What is Racial Profiling?

Profiling an individual based on race, colour, ethnicity, or creed usually falls under the term Racial Profiling. It is one of the most common problems of this twenty-first century. We now live in a world where everyone celebrates the diversity of people. So, this form of unjustified profiling based on prejudice or false assumption is a threat to peace and harmony.

If you find yourself a minority facing this form of abuse, you should check out various essay examples on this issue. Reading these essays on racial profiling will help you identify the solutions better and teach you how to tackle them in life better. Those samples work as a summary of the topic, so you will get the same info within less time.

Racial profiling meaning can include a host of hostile acts and behaviours that targets innocent individuals. Therefore, it is quite different from criminal behaviour, which targets an individual based on actual suspicion. So, if you are one of the victims, this article might be of help to you.

 Racial Profiling Is Real

It is a pressing issue that is as real as any other form of crime. Criminal profiling is based on valid suspicion. However, racial profiling usually targets people from minority communities due to personal biases. One statistic reveals that 28% of all persons that LA police detained in 2018 were Black, even though they only account for 9% of the whole population.

Therefore, it is an action undertaken for reasons of security based on stereotypes and prejudice about race, colour, ethnicity, religion, nationality, rather than based on actual suspicion. The profiling definition varies from place to place But, the underlying stereotype is the same everywhere.

 Causes of Racial Profiling

The most common cause of racial profiling is the psychological process of stereotyping. Biasness and prejudice towards persons of different skin colour, race, or religion invokes fear in the minds of people. They believe their safety and security are under threat just because an individual look different from them. This fear and false suspicion drive them to profile someone based on race.

Therefore, every college and university should teach students about this anti-social behaviour from an early age as part of the curriculum. This education can help better mitigate the problem from the very root. And enlighten the new generation about the negative effect it has on society.

The Effects of Racial Profiling

There is a long-lasting effect of social profiling based on race or skin colour. Victims of such abuse usually have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological damages. It can be thought of as a mental abuse that lingers in the victim’s everyday life, as well as hinders their creative freedom or thought process.

A university student from a Latino or African American community tends to face discrimination against them in most parts of the world. This form of attack damages the self-esteem of the students and leads many to suffer from social isolation. Not but least, they have to constantly fear of being picked up either by cops or by people of a different race; and that is unwarranted in this modern age.

Unintentional Causes of Profiling

We hear a lot of explicit stereotyping, which derives from conscious prejudice mind. However, there is another form of profiling called Implicit Stereotyping. It is where the person is unaware of his prejudice against a particular race or group. The leading cause of this passive unintentional profiling comes from poor exposure to new cultures or people. As all humans are fallible, it is not uncommon to be unaware of our biases.

Therefore, it is advisable that everyone should embrace the diversity of the world. The more exposure a person gets to new customs and norms of people, the less likely it is for him to develop an unintentional prejudice.

Conclusion

We can write essay all day about the traumatic nature of racial profiling and still do not come close to solving it. This is because hate crime is contagious and derives from little exposure to new races or new people from different parts of the globalized world. No one in their conscious mind should judge someone based on their look or appearance. We have to remember that crime has no face or place. Anyone, if given a chance, can turn to crime.

Therefore, instead of profiling someone based on his skin colour, faith, nationality, or race, we should improve our cognitive skills to recognize the real suspicions better. This will not just help break the hundred years old prejudice but as well bring harmony and peace to the diversified world that we all share together.