Racial Profiling: Individual Prejudice or Organizational Protocol?
Racial Profiling: Individual Prejudice or Organizational Protocol?
Kelly Baymiller
March 26, 2005
Racial profiling is generally defined as discrimination put into action based on a stereotype. No one is excluded from the potential to experience some form of racial profiling, regardless of one 's race, gender, or religion. Racial profiling has existed in various forms since slavery. During the reconstruction of the South, the first sense of racial profiling began with "Black Codes". "Black Codes" were created to maintain a new form of slavery. These "codes" made it punishable by imprisonment and indentured servitude for any African American who loitered, remained unemployed, drunk, or in debt. The "Black Codes" were a transparent form of what we call racial profiling today. From a ruling class perspective, the minority groups are constantly undermined, intimidated, attacked, imprisoned, discredited, and sometimes shot and killed. These acts take place in order for the ruling class to maintain control and in most cases unjustly abuse their power. Today, the most common form of racial profiling is done by the police and targeted toward African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. It is otherwise known as "DWB", "driving while black" or "driving while brown". This refers to the practice of police targeting African Americans and any other non-White ethnic group at traffic stops because they believe that minorities are more likely to be engaged in criminal activity. The first public attention of racial profiling by the police began in mid-1980, when the (DEA), Drug Enforcement Administration, released guidelines that would profile drug couriers. The DEA notified all the police departments across the country to search for narcotics traffickers on major highways. Dependent on the area, the police were told which ethnic group to focus on because that group would tend to dominate that drug trade in that area. Although very
Kelly Baymiller
March 26, 2005
Racial profiling is generally defined as discrimination put into action based on a stereotype. No one is excluded from the potential to experience some form of racial profiling, regardless of one 's race, gender, or religion. Racial profiling has existed in various forms since slavery. During the reconstruction of the South, the first sense of racial profiling began with "Black Codes". "Black Codes" were created to maintain a new form of slavery. These "codes" made it punishable by imprisonment and indentured servitude for any African American who loitered, remained unemployed, drunk, or in debt. The "Black Codes" were a transparent form of what we call racial profiling today. From a ruling class perspective, the minority groups are constantly undermined, intimidated, attacked, imprisoned, discredited, and sometimes shot and killed. These acts take place in order for the ruling class to maintain control and in most cases unjustly abuse their power. Today, the most common form of racial profiling is done by the police and targeted toward African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. It is otherwise known as "DWB", "driving while black" or "driving while brown". This refers to the practice of police targeting African Americans and any other non-White ethnic group at traffic stops because they believe that minorities are more likely to be engaged in criminal activity. The first public attention of racial profiling by the police began in mid-1980, when the (DEA), Drug Enforcement Administration, released guidelines that would profile drug couriers. The DEA notified all the police departments across the country to search for narcotics traffickers on major highways. Dependent on the area, the police were told which ethnic group to focus on because that group would tend to dominate that drug trade in that area. Although very
Cited: Ramirez, Deborah, Amy Farrell and Jack McDevitt. A Resource Guide on Racial Profiling Data Collection Systems: Promising Practices and Lessons Learned. Northwestern University, 2000. Cockburn, Alexander and Jeffrey St. Clair. "Driving While Black". CounterPunch on the web 1998. 19 February 2005 Anonymous. "Minority Drivers Searched at Higher Rates, Report Says". Omaha World- Herald 26 February 2005 Anonymous. "Senate Approves Bill Attacking Racial Profiling". The Kansas City Channel.com 23 February 2005