Racial Profiling Is Ineradicable - Essay Example

Racial Profiling Goes Beyond Black and White or Red and Blue Racial issues in America began even before the continent had an internationally recognized country to support. Indigenous people discovered already living on the continent, possessing different skin tones and customs, were instantly labeled ‘savage’ and ‘uncivilized’ and thus placed on a significantly lower social level than the Europeans who were eagerly attempting to grab any form of material wealth they could discover. As a result of this instant impression, relations between the natives and the Europeans were never given a chance to truly flourish, eventually leading to the near genocide of the native race. Shortly after the arrival of the white man, black men and women were shipped in as slaves to provide the necessary labor for these white men to continue to gain profit. As slaves, black people were also placed at the bottom levels of the social hierarchy creating a situation in which white men ‘naturally’ looked upon tinted skin as analogous to social inferior. Whether that other was Native American, African or Arabian, what was truly important was that no other skin tone was capable of meeting the high social standards of the white man. That this is not a truly natural response can be found in those instances when white children are able to associate in close connection with black children, frequently identify their friends by the clothing they wear or the things they do together rather than by the color of their skin. However, the problem of racial profiling continues within the adult generations, generation after generation. There are several reasons this may be the case including alarming large-scale social experience, enforcement procedures and media influence. The term ‘racial profiling’ is typically applied in the enforcement arena, but can be equally applied in the social realm. Prior to the terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on September 11, 2001, most people associated the term ‘racial profiling’ with the common but often unspoken practice of police officers to stop and harass young black drivers in a much higher percentage than they did this same activity with drivers of other skin tones. African-Americans of all ages correctly complained that they were being disproportionately detained and asked non-pertinent questions by the police for nothing more than the ‘crime’ of ‘driving while black.’ The practice of racial profiling is officially illegal, but police officers continue to point to statistics that seem to support its use (Turvey, 1998). The concept of criminal profiling has actually been used to assist law enforcement in preventing crime as the habits and behaviors of individual criminals can be tracked and predicted as a means of achieving capture and neutralization. Offender profiles, a series of behavioral and personal characteristics related with specific offenses, are also analyzed as a means of assisting enforcement officials in recognizing specific behavior patterns that may lead to future crime. However, criminal profiling progresses to racial profiling when the defining characteristics used comprise ethnicity, religion or race. Racial profiling occurs as officers begin to recognize a greater number of black people in prison than white, linking black people, particularly young males, with a higher prevalence of crime without taking into account the possibility that higher numbers may be simply a result of eagerness to arrest or other factors (Turvey, 1998). Since 2001, a new form of racial profiling has emerged that could be simply described as ‘flying while Arab.’ An attention-getting case occurred in November of 2006 in an airport in Minneapolis. According to reports, a small gathering of Muslim men were praying prior to their plane’s departure (Frommer, 2007). Later events would reveal that these men were actually Muslim ministers who had just participated in a symposium and were on their return journey home. Their prayer, as they reported, included appeals for the safety of all passengers and crew as well as for a smooth and uneventful flight. However, their activity made other passengers nervous, themselves practicing a form of racial profiling in assuming that these men might be terrorists despite their openly different behavior, so the airline made the decision not to allow these men to board. Many cases have been reported where Arab, or ‘Arab looking’ Americans have been ordered to depart airplanes simply because their appearance was making some of the other passengers uneasy. The horrific terrorist attacks left an ineradicable mental image in the minds of people worldwide. The government under George Bush and various agencies such as the entire transportation industry has been at the forefront of an anti-terrorism campaign focused on racial profiling of all individuals who appear to be of Arab descent or adhering to the Muslin faith. The term ‘War on Terror’ has been continually employed as a means of justifying abuses of basic civil liberties to those traveling. The rather obvious insinuation is that “one cannot condemn racial profiling because to do so will hinder the war on terrorism and undermine national security” (MacDonald, 2001). In contrast to these shaky statistics, there is overwhelming evidence that racial profiling on an official or pseudo-official level does nothing more than make matters worse by absorbing enforcement assets better used elsewhere, angers all those who might otherwise support American efforts against terrorism and significantly undermines the American ideals of equality, freedom and the right to fair treatment. While racial profiling on the part of organizations and government agencies might ordinarily remain a tacitly ignored element of modern society, this type of profiling occurring in conjunction with the type of alarming large-scale social experience represented by the terrorist attacks enflames latent social stereotypes. The majority of adult American citizens living prior to September 11, 2001 would have agreed that discrimination on the basis of race is morally and ethically wrong and unjustifiable. In many cases, individuals hadn’t really considered just how they felt about the Muslim religion or the races of the Middle East. With some variation to slightly antagonistic to slightly supportive, Americans essentially considered themselves neutral regarding their impression of the Arab’s place in the social hierarchy. However, the events of that date shocked the nation out of its perceived immunity from danger and thus seemed to justify greater caution. Those who felt a greater sense of threat were more eager to sacrifice personal freedom and individual rights in the form of racial profiling if this could provide a stronger perception of protection. Had the terrorists not been of