarding security at airports. Research was done that examined the participant’s opinions on airport racial profiling (APR). The research was done to determine if the public believes that the practice of APR is widespread and justified because of the terrorist attacks on airplanes. This study was a poll of 1,825 randomly selected participants. In this study, African Americans were significantly more likely to believe that APR is more widespread than Whites. Again, like in previous studies of justified racial profiling, Blacks were also less likely to believe that APR is justified than Whites (Gabbidon et al. 353-354). Of course minorities such as Blacks tend to believe that racial profiling is not justified more than Whites, they are the targets of racial profiling. Seeing as more than half of the participants felt as if airport racial profiling was widespread. These numbers should concern airports policy makers. “Driving while Black” has raised many debates recently. What is the “Driving While Black” phenomenon? “’Driving while Black’ refers to the perception that African Americans and other minorities are more likely than Whites to be scrutinized by police while driving due to their skin color”( Miller et al. 280). Legal case studies have been done and the results have shown that minorities really are subjected to racial profiling and police attention. For example, African American drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike accounted for 15% of traffic violations, 46% of the stops, and 75% of the arrests. In the Wilkins vs. Maryland State Police case, it was found that whites and African Americans were just as likely to commit traffic violations, but 73% of the searches were done on African Americans. Also, in a very famous case, 150 hours of videos were taken from cameras in police cars in Volusia County, Florida. The videos contained over 1,000 stops. African Americans and Hispanics only account for about 5% of the drivers on the popular portion of I-95. The sad part of this fact is that 70% of the drivers that were pulled over for suspected drug possession were African American (Geiger-Oneto & Phillips 4). This is where the question of if police stop people based on race comes into play. If Whites and African Americans are just as likely to commit traffic violations, then compared to their numbers why do African Americans account for 12% of the drivers stopped in a year when they represent 10% of drivers? The following table shows the likelihood of a minority race being stopped and being ordered out of the car, frisked, asked for consensual search, asked for a nonconsensual search, and the likelihood of being arrested compared to whites.

White privilege becomes very apparent in susceptibly to being pulled over. By having the privilege of being White, they have the privilege of not being stopped by the police as often. A study was conducted by an anonymous survey of 1,192 undergraduate students of the University of Houston, one of the most diverse universities, to determine the effects that race, sex, and social status have on police behaviors (Geiger-Oneto & Phillips 7-8). This survey implies that police do use race and sex to target drivers. African American men are more susceptible to more stops and investigation following the stop. “Driving while black” is definitely an issue of race, but it is also about sex and social status (Geiger-Oneto & Phillips 19-22). African Americans have had to deal with unfair discrimination for many centuries in the United States. Although many laws have been changing, the way people act has not developed as for as the constitution has. The problem with that is though, the constitution is just words and people repeatedly disobey it and act unconstitutionally every time they discriminate an individual based on their skin color. In a nation that prides itself on equality and fairness the way that some citizens act is still very old fashioned and extremely unintelligent. Law makers especially have been taking advantage of the laws that they are supposed to abide by more than anyone else to make court cases end in the favor of the white population. “Law as it is stated in the authorized textual sources is hardly free of ambiguity. This is an unavoidable symptom of reducing principles of right and wrong to verbal formulae. Courts, as interpreters of law, are responsible for resolving those ambiguities for the purposes of deciding the cases that come before them.” (Jensen 5) The truth of the matter is however that these issues do not always get resolved fairly because although there are laws describing equality and righteous courts do not always abide by them. They are able to misconstrue information and make cases go in the favor that they want, which is of course traditionally for the Whites and against the African Americans. Recently a new law has come in play that for once is difficult to misconstrue, and it is a great help to many minorities. This law is known as section 18c, “it is unlawful for a person to do an act if the act is reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people [and] the act is done because of the race, color or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all of the people in the group” (Jensen 1). This law prohibits people from making any act that is discriminating no matter what the act may be. It also does not matter whether the act involves a group or just one single person it is there to protect against anyone who feels that they have been racially discriminated. Taking steps like the development of the law section 18c is great transition for the United States to make in completely diminishing discrimination, but it must continue to develop in this direction for that to ever be achieved. There needs to also be consequences for actions against absolutely anyone, whether they are lawmaker, famous, police officers, or just average citizens. Taking these steps really will lead to a diminish in discrimination which in our nation is something that we base policies on and indeed need to stay so advanced. Many Americans believe that racial discrimination truly is not an issue anymore. They argue that we are very advanced because we have an African American president leading our country and that is the ultimate proof of a country that is anti-discrimination. “The election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency on November 4, 2008, prompted many declarations from journalists and commentators about the arrival of a post-racial society, a society in which race is no longer meaningful.1 For many, the fact that a self-identified black man had obtained the most prominent, powerful, and prestigious job in the United States symbolized the end of an era in which Blacks and other racial minorities could make legitimate claims about the harmful.” (Onwuachi-Willig, Barnes 1) Although the United States is racially diverse and educated enough to elect an African American president does not mean that society is now completely a place where race has no meaning. There are still many claims of people being discriminated against in every place imaginable, the court room, while driving, the airport, even in work places. So although the face of America is an African American does not mean that all racial problems diminished overnight. There are still many problems that are very present in today’s society regardless of who the president is. Also, although society has come a far way since the 1800s’ racism is still very real, just in different ways. The only thing a president says about a country is with his intelligence, integrity, and how well he runs the country, not the color of his skin. When that is no longer a factor is when society has truly reached an era where discrimination is no longer evident no matter where someone works, what they have done wrong, or what they look like. Everybody will be true equals and continuously treated fairly. So to the many people who believe that society has reached an era of complete equality, they are in fact very wrong. Discrimination is still very evident every place that a person can go, regardless of who the president is, and until that is changed will there be complete equality. Racial profiling is negative in many ways and has been socially constructed over time. “African Americans [are seen] as dangerous outsiders, and they feed the tradition of resentment and anger toward the police in the African American community” (Healey 266). Racial profiling and discrimination is extremely hurtful. Whites are not burdened by getting stereotyped as thieves, dishonest, lazy, and threatening. As you can see, White privilege is apparent in many ways despite the great obstacles African Americans have had to overcome in the past. The 14th amendment gave African Americans equal rights, which are sadly still not completely granted. Whites are just as likely to participate in illegal acts, and it has been proven that African Americans are equal drivers to Whites, yet they are still discriminated against, stereotyped, and profiled by their race. Most White people are unaware of the advantages they are simply born with by the color of their skin because they never are faced with such adversity. African Americans are constantly being followed and harassed in stores, racially profiled in airports, and are more prone to being stopped, ticketed, and searched by the police. They have to deal with discrimination on a daily basis based on nothing but appearance. This inequality is not acceptable. There needs to be a consistency in the justice system and changes in policies. An African American stated in one of the interviews about racial profiling, “It just gets to you after a while” (Birzer & Smith Mahdi 31). Is this really how America, the land of opportunity, should be? Americans are not living out the title of the land of opportunity by letting racial profiling be justifiable and acceptable. It cannot be the “land of opportunity” if other non-White races do not have the same opportunity as Whites, and that is a serious problem that needs to be changed. When the laws in place to protect them are completed fulfilled and taken seriously, along with some of society’s attitudes, then racial profiling and discrimination will be completely diminished. That will be the day that America finally leaves up to its title as the land of opportunity and equality.

