History Of Racial Profiling

Many People think of racial profiling as relatively recent phenomena that manifested in the 1980s, as the news of Blacks being pulled over for “driving while black” began making national headlines. Racial Profiling is a new term for actions against black people that, dates back 300 years and is a not a recent manifestation of discriminatory conduct by police and the criminal justice system but dates back to the 1700s in the United States for people of African descent. Racial profiling is about racism and stereotypes that assume the worst of a race of people based on biased racial perceptions that are then projected and multiplied, affecting and endangering people of a particular race, ethnicity, religion or nationality. Additionally, racial profiling is the use of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or national origin by the Police or other law enforcement as a factor in deciding who to arrest or detain in the absence of a particular crime or any criminal behavior. (1)

The majority of Blacks in South Carolina and other southern state during the 1700’s were slaves who had to show a pass when leaving the plantation, to prove they had permission to leave., or, if freed, blacks had to carry what was called freedom papers to prove they were free. Black people during 1700-1865 were subject to harassment, interrogation, whippings, lynching and other physical punishment by whites that included hangings, beatings and mutilations of having their feet cut off if they were found to have run away from a plantation. Like modern-day racial profiling, since the 1700’s Black people 's skin color, not their actions, make them the subject of discriminatory treatment and the racial profiling of stop and search by whites