Social Injustice in America: Racial Profiling
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America ” – Preamble from US Constitution
Our “Founding Fathers” created many goals for our country such as, first, to not die off like Roanoke and, second, to establish justice for everyone who walks on the land. Obviously, there was a miscommunication because, at the time, they meant justice for old white men only. Unfortunately, it has been harder than expected to fulfill the second …show more content…
Especially when, according to Paul Bou-Habib, it is against one racial group but not against another in the same circumstance (Bou-Habib 34). Since 2012, altercations between police and blacks have become more frequent. Lizette Alvarez, the Miami Bureau Chief for the New York Times, gathered statistics that show how “Black drivers in Florida were stopped and given tickets nearly twice as often as whites in 2014” (1). In addition, in 2014, “Black drivers were given twenty-two percent of tickets but they made about thirteen and a half percent of the statewide driving-age population with access to a car” (Alvarez 2). Also, “Black drivers in Florida were four times as likely as whites to be stopped” (1). Meanwhile, in Greensboro, North Carolina, studies have shown that the police treated black drivers “more harshly” than white ones (LaFraniere and Lehren 3). Greensboro’s population of marijuana users are about the same in amount. However due to racial profiling, African American residents in Greensboro, about forty-one percent of the population, are charged with possession of minor amounts of marijuana five times as often as whites ones (2). The same type of statistics are being shown in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In fact, the top states that are known for their disproportionate percentage of stops are Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Rhode Island …show more content…
Lately, traffic stops have become more violent, which is an oppressive factor within itself. According to Young, Manning Marable cites many different violent beatings, and killings by officers while on duty (Young 61). In 1991, the Los Angeles police officers who beat African-American Rodney King referred to a domestic dispute among African-Americans as right out of 'Gorillas in the Mist '” (qtd in Green 1). Twenty-one years later, in 2012, George Zimmerman of Florida shot an unarmed 17-year-old Black high schooler named Trayvon Martin. Since Martin’s death, the amount of trust between the police and the black community nationwide has diminished and has divided the people of the United States once again. Two years after Martin’s death, Michael Brown, unarmed, was shot by the police in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner, also unarmed, who was put in a chokehold by a New York police officer in Staten Island, New York. A chart from the NY Times indicates that when asked if the recent killings of African American men by police “were isolated incidents or part of a bigger problem”, sixty-five percent of whites believe that they were isolated incidents while, on the other hand, eighty-one percent of Blacks believe that the killings were part of a bigger problem (LaFraniere and Lehren 10). Racial Profiling is definitely part of a bigger problem because in 2015 alone, over one hundred cases like Trayvon’s
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America ” – Preamble from US Constitution
Our “Founding Fathers” created many goals for our country such as, first, to not die off like Roanoke and, second, to establish justice for everyone who walks on the land. Obviously, there was a miscommunication because, at the time, they meant justice for old white men only. Unfortunately, it has been harder than expected to fulfill the second …show more content…
Especially when, according to Paul Bou-Habib, it is against one racial group but not against another in the same circumstance (Bou-Habib 34). Since 2012, altercations between police and blacks have become more frequent. Lizette Alvarez, the Miami Bureau Chief for the New York Times, gathered statistics that show how “Black drivers in Florida were stopped and given tickets nearly twice as often as whites in 2014” (1). In addition, in 2014, “Black drivers were given twenty-two percent of tickets but they made about thirteen and a half percent of the statewide driving-age population with access to a car” (Alvarez 2). Also, “Black drivers in Florida were four times as likely as whites to be stopped” (1). Meanwhile, in Greensboro, North Carolina, studies have shown that the police treated black drivers “more harshly” than white ones (LaFraniere and Lehren 3). Greensboro’s population of marijuana users are about the same in amount. However due to racial profiling, African American residents in Greensboro, about forty-one percent of the population, are charged with possession of minor amounts of marijuana five times as often as whites ones (2). The same type of statistics are being shown in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In fact, the top states that are known for their disproportionate percentage of stops are Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Rhode Island …show more content…
Lately, traffic stops have become more violent, which is an oppressive factor within itself. According to Young, Manning Marable cites many different violent beatings, and killings by officers while on duty (Young 61). In 1991, the Los Angeles police officers who beat African-American Rodney King referred to a domestic dispute among African-Americans as right out of 'Gorillas in the Mist '” (qtd in Green 1). Twenty-one years later, in 2012, George Zimmerman of Florida shot an unarmed 17-year-old Black high schooler named Trayvon Martin. Since Martin’s death, the amount of trust between the police and the black community nationwide has diminished and has divided the people of the United States once again. Two years after Martin’s death, Michael Brown, unarmed, was shot by the police in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner, also unarmed, who was put in a chokehold by a New York police officer in Staten Island, New York. A chart from the NY Times indicates that when asked if the recent killings of African American men by police “were isolated incidents or part of a bigger problem”, sixty-five percent of whites believe that they were isolated incidents while, on the other hand, eighty-one percent of Blacks believe that the killings were part of a bigger problem (LaFraniere and Lehren 10). Racial Profiling is definitely part of a bigger problem because in 2015 alone, over one hundred cases like Trayvon’s