Racial Profiling In America
Racial Profiling is a controversial practice that targets individuals based on ethnicity, race, or religion. Muslims are often labeled as terrorists, Latin Americans are labeled as illegal immigrants, and African Americans are labeled as gang members. Whether you are a person of color or not, racial profiling has set a barrier between how we view each other and challenges us to see what values we have as people. Based off of current racial profiling events, has America improved since the civil rights movement or are we repeating history?
The Jim Crow laws were originated in the early 1830’s. “A white man Thomas ‘Daddy’ Rice blackened his face with black paste or burnt cork and danced while singing lyrics to the song,’ Jump Jim Crow’ (Davis, …show more content…
Today, the term “driving while black” has greatly impacted today’s society. In Greensboro, North Carolina a black man named Rufus Scales and his younger brother Devin were driving to a hair cutting class. Two police officers pulled them over for mirror infractions and an expired plate, but it was not a normal traffic stop. They were asked to get out of the car but Rufus was uncertain and he restrained Devin from opening the door. A black officer shocked him with a Taser and a white officer dragged him out of the driver’s seat. He fell face down. He left the scene with four traffic tickets a charge of assaulting an officer (which was later dismissed), a chipped tooth and a split lip that he later had to get five stitches for. This experience has completely traumatized Rufus Scales he says: “Whenever one gets near, I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t feel safe,” (NY Times) in today’s society, everyone is guilty of racial profiling. Police officers discriminate based off of race and ethnicity. Officers use the color of a person’s skin to recognize them instead of using other factors to identify them; for example, officers who uses race and ethnicity as an excuse to pull someone over for illegal items is considered racial profiling. Police Officers are not the only people who are guilty of racial profiling; security guards, flight attendants, and pilots are also guilty of this crime. Since 9/11 airports have discriminated against Muslims and assume them to be
The Jim Crow laws were originated in the early 1830’s. “A white man Thomas ‘Daddy’ Rice blackened his face with black paste or burnt cork and danced while singing lyrics to the song,’ Jump Jim Crow’ (Davis, …show more content…
Today, the term “driving while black” has greatly impacted today’s society. In Greensboro, North Carolina a black man named Rufus Scales and his younger brother Devin were driving to a hair cutting class. Two police officers pulled them over for mirror infractions and an expired plate, but it was not a normal traffic stop. They were asked to get out of the car but Rufus was uncertain and he restrained Devin from opening the door. A black officer shocked him with a Taser and a white officer dragged him out of the driver’s seat. He fell face down. He left the scene with four traffic tickets a charge of assaulting an officer (which was later dismissed), a chipped tooth and a split lip that he later had to get five stitches for. This experience has completely traumatized Rufus Scales he says: “Whenever one gets near, I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t feel safe,” (NY Times) in today’s society, everyone is guilty of racial profiling. Police officers discriminate based off of race and ethnicity. Officers use the color of a person’s skin to recognize them instead of using other factors to identify them; for example, officers who uses race and ethnicity as an excuse to pull someone over for illegal items is considered racial profiling. Police Officers are not the only people who are guilty of racial profiling; security guards, flight attendants, and pilots are also guilty of this crime. Since 9/11 airports have discriminated against Muslims and assume them to be