Research Blog - Racial Profiling

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

Figure 1: Group of people protesting racial profiling

Every day in our lives we see people and naturally think something about them, regardless of if our thoughts are right or wrong. When police do this, it is called police profiling. Police profiling “refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin” (1). The most common type of police profiling is racial profiling. Racial profiling is when police assume something about someone based on their skin color, whether they are white, black, Asian, Hispanic. In most of the cases, the person is black. African-Americans were asked if they felt they have been racially profiled by police officers and 50% said yes (2). So if there were 1000 black people, then 500 would have felt they were racially profiled by police. Racial profiling happens a lot more than we think. Not all police officers do this though, but it is a very important topic to know about. Like teachers tell you in school, you can't judge a book by its cover, just like you can't judge a person by what they look like.  

Figure 2: Judy Hopps pulling out 

fox-repellent spray on Nick Wilde

Zootopia
In the movie Zootopia, all animals live in peace with one another and have no problems. One day, an otter attacks a jaguar, and later 14 animals go missing. The animals are all found out to be predatory animals that have gone "SAVAGE." Animals that eat other animals such as lions, tigers, panthers, and bears are all considered predator animals. This makes police officer Judy Hopps announce that predator animals have gone back to their aggressive, mean ways. This leads to other animals, including the animal police, to become scared of ALL predator animals. Racial profiling is based on the skin color of a person, and in Zootopia, the police judge animals based on what type of animal they are. Anytime an animal police officer saw a predator animal, they automatically thought they were a criminal. Just because one predator animal acted bad, does not mean all animals of that kind will be bad too. When Officer Judy Hopps first meets the fox, Nick Wilde, she pulls out her fox-repellent spray because she assumes he is going to attack her. She thinks this way because he is a predator animal and all animals like him must want to attack her. These perceived misconceptions are just like police in our world when they assume things because of a person's skin color. Once police officers start treating a group of people as criminals, or in this Zootopia case where animals are criminals, the rest of the animals became scared of the targeted group. This caused a DIVIDE between predator and prey animals. On a bus ride, a rabbit and her bunny daughter were scared to sit by a tiger because he was a predator animal. Although a tiger is a predator animal, that does not automatically make him bad. The tiger could be really nice, but other animals already think he is mean based on the way police act towards him. 

Figure 3: Racial Profiling Protest Sign

Real Life
Racial profiling can happen to you or those around you. Imagine if Officer Carl is walking down the street of a neighborhood at night and he sees a black teenager, John, with a hooded sweatshirt on. If Officer Carl thinks John is a criminal based on his skin color, then that is racial profiling. If police create a wrong idea towards a group of people, then the rest of the community could feel this way too, turning people against one another. If a community is against each other, then that community becomes unsafe to live in. Someone's skin color has nothing to do with who they are as a person. When you are going throughout your life, don't think of a person by their skin color, but get to know them as a person. If you see a police officer do something that you think is racial profiling, either contact the police department that police officer works for or tell an adult what happened and have them contact the Department of Justice Civil Division and file a complaint (3). Just because someone looks a certain way, does not automatically make them a criminal. 

For more information on racial profiling, click on this link: LEARN MORE

References:

(1) Racial Profiling: Definition. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/other/racial-profiling-definition

(2) Neel, J. (2017, October 24). Poll: Most Americans Think Their Own Group Faces Discrimination. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/10/24/559116373/poll-most-americans-think-their-own-group-faces-discrimination

(3) Racial Profiling: What You Can Do? [PDF]. (n.d.). National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.

Rankin, K. (2015, September 3). Dozens of protesters hold a demonstration and candlelight vigil outside of the 120th Police Precinct Station in memory of Eric Garner on January 15, 2015, in New York City. [Figure 1]. Retrieved from https://www.colorlines.com/articles/lawsuit-black-and-latino-cops-say-nypd-punished-them-saying-no-racial-profiling

[Best of Judy 2018]. (2018, March 13). Zootopia nick and judy funny moments #26 [Figure 2]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbKqvV7G__M

Cabinda, J. [@jasoncabinda]. (2016, January 28). “Skin color is not reasonable suspicion” #Fresheyes #soc119 [Figure 3]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/jasoncabinda/status/692859221814018048