Racial Profiling

Kelly Perry

Ms. Kathryn Baker

ENC 1101 Section 85

10 November 2005

Racial profiling is something the United States has had to adapt to in order to protect the land. I remember before 9/11 going to the airport used to be exciting and fun. Now whenever you go, you are patted down and screened thoroughly in order to prevent any terrorists. The definition of racial profiling given by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLS) is as followed: "Racial Profiling is any police or private security practice in which a person is treated as a suspect because of his or her race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. This occurs when police investigate, stop, frisk, search or use force against a person based on such characteristics instead of evidence of a person's criminal behavior." For the police to simply interrogate a man or woman by their ethnicity is wrong. I feel like I am not fully aware of the effects of racial profiling because I have never actually been accused or bothered. I understand that there is good meaning behind the racial profiling (to protect the country) but I think it is unfair to those ethnic people that are entirely innocent. I can't imagine how it would feel to be cross-examined by the authorities just because I was trying to get on a flight. I get nervous when I get pulled over by the police. I don't know how I would feel if I was being put in the same category as the men who flew planes into the World Trade Center. If the screening machines were updated and efficient, a lot of racial profiling could be prevented. I think that all employees should be trained on racial profiling and aware that not all terrorists are of Middle Eastern descent.