Essay

Amanda Miller           Miller 1
5/10/09
Wixon
Period 2

Racial Profiling Is Wrong
Humanity's major downfall is the fact we are an extremely judgmental society. In a world where first impressions are pivotal to relationships, stereotyping warps our ideas. This issue's consequences are only escalated when applied to profiling people by race. I would propose to you that America is not as equal as we are lead to believe if certain races are suspected to be criminals just because they are from their lineage. Racial profiling is unpropitious because it violates one of the founding ideas of America;  “All men were created equal.”
Racial issues have plagued the human race for ages. Most were rooted in the times during  Slavery's Legality. Blacks were beaten and used as dogs, simply because their skin was deep and dark. President Abraham Lincoln took a step in the right direction by freeing the slaves, but his dream of equality was far from met. African Americans were no longer considered slaves but were still treated with inferiority. Many states had passed laws that limited their every move. (Civil Rights Timeline) Blacks were understandably furious at this unfair treatment. Even after protesting, boycotting, and pleading there seemed to be no way out. But , in 1963, a man named Martin Luther King Jr. changed the future of the civil rights movement forever.
King's I Have a Dream speech took on many issues dealing with race and discrimination. In this speech he stated, “All men, yes, black men as well as white men (should) be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
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Happiness.” Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.” (King) This speech moved things along for racial equality, however the battle was not yet won.
Even after the Civil Rights Act was passed in . This problem was thrown into a snowball effect after 2001's terrorist attack on the World Trade Centers. Profiling spread from Hispanic and African Americans to Arabic people as well. Anyone resembling an Arab was mistreated and stereotyped in airports and elsewhere. (Zalman) These issues are still prominent today.
Profiling affects many people of all races. Suheir Hammad, a Palestinian, beautifully states her righteous anger in a poem she wrote. In this poem Hammad tells us, “ I live here. These are my friends and fam. Me in those buildings. We're not bad people. Do not support America's bullying. Don't assume you know me or that I represent a people. Or that a people represent an evil. I'm so much more than a flag or some words on a page.” (Hammad) In the hit movie Crash, written and directed by Paul Hagis, police officer Richard Flanagan states, “Eight times more black men are incarcerated than white men. Black men just can't keep their damn hands out of the cookie jar. It's enough to drive any man mad.” (Hagis) Here, Hagis is exposing the fact that police officers are compromised by personal ideas against races.
Even now as the problem is exponentially growing the judicial system is ignoring it. In fact, just recently a judge refused to hear a trial on racial profiling. (Richey) Problems do not just go away when you ignore them! No trial should ever be dismissed because of a judge's lack of care. If authorities keep ignoring this dilemma there will be some foul repercussions.
Violence, is one of the first ramifications that will come to pass. American citizens from all over are expressing their anger over discrimination. American people firmly believe that they should have a right to a clean slate, regardless of their skin color. This animosity is showing it's face in the media as well. “Popular media and academic publications have
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painted police as ignorant racists who humiliate minorities by subjecting them to repetitive and fruitless searches.” Violence begets more violence. Unless we give the Americans true freedom we will find ourselves falling into a dark whole we may never come back from.
There are those who oppose my ideas toward racial profiling. Police units have defended saying, “Targeting individuals by race was not racist, but rather a statistically sound method of efficiently apprehending drug offenders.”