Racial Profiling In Latin America

Racial profiling has stemmed from earlier forms of racism such as slavery and segregation. Slavery has been apart of our world’s history for as long as it has existed. During the age of exploration, European powers began to expand and imperialize the Americas. Specifically, Spain and Portugal colonized and conquered a majority of the pre-existing empires in Latin America. The discovery of natural resources such as silver and sugar in Latin America, sparked the need for labor in order to gather these resources more efficiently. The Spanish and Portuguese turned to the use of forced labor systems to accumulate larger quantities of resources, and enforced these practices on Natives. However, the relationship between the Europeans and natives

Racial profiling is used as a precaution to prevent potential greater dangers. The principal responsibility of any police officer is to keep communities safe. Police officers regard racial profiling as a form of “common sense generalizing", they “routinely judge the likelihood of the threat and act accordingly”. For example, if a cop receives a report of an armed robbery with no further information, the cop will utilize all the slight and indirect indications to come to a conclusion. The suspects are a 60-year-old nun and a black male with 50 speeding tickets. “How could race not be part of this calculus?”. Certainly, the black male would be under greater suspicion than the white nun. Additionally, police genuinely believe that terrorist threats come from one particular race or ethnic group. One cannot deny that, increased racial profiling and airport background checks have decreased the potential for terrorist attacks and have saved many lives. Nevertheless, the reality that one’s race has more of an impact on how they are treated by others and in criminal proceedings is politically, socially, and racially unjust. Racial profiling puts minorities under constant supervision and forces them to live in fear. African Americans are unable to walk a few steps in certain neighborhoods without being stopped and questioned. Similarly, Muslims and Arabs are unable to travel without being held in customs, for long hours, all while being battered with questions. All individuals should be judged fairly and without any bias. Furthermore, no individual should have to live in fear that the color of their skin would be judged before their actions and