Essay on Racial Profiling as a Contemporary Social Problem in the United States

Introduction

Racial profiling refers to the targeting or suspecting individuals of a specified race based on the assumptive behaviors or characteristics that stereotypically define the ethnic or racial group in lieu of the evidence or traits that could bring up suspicion. Racial profiling is not confined to race, but can also be built on the individuals' religion, ethnicity, or national origin. In the United States, racial profiling is perceived from its use in the law enforcement system at the Federal, state, or local levels. The presence and functioning of racial profiling in such crucial systems across the United States lead to prejudiced treatments against the people that emanate from the Latino, Muslim, Arab, African American, Asian, and Native American communities. Its prevalence across this cosmopolitan society makes it difficult for the minorities and stereotyped community members to prosper by equitably accessing the rights and privileges entitled to the people in America. There springs a dire need for informed counter-measure to racial profiling as a critical deterrence equitable access to development and life-betterment rights and opportunities.

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Theoretical Framework

Racial profiling is one of the controversial social issues that have engulfed the United States, especially amid the growth of globalization. This claim infers that globalization was prompted by the need to spread and diversify skills, knowledge, and practices globally acceptable standards. According to the conflict theory of sociology, societies exist in states of perpetual conflicts owing to intense competition for scarce resources (Burrell & Morgan, 2017). Karl Marx propounded the conflict theory as an indicator of how social order is only sustained by power and domination rather than conformity and consensus. This social theory elaborates the criterion implied when some racial groups are, for instance, favored by law enforcement provisions while others are discriminated on the grounds of the stereotypes and assumptions that are often associated with the ethnicity or racial groups they belong. Historically, the American power and domination arenas have been ruled by the Caucasian communities. Similarly, the conflict behind racial profiling has prevailed the US owing to a state of imbalance when it comes to power and social dominance (Teasley, Schiele, Adams, & Okilwa, 2017). The question of minorities has led to prejudice in the access to rights and privileges that could make one eligible to powerful and dominant positions such as in the political leadership.

Changes in Racial Profiling in the United States

Racial profiling is perceived differently in societies across the world. In the United States, it is an illegal practice that jeopardizes the Constitutional pledge to equally protect the rights of the American citizens under Federal law and their freedom from unreasonable seizures and searches. Although the contemporary United States is deemed to have entered the post-racial era, racial profiling still prolifically contribute to the level of social alienation significantly (Broady, Todd, & Booth-Bell, 2017). The post-racial era is characteristic of the American capacity to elect a President (Barack Obama) from one of the commonly profiled origins (Broady et al., 2017). Practically, the phenomenon regarding racial profiling has only worsened in the United States. Such that, racial profiling jeopardized communal policing efforts, alienates the communities from law enforcement, and makes the law enforcement system to lose trust and credibility among those they are specially sworn to serve and protect (Broady et al., 2017). The police are entitled to protecting citizens from harm and advocating for justice and fairness in the American communities.

However, racial profiling has increasingly made people live in fear whereby by casting an entire community as full of suspects just because of how differently they appear, emanate from, or the religion universally adhered to has led to deteriorated rights and freedom to live peacefully. Notably, despite the intentions of the Federal, state, and local governments, racial profiling remains an unbeatable issue in the United States, and it is growing toward elevated levels owing to the incapacity to contain the needs and requirements of the people. Internationalization of businesses and globalization moves have worsened the rate of racial profiling owing to the increasing numbers of minorities such as the Blacks and Asians in America.

Causes of Racial Profiling

In the United States, racial profiling has led to a wide range of undesirable outcomes such as stray-bullet shooting, misconceptions in arrests, Injustice in criminal sentencing, unnecessary pedestrian and traffic stoppages, cases of scot-free escape by criminals from dominating communities such as Caucasians, and misjudgments in the crime curbing sector (Teasley et al., 2017). Notably, the United States level of racial profiling dates back to historical events in the United States. Two hundred and forty and ninety years of slavery and legal racial segregation, respectively, have led to racial profiling that is affecting African Americans (Tibbs, 2016). These events make an inevitable foundation for racial profiling, and it is difficult to uproot this undesirable problem across the United States.

Owing to the slavery and legal racial segregation eras, racial profiling became the order of the day in American and was rapidly spread to other minorities. Besides, since the September 2001 terror attack, Muslim, South Asian, and Arab communities have been profiled regarding crime and terrorism-related activities by local police, the Federal law enforcement system, and airline personnel (Tibbs, 2016). In a nutshell, stereotypes and pre-meditated assumptions that have been developed regarding the adverse events associated with these minorities pave the way for inclined racial profiling toward individuals and groups of people.

Interventions to Racial Profiling in the United States

Today, racial profiling is listed among the critical human rights violation issues across the globe. Therefore, responsible organizations such as the United Nations have prioritized the fight against racial profiling in the USA through strategically planned programs such as the international human rights law, the role of human rights mechanisms, and legal and policy frameworks that are tailored to ensure equitable treatment of individuals from the stereotyped minority communities (United Nations, 2019). These legislative agencies aim to foster a rule of prohibited racial profiling, and its violation is admissible in an international court of law such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) (United Nations, 2019). Other practices include community engagement, awareness creation, training, and recruiting of informed workforces that are conscious of the undesirable traits of racial profiling to the Americans society at large (United Nations, 2019).

References

Broady, K. E., Todd, C. L., & Booth-Bell, D. (2017). Dreaming and Doing at Georgia HBCUs: Continued Relevancy in 'Post-Racial' America. The Review of Black Political Economy, 44(1-2), 37-54. Retrieved from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1007/s12114-017-9243-9

Burrell, G., & Morgan, G. (2017). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis: Elements of the sociology of corporate life. Abingdon-On-Thames: Routledge. Retrieved from: http://openstorage.gunadarma.ac.id/linux/docs/v06/Kuliah/Seminar-MIS/2006/165/165-08-Social_Paradigm.pdf

Teasley, M. L., Schiele, J. H., Adams, C., & Okilwa, N. S. (2017). Trayvon Martin: Racial profiling, Black male stigma, and social work practice. Social work, 63(1), 37-46. Retrieved from: https://academic.oup.com/sw/article-pdf/63/1/37/22917596/swx049.pdf

Tibbs, D. F. (2016). Racial profiling in the era of Black de-constitutionalism. Wash. & Lee J. Civ. Rts. & Soc. Just., 23, 181. Retrieved from: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1429&context=crsj

United Nations. (2019). Preventing and Countering Racial Profiling of People of African Descent Good Practices and Challenges. [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.un.org/en/events/africandescentdecade/assets/pdf/PreventRacialProfiling-EN.pdf (Accessed: July 11, 2019).