obvious Arab descent, the profiling of airplane passengers and the widespread fear of this particular ethnic group would not be a matter of discussion (Polakow-Suransky, 2005). After the Oklahoma City federal building was bombed in 1995, no efforts were made to vilify or racially profile young white men, yet almost every individual with Middle Eastern features that has been detained at airports, kicked-off airplanes, had their bags searched or suffered ‘stare-downs’ with no provocation is not a terrorist any more than every white man is. Discrimination, no matter how it can be rationalized, causes the victimization of minority groups who are frequently already subdued as a result of their minority. When used to guide the practices and policies of ‘official’ organizations such as the police or airport security, discrimination of a specific group can leads to malicious stereotyping. Generalizations are then applied unilaterally to the race, which causes significant issues when witnessed and duplicated by the public (Hall, 2004). Common decisions of everyday life regarding which candidate to hire, what people will be admitted nearly free of search compared to those who’s every pocket will be invasively explored are based on the cultural attitudes that are set by enforcement agencies. For example, it is commonly assumed that black students will be unable to make the transition into college than white students, but actual scholastic comparisons indicate they are proportionately better prepared. If a person is physically beaten because they appear Arabic, that is termed racism, but when that same person is detained by security officers at the airport, it is called a necessary security measure. The change in terminology doesn’t make it right nor do some elements of society succeed in making the distinction. Even those who do understand the difference between official action and unofficial harassment have a tendency to fall in line with the prevalent modes of thinking in which Arabs are considered suspicious characters regardless of the context (Hall, 2004). It can be argued that the generalization of persons based on stereotypical characteristics is sometimes necessary and can be rationalized based on statistics. For example, if an explosive device has been reported being carried by a person on a plane full of passengers, when security officials board the plane looking for this person, they do not have time to consider the morality implications of stereotyping and generalizations. However, during less critical times, such as at the ticket counter or at check-in, the need to utilize profiling techniques simply is not as understandable yet are practiced and mimicked in numerous areas of life including the gift shop cashier, the bus driver, the rental car agent and the average fellow passenger. While the average citizen might ordinarily avoid any overt acts of racial profiling, impactful events such as shattering the nation’s sense of security have changed public sentiment. Arabs would likely answer differently than whites regarding whether this action was taking place and thus might reasonably expect some support from the black community, who also frequently suffer from immediate suspicion and anger. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Black persons are no less likely than is any other ethnic group to judge others by racial origin or cultural affiliation. It seems the ability to recognize racial discrimination only exists when it is one’s own race being maltreated. According to Urban League President Hugh Price, “…whenever people speak in favor of racial profiling, they always favor its use against some other groups, not theirs” (cited in Polakow-Suransky, 2005: 202). Public surveys have continued to indicate widespread public support of racial profiling of Middle Eastern persons among the African American community. Only recently has the trend begun to abate thanks to the hard work of black political and religious leaders as well as numerous civil rights advocates. The strength of the sentiment among the black population is particularly surprising in that these people do not seem able to draw the parallels. “Many blacks still view all Muslims with the same mix of caution, distrust and hostility as many white Americans do” (cited in Polakow-Suransky, 2005: 203). Of all the questions raised by the debate regarding racial profiling in the social realm, this has to be the most perplexing. NAACP President Frank Mesiah put it this way, “It is unfortunate that it would be African Americans that have suffered this type of terror and profiling at the hands of police…to then support this type of profiling” (cited in Polakow-Suransky, 2005: 203). While this seems to be highly hypocritical, the answer regarding why black people do not draw parallels between this and their own experience may be attributed to some of the rest of America’s willingness to vilify the Arabs. That there has always been an inherent mistrust of the Middle East can be discovered when one examines the images of the media, which serve to both reflect and reinforce these types of social beliefs. Artistic investigation has continued to demonstrate that representation, whether expressed in words or images, is not a neutral or innocent activity. The artist intentionally manipulates the medium to present a specific impression which is then received by the audience through a variety of means of interpretation which may or may be in line with the artist’s intentions. As a result, the images presented in the media have the potential to profound influence everyday lives (Lyotard, 1984). The reality of the world is that there are no forms that have not attached to themselves specific societal meanings which may fluctuate and change from one culture to another and which can be employed to suggest specific racial assumptions. “Images change us as we change them; they are part of the contest that is social change, the contest of differing histories and ideas” (MacDonald, 2001). As several individuals have discovered through an examination of America’s major and minor media, there has been a long-standing tradition within Western culture of painting the Middle East as a land of dark mystery, suspicion, deadly intent and irrational behavior. These images became increasingly focused on the dangerously negative when extremist Middle Easterners shook the flawed American perception that they were invulnerable. In doing so, the attitudes of these extremists were linked with the ideas of the media in which Arabs were portrayed as evil and then generalized to apply to all individuals of these cultures and races. One of the first people to write about how the concept of the Middle Easterner as evil is largely the result of their representation in the media was Edward Said, who wrote about the concept of Orientalism. Said argues that the concept