Racial profiling should be a crime, simple as that. It is outrageous and unjust to suspect someone of a criminal act because of their ethnicity, race or any other physical feature. America is supposed to be the land of the free, yet some people can't even walk down the street, drive in their car or do other things without being racially profiled. Equality is a right that people have fought and have died for, but something that will never truly exist with things like racial profiling being legal.
For those of you don't know what racial profiling really means, it's when someone is targeted by law enforcement because of race or ethnicity and suspected of a crime based on these things. And yes while racial profiling by the police can be helpful at times, it is not proven to always be effective, causes racism, and is inappropriate. So why is it still a thing?
Here's a fact that I'm sure most of you don't know, racial profiling is illegal for the FBI to use. Lets just put this in perspective, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the most qualified and highest form of law enforcement cannot use racial profiling yet we allow local law enforcement to use it. I'm confused do we want there to be hate crimes all across America??
A whopping forty-six states do not ban racial profiling based on religion or religious appearance. That means in all but four states you can be racially profiled by law enforcement because of your personal beliefs and appearance. According to studies done approximately 87 million Americans are at “high risk” of being subjected to racial profiling during their lifetime. 87 million American citizens. Why is the okay to people?? Why is this something that is seen as not only legal but the norm??
People wonder why there are groups like Black Lives Matter because in the world we live today with racial profiling there needs to be to create awareness. In 2015 thirty-seven percent of unarmed people killed by police were black, despite black people being only thirteen percent of the U.S. population. That is something that should be alarming to all of us. Yet its something unknown unless you do research on. the society we live in today wants to pretend these things aren't issues. They want to pretend racial profiling isn't a thing, that racism doesn't exist anymore, that all lives matter to everyone even though it is the furthest thing from the truth. Racial profiling is a thing, racism still exists, and all lives don't matter even though they should.
We as a society need to stop letting ourselves be blinded but the things we don't want to be true. We need to see how cruel this world can be sometimes so we can change it and make it a better place. there is no room for blinders and closed eyes. Us as Americans need to stay aware.
