Racial Profiling

It's Friday night and your friend calls you up to let you know about a party that going to be thrown that night. You decide that you want to go to the party, being that you have nothing to do for the evening. When you are finally dressed for the party, you leave your home, and get into your SUV. On the way over, you decide that you are not going to drink because you know that you will have to get back home, and chances are it will be pretty late by the time you leave the party. At last you are there; you greet your friends, and meet some new people. At around 12:30, you decide that you are going to make your way home. You find your friend and let him know that you have things you have to do in the morning so you'll be taking off.

You leave the party and make your way onto the highway to go back home. Suddenly you notice flashing lights in your rear view mirror. First you check your speedometer to see if you are over the speed limit, but you're not, in fact you are driving one mph less than the speed limit. So you pull your car over thinking that maybe the officer is going to tell you that you have a broken taillight. You stop your car, and the officer stops his right behind you, and approaches your vehicle. Once he approaches your car he asks for your license and registration. Without hesitation you give it to him. After going over you information, he finally asks you, "how did YOU afford a car this expensive?" Without letting you say a word, he automatically assumes that you must be a drug dealer. He immediately calls for back up. Just then you notice another car speeding by. The officer does nothing. About five minutes later, three squad cars show up. All of the police officers get out of their cars, and the officer that pulled you over now attempts to drag you out of your vehicle. At the slightest bit of resistance, the officer calls over another officer, and they both hold you down while the other police officers strip your car down. After they search your car, only to come up empty handed, they all get back into their cars and drive off, leaving you with a torn and battered car, in the middle of the highway.

This is just one of the many cases of racial profiling. All too many times African Americans are pulled over in their cars, stopped in the street, and watched in stores, just because of the color of their skin.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan issued a "War on Drugs" in order to eliminate the distribution of illegal drugs, and also drugs there were legal from being sold illegally. This in turn pushed aside all anti-racist beliefs that white Americans had only recently began to form. However, many may say that this is what started racial profiling. Yet, racial profiling has long since been apart of society. It has been used to make laws. Take for example the "Black