While attending California
State University, Sacramento (CSUS) two of my classmates had made disturbing comments
about blacks. The first disturbing comment about blacks came up in my social work
class, a former female student (who wants to be a social worker) stated “Blacks
females are not doing good. They are just having babies like their mothers and
I will never give them a job.” The second disturbing comment was in my
Criminal Justice Search and Seizure class in which a male classmate made this
statement, “If they act like a duck or looks like a duck it must be a duck”. This
student also stated that, “If I see someone with dreads or wearing baggy pants he
must be up to no good.” What caught my attention was that he wants to be a
police officer, and since he wants to work in law enforcement field I feel that
he should not be judging any one base on his appearance. When people make
statements like that I feel there are making assumptions about my race. At the
end of the day both of my professors corrected them and both students apologized.
Even though the students apologized, I know that racial profiling still exists
still today.
The statements my
fellow classmates made disturbed me because we are the future workers and we are
supposed to be an example for the younger generations. We do not want people to
think is acceptable to judge people by their appearance. I was shock they would
say such harsh things about blacks. I am sure what made my classmates make
statements like that but I believe these harsh feelings towards another of a
different skin color are deeply rooted in our minds from previous generations.
Years ago, blacks were used as slaves. The slave owners treated them badly. The
owner’s own children then grew up with the same ideals and passed them on to
the new generation, but this need to stop. I am a black student. I am young I
do not have kids. I know people with dreads for instance my mother and she not “up
to no good.” I was hurt by their comments about blacks because it is not true. Also
I know this issues is just not affecting me it is affecting others in America
too.
So I did some research on the
publication, “Restoring a National Consensus: The Need to End Racial Profiling
in America”, the report is an update of the earlier 2003 report, “Wrong Then,
Wrong Now: Racial Profiling Before and After September 11, 2001” the problem of
racial profiling continues to be a significant national concern that demands attention.
This publication examines the use of racial profiling in the street-level
context in which it originally arose. It also examines the newer context of
counterterrorism and the most recent context of immigration.
http://westorlandonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/racial_profiling2011.pdf
Whether you watch the YouTube video
or read the publication about racial profiling you must know that racial
profiling does still exist. Ask any person
who might be different color or ethnicity and they would let you know that they
have been insulted more than once in their life time by other people. Nobody
should be putting these ideas into anyone’s head to judge someone base on their
skin. It only makes one wonder will Martin Luther King Jr’s vision of a
color-blind society come true… where everyone is equal and treated equal, It make me ask this question will it ever come
into existence? I only hope so. I believe and will always believe that all men,
and women, are created equal and they deserve to be treated with respect.
Racial profiling is still around this country. From personal experience, one day I went to New Costco in Lodi were much of the population in that city is white people. I went inside the store and one of my friends joking around asked him if he could sale him one of the diamonds that were located in a mirrors. The guy told him that he wont be able to afford it and that he could afford a dog color better that was located to one of our sides. The guy actually called my friend a dog which this was racial profiling. My friend is a Mexican. The employee tried to say that all Mexicans were dogs. We got mad but I told my friend we should just leave and not to worry about it. He said that we should do something about it. I said no because people were not going to beleive what we say because everyone in Lodi knows each other. So we just left because we didn't want any problems. But racial profiling does still exist.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that racial profiling still exist. Racism still exists in this country. I did my paper on Racial Profiling in our Research course and I found out that racial profiling exists in law enforcement. When I did my Ride A Long with SacPD, the officers didn't even want to fill out their report forms into this database where it records the ethnicity of the person getting pulled over or arrested. Officers said this was useless and was a waste of time. When SacPD was accused of racial profiling, they hired women into the force to show them that they are prejudice; however, the women they hired were mostly Caucasians.
ReplyDeleteI just can't believe your classmates had the nerves to make those remarks. Going into this field and being CRJ majors, I think they should think about their careers again because people in this field needs to be diverse. In order to be a leader and someone serving the community, they need to know how to handle situations with all different kinds of people and for them to have this kind of attitude, this is uncalled for and is very unprofessional. They will make the department look bad.
I think if we want to better understand this issue we need to realize that discrimination and racial profiling are two very different concepts. Racial profiling is apparent in situations where a person has a legal authority over another. Then they consciously and deliberately focus their authority on a particular race. Were as discrimination is the actions of others outside of that authoritarian environment that are negative base on someone's characteristics such as race, gender, and ethnicity.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very complex and difficult issue to address, and I honestly believe there will never be a world free of either one. It's sad to say but its true. For example the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. was attacked by person's of middle eastern decent. Since then security has increased and focused on people of middle eastern decent. If you think about it logically no not every middle eastern person is a terrorist plotting to attack the U.S. However, at the same time agencies will focus on that particular ethnicity because of the fact that person's of that decent were the ones involved in the attacks. It makes no sense to increase security for foreign terrorism, then focus on whites, blacks, chinese, mexicans, etc. I am certainly not in favor of this behavior but if you remove yourself and step back and try to look at it from another perspective you could see why people believe it is sometimes necessary.
I have to agree with Drvcrime. Racial profiling still exists, but as Drvcrime says discrimination is a very different thing. What I find appalling in your blog is this quote, "he should not be judging any one base on his appearance." First, it is human nature to discriminate based on appearance. And it is beneficial to the individual to discriminate. It is how we avoid people who may be a danger to ourselves and it is how we determine if an individual is a part of the larger society. For instance, Muslim women often wear the burka and hijab to cover themselves while in public. Many Americans dont understand this behaivor and it disturbs them. They are disturbed becasue these individuals have not addopted the American culture completely. They are therefore not a member of our "tribe" and may pose a threat as their "tribe", granted an extremist element, has attacked us before. My point is that discrimination is not only completely normal but a survival technique that humans use.
ReplyDeleteNow this is not to say that racial profiling is not a real problem or that it is okay to racial profile. Instead it is to illustrate the importance of human nature and to illustrate that you will be treated how you act and look. And if you look like a good person and member of society you definitely should be treated with the utmost respect, but on the other hand if you look and act like a ner'do well deviant you will be treated as such.
Racial profiling to me is a lot like any other problem in our society today. Many have different opinions on why it happens, and what we should do about it if it does happen. The problem is nobody can come to a consensus on how to solve this problem. It seems to me that racism is still part of our society, and sadly, I think it always will be. We all have prejudices of some sort towards others. It may be because of race, sex, sexual preference, rich, poor, ugly, or pretty. I am not saying that this is right, but we as a society need to realize that this problem will never completely go away. We need to adapt to it, work around it, or through it.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that students in the criminal justice field are making comments such as the examples you provided. As officers in the law enforcement field our primary responsibility is to provide a safe community and to serve the public. Race is not probably cause. People should embrace learning about different cultures/races. If we are to work with people from different walks of life it would be useful to know about where these individuals are coming from. That's just what I think.
ReplyDelete