Racial Profiling

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the issues concerning racial profiling and evaluates how although the term has not been around for a very long time, the abusive action it describes has had a long life in the cultural history of the United States. It looks at how racial profiling is a suspicion by a given authority that an individual has committed a crime which is generally motivated by stereotypes revolving around the profiled individual's racial heritage. Assumptions are made and often arrests or illegal searches follow suit and the result is a mistrust by the minority population of authority groups such as the police or the FBI. It puts forward the argument that racial profiling is wrong and how when race is used as the determining factor in any type of police action, civil rights are being ignored.

From the Paper:

"American History provides a powerful example of racial profiling and how it can be abused. Between 1942 and 1946, one hundred and ten thousand Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps for the duration of the second world war. There was a great deal of fear that these particular people with their beliefs and culture would undermine American efforts against Japan. Thousands died within the confines of these camps, most from normal and natural causes, but there was a small contingent of people who were shot and killed while trying to escape. Though the camps were by no means extermination camps like those that the Nazi's established on the other side of the globe, they were still concentration camps where American citizens were herded because of the color of their skin. The time of Japanese internment and the racial profiling of this group is a dark and embarrassing stain in the history of the United States. Perhaps the part which is the most disturbing is that during WWII only ten people were convicted of spying for Japan and they were all Caucasian."

More papers on Racial Profiling:

• Essay # 89060 : "Racial Profiling in Toronto"
• Analytical Essay # 144476 : "Racial Profiling"
• Term Paper # 127868 : "Racial Profiling"
• Term Paper # 90578 : "Criminal Justice: Racial Profiling and Toronto"

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