The Role Of Racial Profiling In Today's Society

in todays society, an often recurring topic of racial profiling seems to plague the world through many political aspects. Racial profiling is one of the biggest injustices that individuals face in the world mainly because racism has always been something that plagued this world. Even though racial profiling is something that’s plaguing the world in today’s society, part of the biggest reason why this is such a problem is because of our worlds history. In many years past, different races use to do certain things that would often cause others to commit racial profiling. For example, since muslims were the cause of the devastation of 9/11, people will automatically have a natural reaction of fear when they are on an airplane. Racial profiling

has always been and always will be a huge aspect in our lives but why does it happen? Can it be stopped? If so how? These are questions that are often brought up when dealing with racial profiling.
In the book Scandalous obligations: Rethinking Christian Responsibility written by Eric Severson, the author explores the topic of racial profiling throughout his book in many different ways. In Chapter 8 titled “Scapegoating”, Severson talks about the struggles of how even children face racial profiling. In the story, Severson describes a twelve year old Muslim boy to be someone who has dealt with this form of injustice. The young boy instantly accused of holding a bomb and was verbally as well as physically abused for doing so. In this same chapter Severson describes how some teenagers in Somerset Massachusetts threw fire bombs on top of a roof owned by an ethically American citizen from India. In this book, Severson talks about how one of the teens who bombed the store said “’he wanted to get back at the Arabs for what they did in New York” (Severson 115). Often times many Americans have an act of violence when dealing with Muslims mainly due to the bombing of 9/11. In today’s society Muslims automatically get seen as a threat because of their past history which is a huge act of injustice.
In today’s current events racial profiling was recently seen in the news where a brilliant young man by the name of Ahamad Muhad was making a clock for a school project. Instantly when the staff seen the clock they automatically assumed it was a bomb and had him immediately expelled and arrested from the school. Because of most cultural reputations, often times people will automatically accuse a person of a wrong doing due to the reputations of their culture. In this case, Ahamad Muhad was automatically accused of creating a bomb because of the terrorist’s incident of 9/11 which was mainly caused by Muslims.
The topic of racial profiling can be seen to be an act of injustice for many reasons but one major reason is due to the discrimination that is involved. As much as we do not like to see it, racism is very much still alive in today’s society. Even though there are many racist still in the world, there are still some people that would believe discrimination is an act of injustice. Another reason why racial profiling is a huge act of injustice is because judging a group of people based off of one person’s action should never be what we as a society should do to each other but as an end result this is what we end up doing any way. In a New York Times article written by Charles M. Blow, the author talks about how most black people are instantly accused of doing something wrong when they’re seen in the street because of the history of crime rates caused by the African American race. In the article, Bow writes “the trouble association- in fact- over association – of black in criminality directly affects the way we think about both blacks and crimes as a whole” (Newyorktimes.com). This article talks how people especially our justice system automatically tags African American people with crime. A prime example of an injustice is the Treyvon Martin case where Martin was seen walking in a predominantly white neighborhood with a hoodie on and was shot to death because of his race.
Between all ethical debates that were talked about in class over the semester, the one ethical theory that seems to fit well with this topic of racial profiling is virtue ethics. Virtue ethics is when individuals are based off of their ethic and not on the content of their character. In the case of Treyvon Martin, the cop killed the young man based off his ethic and not his character. Because he was wearing a black hoodie and holding a can of Arizona, the cop automatically associated him as a criminal. In my personal opinion I do believe that the cop has a right to feel suspicious about someone who doesn’t live in a neighborhood walking around but what I do not agree with was his action. The main frustration that people have with our justice system is cops do not make us as a whole feel comfortable about taking the correct precautions. The procedure that this cop took dealing with the Martin case is a huge act of injustice especially coming from a police officer knowing that the main priority for them is to protect, serve and not abuse the justice system which he clearly does in this case.
When dealing with racial profiling often times the major questions that are often raised are why does racial profiling happen Can it ever be stopped and if so how.

In an article titled “General Progress,” written by Grayden Goyette, the author describes that nearly 32 million people reported that they were unfairly singled out by law enforcements only because of their ethnicity. But why does this kind of thing always happen though? Continuing to reflect on the article, Goyette goes on to say that most states in the U.S simply do not have a policy against racial profiling and in doing so, law enforcements fail to get rid of this lack of justice. In the article it writes

“Most states do not have laws that prohibit racial profiling by law enforcement. Only 29 states even mention racial profiling in their legislation. Of the 29, only 19 states require their law enforcement agencies to collect data on the traffic stops they conduct, and these reporting requirements vary wildly from state to state. Further, five of the states that prohibit racial profiling only ban the use of race as the sole factor for initiating a stop, rather than banning its use as any factor in determining whom to

stop.”(Goyette)
In this statement it shows that only a collective amount of states actually have laws to make sure that racial profiling does not happen. Even though there are certain states that have attempted to stop this act of racial profiling but as an end result, this injustice stills seeks to exist. Even though in most states there are law enforcements that at least attempted to stop the injustice act of racial profiling, it is still not enough because a lot of these state laws are not enforced as much as they should. Looking at this from a utilitarian perspective, one can say that these attempted laws to help prevent racial profiling are not enforced as much as they should simply because the majority thinks that there are more important laws that need attention opposed just focusing on one law for the time being. In another perspective of a utilitarian, one can say that the act of solving racial profiling does not help the majority of society, only a selective few people so therefore it should not be a law that’s worth enforcing. With that being said, this reason alone can be seen as why most states do not have a law that prevents the injustice act of racial profiling.
In my personal perspective, I truly believe that racial profiling is a huge act of injustice but no one including our justice system seems to go the extra mile to avoid it.

Even though racism is and always be something the society will never get rid of completely, I do believe there are many ways where we as people can make a difference in at least trying to keep it from plaguing our world any more than it already has. One major way I think society can help stop the injustice act of racial profiling is by first, fully addressing and comprehending exactly what the problem is to begin with. Often time individuals will automatically play the blame game and point figures without even addressing the problem. The problem will try to be solved quickly as possible by simply blaming the issue based on ethnicity. Even though this is the first thing that happens in racial profiling, I think it is absolutely imperative to address the problem in its entirety rather than being bias and see one perspective. In other words, In order for this to work there must be a balance in the problem where both sides of the story is heard. In an article on the NAACP, it talks about how congress man John Conyers Jr wants to pass a law known as “The End Racial Profiling Act” (which have five different parts). He seeks to pass this law in the U.S senate and House of Representatives which would state the same case of fully addressing a problem in its entirety before making a decision. We see this statement

made in this article when the author writes “The end racial profiling act comprehensively addresses the insidious practice of racial profiling by law enforcement on five levels; first, it clearly defines the racially discriminatory practice of racial profiling by law enforcement at all levels; second, it creates a federal prohibition against racial profiling; thirdly, it mandates data collection so we can fully assess the true extent of the problem; fourth, it provides funding for the retraining of law enforcement officials on how to discontinue and prevent the use of racial profiling; and fifth, it holds law enforcement agencies that continue to use racial profiling accountable.” (NAACP.org). I really enjoyed reading this article because John Conyers Jr. and I both agree that one of the man ways to get rid of racial profiling is by addressing the problem in its entirety to prevent an act of biasness. Even though it may not solve racial profiling completely, but the act of bias and pointing fingers automatically at a person because of race gets diminished in a way.