Works Cited
Birzer M, Smith-Mahdi J. “Does Race Matter? The Phenomenology of Discriminiation Experiences among African Americans.” Journal of African American Studies. (2006), 22-37.
Gabbidon, Shaun L., Penn, Everette B., Jordan, Kareem L., Higgins, George E. "The Influence of Race/Ethnicity on the Perceived Prevalence and Support for Racial Profiling at Airports." Criminal Justice Policy Review 20.3 (2009), 344-358.
Geiger-Oneto, Stephanie, and Scott Phillips. "Driving While Black: The Role Of Race, Sex, And Social Status." Journal Of Ethnicity In Criminal Justice 1.2 (2003): 1-25. Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
Healey, Joseph F. "Racial Profiling and Prejudice." Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: The Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2010. 148-51. Print.
Healey, Joseph F. "The Criminal Justice System and African Americans." Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: The Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks,
Jensen, Darryn. "The Battlelines Of Interpretation In Racial Vilification Laws." Policy 27.2 (2011): 14-19. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.CA: Pine Forge, 2010. 148-51. Print.
Onwuachi-Willig, Angela, and Mario L. Barnes. "The Obama Effect: Understanding Emerging Meanings Of "Obama" In Anti-Discrimination Law." Indiana Law Journal 87.1 (2012): 325-348. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

Tomaskovic-Devey, D. wright, C. Czaja, R., and Miller, K. "Self-Reports Of Police Speeding Stops By Race: Results From The North Carolina Reverse Record Check Survey." Journal Of Quantitative Criminology 22.4 (2006): 279-297. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Mar. 2013
Wade, Lisa. "Sociological Images." Sociological Images RSS. Society Pages, 8 Nov. 2011. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

Cited: Birzer M, Smith-Mahdi J. “Does Race Matter? The Phenomenology of Discriminiation Experiences among African Americans.” Journal of African American Studies. (2006), 22-37. Gabbidon, Shaun L., Penn, Everette B., Jordan, Kareem L., Higgins, George E. "The Influence of Race/Ethnicity on the Perceived Prevalence and Support for Racial Profiling at Airports." Criminal Justice Policy Review 20.3 (2009), 344-358. Geiger-Oneto, Stephanie, and Scott Phillips. "Driving While Black: The Role Of Race, Sex, And Social Status." Journal Of Ethnicity In Criminal Justice 1.2 (2003): 1-25. Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 1 Apr. 2013. Healey, Joseph F. "Racial Profiling and Prejudice." Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: The Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2010. 148-51. Print. Healey, Joseph F. "The Criminal Justice System and African Americans." Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: The Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, Jensen, Darryn. "The Battlelines Of Interpretation In Racial Vilification Laws." Policy 27.2 (2011): 14-19. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.CA: Pine Forge, 2010. 148-51. Print. Onwuachi-Willig, Angela, and Mario L. Barnes. "The Obama Effect: Understanding Emerging Meanings Of "Obama" In Anti-Discrimination Law." Indiana Law Journal 87.1 (2012): 325-348. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. Tomaskovic-Devey, D. wright, C. Czaja, R., and Miller, K. "Self-Reports Of Police Speeding Stops By Race: Results From The North Carolina Reverse Record Check Survey." Journal Of Quantitative Criminology 22.4 (2006): 279-297. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Mar. 2013 Wade, Lisa. "Sociological Images." Sociological Images RSS. Society Pages, 8 Nov. 2011. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.