Should racial profiling at U.S. borders target people of color to exploit whites' fears - Essay Example

Racial Profiling at U.S Border Outline 1. Introduction A brief overview of racial profiling at the U.S border and its statistics. Thesis: Racial profiling at U.S border often targets people of color in order to exploit white’s fears. 2. Main body 3. Conclusion Summary of the main body argument Should Racial Profiling At U.S. borders target people of color to exploit whites' fears? Millions of Americans and non-Americans often are at a risk of becoming victims to racial profiling in the course of their life. Racial profiling refers to the law enforcement targeting a particular group of people based on their race, ethnic group or religion and linking this group of persons to a criminal incident (Judith 35). The U.S.A by becoming a multicultural, multiethical, and multireligious country, often becomes prone to incidents of racial profiling within its territory and its borders. Racial profiling at U.S border often targets people of color in order to exploit white’s fears. Every year, an overwhelming number of people in U.S become subjected to racial profiling. Racial profiling in U.S borders often affects Native Americans, American Muslims, Persian Americans, Arab Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, many immigrants and visitors. According to the 14th Amendment of the constitution of U.S. racial profiling is illegal and not accepted in the American soil. Racial profiling often deprives citizens of their rights and send bad image of U.S.A to the rest of the world. Racial profiling often results to inequality in U.S.A. Racial profiling at the U.S border, as argued by some researchers, remains a means of exploiting white fears. Since the whites often regard them as superior in everything compared to the other races, they sometimes use the fear they get from them and commit racial profiling offenses at the U.S. border. In the recent years, after September 11 attack, many police officers at the U.S border have become more sensitive and prejudiced regarding certain races and groups of people. For instance, immediately after the September 11th attack, many Muslims and Arabs became racially discriminated by police officers at the U.S borders. The officers majorly assumed that all Muslims and Arabs were terrorist and hence fitted for scrutiny and questioning as they crossed the border. Little did they know that whatever they were doing by judging people in relation to their race was racial profiling. Racial profiling commonly affects other races majorly apart from the whites. The whites have always regarded themselves as the superior race in the world. Segregating people at check point at the borders in relation to their races, is a way of proving to other people that whites are superior. The white often want other races to fear and respect them due to their superiority. Therefore, in the U.S border, according to some researches done on racial profiling, the least people affected by it are the whites while the commonly affected are the Arabs, Hispanics, and Blacks among others (Goldenberg 64). The study also found out that many police officers stationed at the U.S borders are mainly whites. Other races while going to the U.S commonly fear the white. At the border, the police officers take advantage of that fear of the white races to racially profile people. In as much as recently cases of racial profiling seeded fruits on curbing terrorists attack, curbing illegal entry of firearms and drugs, but quite a lot the racial profiling victims remained victimized and their rights violated. In addition, these individuals subjected to racial profiling often feared to report their cases for being in a white man’s land. Another evidence to support the fact the racial profiling at the U.S border majorly exploited white’s fears to Racial bias is an issue according to human rights activists. In the USA, racial profiling is a major problem. It is very ineffective (Jeff 76). Those in the law enforcement rely on racial profiling so as to arrest offenders. The number of victims of racial profiling is on the rise in USA. Every day, several people of different race, ethnic group or religion are at risk of being stopped by the police. The police conduct unlawful searches on them. Racial profiling often violate human rights. The victims often become left feeling depressed, humiliated and angry. Racial profiling leads to residential segregation. It leads to mistrust among people and reluctance to report crimes to the police. At the U.S border, according to the 14th amendment of the constitution, the unlawful searches on other races is just a clear depiction of how the whites show their superiority. According to a research on racial profiling, other races that were caught at the U.S border were among those not in good terms with the whites, for instance, Arabs, Hispanics and Blacks. Since time immemorial, whites have always devised ways to show their superiority among other races and somehow resulted to racial discrimination at various levels in the society. The federal authorities mainly target those from Middle East and South Asia. The law enforcement continues to determine the people that they will monitor and question. The law enforcers determine these people based on their skin color, nation of origin and gender. It is hence unlawful to racially profile an individual at the border (Mary & Jeanne 78). To prove that racial profiling majorly exploits whites’ fears, a lot of people of other colors majorly get arrested and prosecuted at the borders compared to the whites. The whites often fear the other races and in return mistreatment them at the slightest chance they get. With widespread appraisals and retreat against the whites, many races find themselves in the trap of racial profiling victims. With widespread increase in illegal arms, violence and terrorism in the Unites States, some of the way to reduce them, involves racial profiling in an attempt to capture suspects. The whites often feel insecure in the presence of other races coming to take over their resources and victimize them (Mary & Jeanne 89). Therefore, racial profiling leading to the arrest and imprisonment of such individuals with or without clear evidence is one of the means depicting white’s fears. Racial profiling has caused the law enforcers to deviate their attention from other serious crimes. This puts the citizens at risk of being victims of other serious crimes. The United States government has also failed to come up with legislative laws that will effectively deal with racial profiling (Muffler 40). The 9/11 bombing contributed to the increase in racial profiling in U.S borders. Arabs, Muslims and people from the Middle East became the targets for racial profiling after the September 11 attacks. In noting the number of cases of victims of racial profiling after that incident depicted the fears that the white’s had on other races. The white’s fear to being destroyed by other races and hence retaliates by increasing racial profiling in U.S borders in an attempt to increase security (Muffler 45). Racial profiling at the U.S border majorly brings us back to white’s fear. There are quit a number of prisons and correctional facilities run in the U.S and receive quit a number of people suspected to be victims of racial profiling. These private owned prisons and correctional facilities sometimes rely on racial profiling to fill they prisons and correction facilities (Goldenberg 34). Majority of these prisons and correctional facilities are owned by the whites. In enhancing racial profiling at the borders in order to make profits majorly depicts how the whites cause fear in other races. In the end, the immigrants end up fearing the whites therefore increase to fall victims of racial profiling without reporting any matter to the respectful authority for fear of being prosecuted for another reason. In conclusion, racial profiling at the U.S border proves to be a way of a way of targeting people of color to exploit whites fears. With the sudden increase in insecurity in the Unites States, border areas have remained as areas where insecurity from immigrants could be curbed. Thereby, a lot of people from other races fall victim of the numerous searches and arrests conducted by this officials (Kops 4). By law, in accordance to the 14th amendment of the constitution, in as much as racial profiling is a crime; the U.S government is quit soft on the officers that conduct such offences since they believe it remains to be for the good of the nation. In addition, racial profiling cases majorly involve other races and least involves the whites proving that the whites are the ones majorly responsible for carrying out such offences due to the fear of their country being taken over and destroyed by other nations. Works Cited Threats and humiliation. New York:John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Goldberg, Theo. The Threat of Race. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.Print. Kops, Deborah. Racial Profiling. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2006. Print. Mary Bosworth, Jeanne Flavin. Race, gender, and punishment: from colonialism to the war on terror. Rutgers: Rutgers University Press, 2008. Print. Muffler, Steven J. Racial profiling: issues, data, and analyses. New York: Nova Publishers, 2006. Print. Shantz, Jeff. Racial profiling and borders: international, interdisciplinary perspectives. Michigan: Vandeplas Pub, 2010. Print. Warner, Judith. U.S. Border Security: A Reference Handbook. New York: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print. Read More