Racial Profiling Against African-American

Introduction

Every African-American male in this country who drives a vehicle, or has traveled by bus or plane, either knowingly or unknowingly has been the victim of racial profiling by law enforcement officials. Indeed, African-American males are disproportionately targeted, stopped, and searched by law enforcement officials based on race and gender. The enforcement personnel involved in these kinds of killings do not hold them accountable rather they consider Africa-American as criminals in the society (Ryberg, 2011). Regrettably, the American justice system has ignored, supported, and in some instances encouraged such actions by law enforcement officials to stop, arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate African-American males. Moreover, the government officials have segregated the criminals profile based on their race i.e. whether black or male (Weatherspoon, 2004).

In United States, the primary victims of racial profiling are African-American. Moreover, this fact is acknowledged and is testified by the African- American males. For instance, the survey conducted by Black America's Political Action Committee(BAMPAC) and the Washington Post indicated that more than fifty percent of males with this particular race believe that they have been victims of racial profiling in the country. This is true, whether they live in urban or rural community, north or south, east or west, they have to face the police scrutiny more than the whites do face.

Discussion

History of Racial Profiling

The history of racial profiling dates back to the 1970s when drug courier profiles werecreated by the federal agents in order to apprehend the drug traffickers in United States airports. However, various lawsuits werefiled against this law in the mid of 1980s because this law allowed the stop and search of any individual who fits into the profile by the law enforcement agencies. Despite the controversies, this law wasextended to the highways to patrol and stops the suspicious. Later on the officers weretrained for the racial profiling by DEA to track the drug traffickers. In 1990, the issue become political active and was much debated due to the media campaign by bringing up the issue of minorities within the country, especially in the urban neighborhood of the country.

Racial Profiling

Research has long identified race, social class, and direct experience with police important indicators of attitudes toward the police (Weitzer, 1999). Racial profiling of this race is not the new observable fact rather it is a repackaging of racial discrimination form of the twentieth century. Since many years, racial profiling has been the subject of discussion in the world in general and in US particular. The east and west coast of the United States mainly witness this kind of racial profiling after every 24 hours. Moreover, this is the reason the term of racial profiling is with the African-American, especially men. The New York police brutality against the racial discrimination is popular in the not only in the country but also in the rest of the world. According to Siljander and Fredrickson (2002), racial profiling is an act of enforcement by police officers that are more motivated by racial bias of probable or ...