Nicole Carolin ’13, Mae Maltby ’13: While racial profiling may seem necessary to ensure national security, it actually compromises morality and citizens’ safety. By identifying each member of a certain race or ethnicity as a predisposed stereotype, the government not only belittles Americans but also jeopardizes their safety. Recently, racial profiling has reemerged in the national spotlight with the Trayvon Martin case. Racial profiling was used by George Zimmerman, the man accused of killing Martin, an African American teenager. However, this form of discrimination has long been an issue of national debate.
History teacher Robert Trumbull noted, “Certainly racial profiling and stereotyping has been around for a long, long time. It is unfortunate that it still is so prevalent.” This form of identification is unequivocally immoral, yet viable solutions to prevent this injustice have failed to be implemented. The exposure of racial profiling in national headlines, and its presence at airport security checkpoints across the country, leads many to question the justification of racial profiling in regards to national security.
Concern for national security is a critical issue for Americans, but using racial profiling should not be the only means of protection, especially when it unfairly deprives some citizens of their freedoms. In post-9/11 America, Arabs are automatically judged by their ethnicity as people stereotype an entire group based on the heinous actions of a few extreme members. Arabs aren’t the only ones targeted. In August of 2011, The New York Times printed an article that described an instance where an African American woman, Timery Shante Nance, had her hair publicly “patted down” after a full-body scan system failed to trigger an alarm. Courtney Portlock, Head of Upper School Diversity, noted that “while we need assumptions to live, we need to make assumptions for our own safety; assumptions that are made based on someone’s appearance, or more specifically someone’s race, can really be detrimental to not only the individual but also to the system.” She also pointed out that if security is focused on a particular profile, others who do not fit that profile can more easily slip through the cracks. In this way, racial profiling not only compromises morality, but also security.
Following the recent Junto debate on the ethics of racial profiling, Junto Board member Rohan Gulati ‘13 mentioned that after September 11th, “Muslims faced increased scrutiny not only from airlines but also from society. If these negative stereotypes persist, they can start a cultural idea of feeling the need to distrust them or separate ourselves from them.”
In the recent Arizona v. United States case, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. noted that the national government has a database of immigrant passports, but not one for citizens. This leads to unequal application of law, as police officers often use preconceived notions of an ethnicity to determine if an individual has citizen status or immigrant status. The New York Times stated, “A citizen who took a walk after dark without identification could be stopped and locked up because the government couldn’t verify his citizenship.”
Verrilli’s proposed provision obliges police to hold the suspect in question until his or her status can be determined. Sam Willis, Upper School Diversity Coordinator, noted, “Even if the intention of the law is good, these types of laws foster a climate of fear which is felt, not just by people of Hispanic ethnicity, but by all American immigrants, and not just those here illegally.”
In our country today, a myriad of different forms of racial profiling exists, which has a profoundly negative impact on more than just those targeted by the laws. All security personnel, whether the police or the TSA, should be drilled with the notion that suspicious behavior, not appearance, is the foremost indicator of a threat. Change needs to take place on the local level in order for change to come about in the national spectrum. Local law enforcement should strive to better understand ethnic communities in its vicinity. Moreover, we as students can begin to influence such decisions and policies by expanding our knowledge of such issues and refusing to tolerate instances of ignorance. In an ideal world, this would shift perceptions and prevent discrimination. While neither of these solutions would, even if they materialized, immediately “fix” the problem of racial profiling, they still serve as meaningful steps in the right direction. In a country that is always looking ahead, we must never allow injustice to prevail, especially when citizens’ civil liberties are at stake.

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