Racial Profiling: The History Of Racial Profiling

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“Racial Profiling”

In recent years racial profile has been the buzz word. So what is racial profiling? Racial profiling is using the race of an individual or ethnicity by law enforcement as factor in the decision whether to engage in the enforcement of the law. The allegations are cops are targeting minorities, seemingly people of Africa decent more than any other race. I have been accused of racism many times in the past with little to no provocation. It usually comes at the beginning of a traffic stop when I walk to the car. I hear the person say “you only stopped me because I’m black”. I have explained to numerous people I didn’t know who or what color they were until I walked up to the car. Contrary to the belief cops know who’s in the car before we pull it over, we don’t. The social outcry that the police, the front-line representatives of government are targeting the minorities is false. There’s no credible evidence that racial profiling exists today, yet the crusade to abolish it threatens a decade’s worth of crime-fighting success.
The history for racial profiling dates back to slavery. In 1693, Philadelphia’s court officials gave police legal authority to stop and detain any Negro (freed or slaved) seen wandering around on the streets. This discriminatory practice continued through the Jim Crow era. (Staples) Jim Crow was an encompassing term used to describe laws in numerous states that mandated the segregation of races in many common areas as restaurants,