Racial Profiling And Discrimination: An Unfair Phenomenon

An Unfair Phenomenon Imagine being stopped and questioned by an officer for driving in a neighborhood you “shouldn't be in” or being pulled over because what you’re driving looks “too expensive for you,” or just simply being stopped and questioned while minding your own business because of the way you “look.” Although they may seem out of the ordinary, these practices take place daily in the lives of African Americans. A staggering statistic states “that a greater percentage of male drivers (12%) than female drivers (8%) were stopped by police during 2011. A higher percentage of black drivers (13%) than white (10%) and Hispanic (10%) drivers were stopped by police during 2011” (“Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) - Traffic Stops”). Especially
Everyone knows school can be tough sometimes, but combined with discrimination, it can turn youth’s lives into a nightmare. Following a new Zero-Tolerance policy last september, black community leaders say “racial profiling is an epidemic in Toronto schools…” (Cotroneo 1) and the school board “...has seen a startling rise in the number of black children facing expulsion over “trivial issues” (Cotroneo 1). This quote helps people understand what we’re exactly dealing with and how the government continues to do nothing to help abolish these discriminatory practices in school as it should, especially when it involves future citizens. High schoolers are not just limited to experiencing racial profiling at school, the phenomenon occurs just as much out of school as it does in. A staggering statistic states “black high school students are more likely than white high school students to report being stopped and searched by the police multiple times; this indicates that they are the victims of racially biased policing” (Hayle, Wortley and Tanner 323). Sadly, this fact continues to plague our youth so much, that “we have literally made it illegal and deadly to be young, black and outside” (Cotroneo 1), and no one should have to live in fear and be
Trying to prove that racial profiling does not exist in court is like trying to prove that the moon is made out of purple cheese. People obviously do not have to go to the moon to find out this is not true likewise, people do not have to be targeted to realize discriminatory practices transpire in court. Just like citizens’ do not have to experience it first hand to know that “States Supreme Court has promoted or facilitated injustice against African Americans. People don’t have to go back to the Dred Scott case in 1857, almost universally thought to be the worst case in the Court’s history, to find the Supreme Court on the side of injustice against blacks”(Katz 925) this quote clearly points out the obvious about the perpetual hate and unfair practices towards people of certain races and ethnicities. The government allows these practices because it is easier to ignore them than confront them. A while back, Americans’ all heard of the case of a 17 year old black male who was shot dead, who did not have a criminal record. We learned afterward “In the case of Trayvon Martin, there was no evidence of criminal involvement, yet after he was killed, as a part of a routine autopsy, his body was drug tested. The police didn't see fit to drug test the