of the Orient as it has been created within the minds of the West is so deeply ingrained in Western life that it ‘unconsciously’ manifests itself through the intertextual context and is indistinguishable to the Western writer from his own ‘pure’ thought. It follows that this ‘unconscious’ element of the writer is also unconscious on the part of the reader and that these concepts are equally applicable to other modes of communication such as television, film and news reporting. Writing well before the terrorist attacks, Said indicated that the Arab was even then given only negative associations. “There exists here an almost unanimous consensus that politically he [the Oriental] does not exist, and when it is allowed that he does, it is either as a nuisance or as an Oriental. The web of racism, cultural stereotypes, political imperialism, dehumanizing ideology holding in the Arab or the Muslim is very strong indeed, and it is this web which every Palestinian has come to feel as his uniquely punishing destiny” (Said, 1979: 27). Pointing out that for many in the Western world, the only understanding they will have of the Middle Eastern world is brought to them through video and other media, already filtered through the biased eyes of the West, Said points out how everything reported was made to seem backward, simple and non-threatening by placing it in the context of a passive action. This was accomplished through the process of comparable linguistics, in which everything is placed in a dominant-recessive opposition. A side effect of this process is the generalization of everything into a single group, ignoring hints of diversity. This had, and continues to have, a negative effect upon the Western world’s perception as they tend to understand a multitude of cultures in terms of a single identity. This process is explored through the work of Jacqueline Salloum, a Syrian-American artist based in New York. This artist focuses on exposing the West’s stereotypical and vilified representation of Arabic populations across the globe, particularly following the attacks. The images she brings forward are usually polluted with isolated images of women covered head to toe in traditional garb or men with narrowed eyes bearing arms aimed at the West. As Salloum points out, these stereotypical images are in complete contrast to the playfulness of Western pop culture in such areas as teen movies, MTV, and our social infatuation with youth and excess. The opposition of these fun-loving, all-American prototypes to the sullen and aggressive images of Arabs emphasizes the differences between East and West in a way that vilifies the East. Whether considered romantic or ignorant, the public’s reliance on these conflicting stereotypes for their information about the Middle East enable the psychological maintenance of barriers and borders between these different cultures. Salloum’s video entitled Planet of the Arabs exploits this Hollywood representation of Arabs by editing together a traileresque montage of the film industry’s relentless vilification and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims. Hollywood’s representation of the Middle East is a prime example of how the media creates an ‘us’ and ‘them’ scenario regarding Arabs fostering greater fear and suspicion of the ‘other’. Of the 1000 films Salloum found that have Arab and Muslim characters, only 12 presented positive depictions. Approximately 52 were more even handed in tone while the rest of the 900 or so depictions of Arabs were negative. This demonstrates how media has been used as a political tool to influence the way in which the public thinks about the Middle Eastern issue. By using these symbols in this new context, emphasizing the way in which the films provide a one-sided, heavily biased and negative view of an entire culture, Salloum presents an original message that makes a statement about the way in which the public mind has been manipulated to automatically perceive an Arabic individual as evil. Although we’d like to believe we have outgrown the issues of race and gender in the modern society, having discovered that there is no actual difference between the physical nature of a white man, red man, black man or olive-skinned, the process of racial profiling on a personal and official level seems unlikely to go away. This is because our attitudes and lack of experience are reflected through the avenues of the media and thus become the viewpoint of the people. When situations such as 9/11 occur, in which a particular race can be blamed for a singular event or otherwise perceived as a social threat, as in the case of the young black men of the city, the media continues to build on these notions, reinforcing them rather than attempting to defeat the inherent errors. Also reinforcing these beliefs are the official or unofficial but widely practiced policies of racial profiling such as detaining a larger number of young black men as potential criminals or a large number of Middle Easterners as potential terrorists. When the public sees these kinds of behaviors in airports and on roadways, the latent beliefs gained through media presentation are fanned into life again, contributing to a vicious circle in which there are only two outcomes – either we spin into an authoritarian state in which a specific segment of the population is denied its fundamental human rights or we awake to the madness and consciously work to put an end to it. Leading the example are artists such as Jacqueline Salloum who work to expose the process and strive to redefine the assumptions that have been made. Only by taking this example and applying it to our personal lives and striving to call attention to it for others can we begin to move toward the more equal and fair society our forefathers envisioned. Works Cited Frommer, Frederic J. “Senator: Racial profiling ban is priority, but a foe warns against handing U.S. to terrorists.” Chicago Sun Times. (January 29, 2007). Hall, C. Margaret. “Public Roots of Sociological Practice: Social Intelligence.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. San Francisco, CA: (August 14, 2004). March 13, 2009 Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. Geoff. University of Minnesota Press, 1984. MacDonald, Heather. “The War on the Police … and How it Harms the War on Terrorism.” Supra. Vol. 7, I. 16, (December 31, 2001). March 13, 2009 Polakow-Suransky. “Racial Profiling Goes Beyond Black and White.” What Matters in America. Gary Goshgarian (Ed.). New York: Longman, 2005, pp. 200-205. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979. Salloum, Jacqueline. Planet of the Arabs. (2005). March 13, 2009 Turvey, B. “Deductive Criminal Profiling: Comparing Applied Methodologies Between Inductive and Deductive Criminal Profiling Techniques.” Knowledge Solutions Library. (January 1998). March 13, 2009 Read More