The Danger of Racial Profiling

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Introduction

Often, it tends to be enough to change the perspective in order to achieve a greater understanding. Unfortunately, not every person is skilled in empathy enough to put themselves in the position of others. In this context, racism and discriminative practices are frequent partners in crime to this inability. Despite almost ubiquitous efforts of modern society to address the issue of discrimination, it seems that people of color will not be treated equally until there is a societal change in how they are perceived. However, personal perception is a phenomenon that falls under the subconscious category a concept that is particularly difficult to control. This notion makes discriminative practices occurring on a subconscious level, such as racial profiling, challenging to eradicate completely. Nevertheless, it has to be done to ensure long-term societal well-being because, through its manifestations in public security, education, and child welfare systems, racial profiling strikes hardest at the most vital population group racialized youth.

Informational Background

Roots of the Problem

The issue of racial discrimination has a long and ugly history. In many ways, the current state of discrimination is caused by the fact of its former legality. In her book, Dayna Bowen Matthew begins her argument by highlighting the decisive role that the law played in defining biased attitudes in society (ch. 1). Particularly, Matthew provides an explanation of how the law practices during different time periods in U.S. history not only enabled racism but even fostered it in various cases. During the colonial period, land grants and slave codes played a vicious role in discriminating against racial minorities by effectively lowering their social status (Matthew ch. 1). Consequently, access to different social essentials such as education, proper jobs, or healthcare was drastically limited. For instance, even laws that did not directly concern health or the healthcare field created disparate health outcomes by reflecting and reinforcing discriminative tendencies.

As Americas society and economy became more complex, the laws required to maintain existing racial subordination became increasingly refined. Namely, the ubiquitous segregation practices have drawn a clear line separating people based on their ethnicity (Matthew ch. 1). In this context, the civil rights era presented a relief period when the relationship between the social state of minorities and the law was positive and symbiotic. Namely, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 proved its worth in dismantling segregation in social life and other areas (Matthew ch. 1). Unfortunately, these civil rights victories managed to secure only episodic progress. In the fourth, current period, antidiscrimination law in America ironically performs almost identically to colonial law in ensuring disparities. A slight legal indifference is enough for authorities, legislatures, and courts to contribute to the collapse of an already precarious balance. In particular, implicit biases resulting in selective attitudes today are the reason that fosters discrimination (Matthew ch. 1). Thus, while modern law is capable of dealing with cases of direct discrimination, it fails to defeat the subconscious bias toward racial minorities.

Definition of Racial Profiling

Compared to broader terms of racial discrimination and bias, racial profiling tends to have a more organized and systematic nature. According to Schclarek Mulinari and Keskinen, it can be defined as selective, racializing practices that instill and establish societal hierarchies through the targeting of particular populations based on their race, ethnicity, national identity, or religion (379). Racial profiling itself is an overarching term that can manifest in many ways and affect people regardless of their age, which implies it affects children as well.

However, the adverse effects of racial profiling on youth are far worse than on the adult population. Firstly, when displayed by law enforcement representatives, it robs children of faith in the public security sector. Secondly, when racial profiling occurs in the education sector, it endangers their cognition and affects socialization. Finally, the failure to suppress discrimination in the youth protection welfare often the last resort in a desire for protection can ultimately lead to devastating consequences.

Racial Profiling Manifestations

The Public Security Sector

Law enforcement agencies and police officers play a fundamental role in protecting the public and preventing criminality. In this context, racial profiling undermines confidence and trust in government institutions among the population in general and racialized groups in particular. People from racialized communities cannot enjoy the same freedoms as the rest of the population, including having fun, circulating, or getting together with other racialized youth. Consequently, they might feel they are on societys margin due to being scrutinized and targeted when they occupy public spaces (Coleman and Kocher 28). The most revolting notion is that, despite being born in the U.S., young people are excluded and feel like undesirables in their society.

