Christy Gen

Sociology 1
Professor Mozzini
August 7, 2016
Project 3: Final Paper
Racial profiling is the act of suspecting someone for committing a crime based on their
race and/or ethnicity instead of their behavior. Citizens of the United States all have the right to
be equally protected by the law and be free of searches and seizures that are unreasonable. These
laws are often broken by law enforcement officers due to their use of racial profiling. Racial
profiling is demeaning, unconstitutional, and discriminating.
The act of racial profiling is most commonly used by customs officials, airport security,
police officers, investigators, amongst many other law enforcement officials. Minorities are often
victims of being racially profiled. When a person gets racially profiled, they are wrongfully
being judged and mistreated. In the United States, there are countless amounts of times where
people are suspected of committing a crime because of the way they look. Many hispanics in
America were targeted when the government cracked down on immigrants. The involvement of
state and local police in the immigration enforcement arena along with the racial profiling
opportunities created and clearly capitalized upon present a real danger to the undocumented
population, (Fischer). Someone could be the most honest and kind a person could be, but can
still be a suspect if they fit the description and profile that the law enforcement is looking for. It
is very unjust and over the line to make assumptions like such.
Racial profiling has been a tactic the law enforcement used since the beginning of the
existence of a criminal justice system. Past events that occurred may be the cause as to why

people use racial profiling. A very significant event would be from the Islamic terrorist attacks on
September 11, 2001. After the attack, many people had a negative image of Islamic people and
the Islamic community. People in America who had physical characteristics that were similar to
the terrorists from the attack would be verbally and physically assaulted along with other hate
crimes directed towards them. Racial profiling is built of off fear and past events that occurred.
Many people think that if they are just cautious to certain races or ethnicities that have a history
of doing something harmful then they will be able to prevent it, but that is not true. Any person
of any color or ethnicity has done harmful thing and are fully capable of doing harmful things,
but the only way to catch those people are by the way behave and their actions, not their physical
characteristics.
This tactic is not effective because the polices focus is diverted towards finding someone
who fits a certain description, but they are not paying attention to suspicious behavior that could
be relevant to the situation they are dealing with. For example, a former flight attendant said in
an interview, Most suspicious passengers are drunk people, to be honest. But if you're looking
for a terrorist, the main thing to think about is that this is a person who believes that they're about
to die. And when you believe you're about to die, there are physiological reaction that are not
within your control. And it's like sweating, being very jittery and not being able to have a normal
conversation (Scott). This former flight attendant knew what signs and behavior to look for,
instead of just singling a person out because of their race.
Many minorities go out of their way to emphasize that they are not a threat by changing
their behavior and the way they act. Every day, there are innocent people who are accused of
being a threat and treated as if they were criminals. As Sikh Americans, we carry the sad burden
of having to prove our Americanism. Despite families dating back multiple generations in

America, being elected to public office, serving in the US Armed Forces, competing in NCAA
sports, our loyalty, our identity, is questioned, (Kaur). When law enforcement officers use racial
profiling, it can influence regular people to also racially profile others for their own awareness
and cautiousness. This causes a large issue for minorities because they are often harassed and
told to go back to their country, even when they were born and raised in America.
It also plays a part in why some law enforcement officers are so quick to make unjust
decisions. There are many instances where police officers get too aggressive with minorities and
cause severe injuries or even death. In a case from 2012, a young man name Trayvon was killed
by a police officer who was trailing after him. We honestly believe that Trayvon Martin is dead
today because be was racially profiled. Because of that, this escalated, and it led to an altercation
where George Zimmerman...killed...a 17-year-old, unarmed teen who only had a bag of Skittles
and an Arizona iced-tea can," (Lihis). There was no motive to why Trayvon was being trailed.
Incidences like this destroys public trust in the police because it makes citizens not want to share
information or report a crime. They are afraid that if they do, innocent minorities will be targeted
instead of the actual criminal.
Racial profiling would fall under the conflict paradigm in sociology. It belongs in this
paradigm because there is inequality between different races treating one another unfairly. There
is also inequality in how law enforcement officers demean and discriminate minorities. Conflict
criminologists see crime as a socially constructed label that powerful groups attach to the
activities of groups who possess less power, and they suggest that police tend to target what they
perceive to be dangerous groups rather than just respond to criminal behaviour, (Hayle).
Police also target minorities because of the fact that they are minorities, it makes them seem as

though they are less powerful and police can get a sense of power since they are authoritative
figures and work for the government.
This discriminating practice will end when people stop believing that race makes a
person different from one another. It might just be how society functions since humans
constantly have the need to create conflict. Racial profiling and discriminating acts will take a lot
of work to put an end to. People need to realize that humans are all equal and that race does not
define a person. Race does not show if someone is capable of being a threat to society. This issue
will be solved when others start paying attention to people's behavior and character instead of
their skin color.

Works Cited
Fischer, Amelia. "Secure Communities, Racial Profiling, & Suppression Law In Removal
Proceedings." Texas Hispanic Journal Of Law & Policy 19.(2013): 63-94. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 7 Aug. 2016.
Hayle, Steven, Scot Wortley, and Julian Tanner. "Race, Street Life, And Policing: Implications

For Racial Profiling." Canadian Journal Of Criminology & Criminal Justice 58.3 (2016):
322-353.Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 7 Aug. 2016.
Kaur, Lakhpreet. "After 9/11, Minorities Bear Burden of Proving Their Patriotism - NBC News."
NBC News. NBC News, 11 Sept. 2014,
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/after-9-11-minorities-bear-burden-proving
-their-patriotism-n189416, 07 Aug. 2016.
Lihis, Mike. "Shooting death of Fla. teen brings calls for action on racial profiling." Hill 28 Mar.
2012: 1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 7 Aug. 2016.
Scott, Simon. "When It Comes To Flight Safety, When Does Alertness Become Racial
Profiling?." Weekend Edition Saturday (NPR)(2016): Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 7
Aug. 2016.