The Education Sector

Racial profiling in the education sector is particularly sustained by the assumption unconscious in many cases that certain racialized groups, and especially young Blacks, are more likely to threaten security or disturb order within a school. Since they are deemed to be at greater risk of adopting anti-social behaviors, racialized minority youths receive more intense scrutiny by school personnel than other students (Rollins Jr 67). Consequently, based on this disproportionate scrutiny and given the same behavior, racialized students tend to be more likely penalized for violating rules that are, apart from everything else, applied to them more severely. As a result, the discriminatory punishments for security reasons and the application of codes of conduct in school directly relate to the problem of school drop-outs and failures among youth from racialized minorities.

The Child Welfare System

Racial bias and discrimination in systems responsible for protection can be considered the most appalling. In this context, racial profiling occurs at a different level compared to the previous two. According to recent studies, Black youths are less often the object of protection measures, such as withdrawal from the family, than Whites and other racialized minorities (Keddell 8). The possible conclusion might be that there exists an attitude unfavorable to Black youths in identifying situations where the childs rights are truly at risk among professionals in the social services sector. Thus, children experience prolonged exposure to traumatizing circumstances that might eventually affect their mental well-being.

Potential Counter Arguments

Racial Profiling vs. Criminal Profiling

One might argue that, in terms of public security, racial profiling is confused with criminal profiling an important activity in police investigations. However, racial profiling is easily distinguishable from the latter, which is not based on biases but instead relies on actual behavior or information about an individuals suspicious activity (Coleman and Kocher 1187). In other words, criminal profiling is not the same since it is based on objective evidence of wrongful behavior. In contrast, racial profiling is based on stereotypical and biased assumptions. For instance, such are the cases of harassing and abusive police scrutiny of racialized individuals or disproportionate police resources deployment in the neighborhoods they frequent.

Racial Profiling vs. Systemic Discrimination

In the education sector, many forms of discrimination cannot be directly attributed to racial profiling as such. For example, measures, decisions, or organizational policies determining the students educational path result from systemic discrimination, not racial profiling (Desai 1037). However, the issues of racial discrimination do tend to intertwine in their overarching influence on society. Therefore, the debate regarding the true nature and racism classification seems unnecessary and unhelpful in the given case.

Conclusion

Through its manifestations at various societal levels, racial profiling adversely impacts the lives of children, which robs them of their happy present and a successful future. Subconscious bias displayed by authorities of the public security sector discourages young people from contacting the police even in case of need. In turn, profiling in youth protection exacerbates the feeling of societal abandonment. Therefore, due to profiling occurring in the public security and child welfare sectors, children might lose trust in institutes created to protect them. Meanwhile, in order to find a place in society, people face many requirements in the form of professional and social skills that are usually developed during education. However, biased attitudes in the education sector can directly rob young people of their chance to attain these. In other words, if left unchecked, racial profiling can completely isolate racialized youth. It affects not only their future but the future of society as a whole, which is why it has to be addressed regardless of potential challenges.

Works Cited

Coleman, Mat, and Austin Kocher. Rethinking the Gold Standard of Racial Profiling: § 287 (g), Secure Communities and Racially Discrepant Police Power. American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 63, no. 9, 2019, pp. 1185-1220. Web.

Desai, Shiv R. Humanizing Trayvon Martin: Racial Profiling, Implicit Biases, and Teacher Education. Urban Education, vol. 54, no. 8, 2019, pp. 1031-1057. Web.

Keddell, Emily. Algorithmic Justice in Child Protection: Statistical Fairness, Social Justice and the Implications for Practice. Social Sciences, vol. 8, no. 10, 2019, pp. 1-22. Web.

Matthew, Dayna Bowen. Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care. NYU Press, 2018.

Rollins Jr, Aaron C. Assessment of public sector service quality: Gauging experiences and perceptions of racial profiling. Journal of Public Management & Social Policy 26.1 (2019): Introduction-American. Web.

Schclarek Mulinari, Leandro, and Suvi Keskinen. Racial Profiling in the Racial Welfare State: Examining the Order of Policing in the Nordic Region. Theoretical criminology, vol. 26, no. 3, 2022, pp. 377-395.

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