Race,+Ethnic,+Religious+Issues+-+Profiling+Pre+and+Post+Sept.+11,+2001


 * Note to parents and community members:** If there is any information on which you would like to comment or provide feedback/insight, please click on the discussion tab above. You must be a registered user. Please click here for those directions.

Other wikispace pages about your topic should identify key people and events from the history of your topic. Topic headings (links to pages) for your project could include the following:
 * Note to students:** Your main wikispace page should clearly identify why your topic is a civil rights issue.

=Title of Exhibit topic= Why this topic is a civil rights issue (overview)
 * History of Topic (may include a timeline of important events )
 * Significant People

__Introduction:__

In an airport, a black man is watched in a store to make sure he's not shoplifting. Another man of Middle-Eastern descent is asked to get off of a plane- since 9/11, many pilots are scared to fly with Muslim passengers. Outside, a mile away, an African-American man is pulled over by a police man for "not wearing a seatbelt"- also known as an offense called DWB: driving while black. These are all cases of racial profiling- the ACLU definition saying it best when it states, "Racial profiling is any police or private security practice in which a person is treated as a suspect because of their race, religion, nationality, or ethnicity." Unfortunately, racial profiling is still occurring, and is in fact controversial. While some say they're being discriminated against, being forced into their racial stereotype, others say that racial profiling is based on nothing but stastics. While one man sees it as him being pulled over and searched for drugs because he's of African-American descent, others see it as the most common type of drug abuser (African-American men between the ages of 19 and 30) being searched for drugs to help the fight in the War on Drugs. Racial profiling is a civil rights issue that's occurring right now, fueled by such tragedies as 9/11 and the War on Drugs. The question that people who know about racial profiling have to ask is, is it right- or is it just plain wrong? Is it okay for police to assume that because a man is Muslim, he's a terrorist? Or is it wrong, because it's discriminatory and a stereotype? Can law enforcement officials really be allowed to use race, religion, ethnicity, or natial origin as a factor in suspecting someone of a crime? Most people disagree. They don't think that someone should be punished for their "crime" of being a certain race, or a certain ethnicity. People should be more then just their race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin, and when the innocent become guilty because of those things, it's racist and discriminatory. Hopefully, by the time you finish browsing through our page, you'll agree with us along with them.

__Definition:__

Racial profiling, as was stated above, is when law enforcement officials such as police or private security suspect someone of a crime or treat them as a suspect of a crime because of their race, religion, national origin, or ethnicity. There are many different forms of racial profiling, but they all have that common factor. Because it's law enforcement officials who treat people of a certain race, ethnicity, or national origin as criminals when racial profiling takes place, names like "DWB" or "Driving While Black or Brown" have been created to specify the type of racial profiling. This is a list of some of the "crimes" committed by victims of racial profiling:
 * Driving While Black or Brown
 * Flying While Black or Brown
 * Shopping While Black or Brown
 * Biking While Black or Brown
 * Walking While Black or Brown
 * Bitten While Black or Brown
 * Working While Black or Brown
 * Flying While Arab

Often in racial profiling, the person enforcing the law will assume that because the person is dangerous or a criminal because of their race, ethnicity, or national origin. For example, in cases of DWB, the police officer enforcing the law will pull over the driver for being black/brown, they will instead then give them a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt, or driving with out a license- offenses you can only notice once you pull someone over. Since you can't actually ticket someone for being a certain race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin, the policeman while find some other offense to ticket them for, but it would actually be for being black. Sometimes, they will do a search of their car for drugs, because they assume that because the driver is black/brown they're dealing with drugs. They're basing their law enforcement upon race. Unfortunately, it's difficult to do things about this because the officer did also pull them over for 'not wearing a seatbelt'.

Racial profiling cases occur often, even if it's just "shopping while black or brown" when the security officer watches them more closely then they do other shoppers because they believe they might be shoplifting. That, as well as stopping pedestrians to request documents and other examples, are cases of mild racial profiling. In some more severe cases, victims are searched, or even have violence used against them. One man recalls he got pulled over by the police, and they took apart his entire car piece by piece to make sure he had no drugs. His only "crime" was DWB- driving while black.

Terms such as the ones listed above, when used, are not actual crimes. They're just referring to the reason why the person was treated the way they were in that situation (i.e. DWB would be getting pulled over, SWB would be being watched by a store security person, etc). When these terms are used in a sentence, they do not actually refer to true crimes, they are just referring to the "crime" the law enforcement official makes them feel like the victim of racial profiling committed.

__Racial Profiling: Native Americans__

Most Natives Americans call it “Driving While Indian.” According to the National American Indian Housing Council, 2.4 million Indians in the United States complain about unjustified stops by local police on roads leading to and from reservations. In South Dakota, reports of racial profiling led to hearings before the state legislature. This is where Indians testified about being stopped and searched not only because of their races but also because of religious articles hanging that were hanging from rearview mirrors, and license plates that said that they lived on reservations. In June 2002, Native Americans in Bennett County complained to the Department of Justice, alleging that racial profiling was in the hands of sheriffs there, including vehicle stops, breathalyzer tests without reasonable suspicion, warrantless searches of homes along with vehicles, and a demand to see drivers licenses and vehicle registrations while inside the prison there.

__Racial Profiling: Asians__

According to a U.S. census in 2006, 4% of the United States population have been victims of racial profiling. The majority of these people have been Asian Americans.

A Taiwanese American, Wen Ho Lee was targeted and suspected of espionage based on his race, high ranking FBI and Department of Energy officials say they did single him out because of his race. Eight other non-Asian people were not persecuted because they were not of that race.

In Seattle, Washington, 14 Asian American were stopped for jaywalking according to The Washington Post. They were kept up against the wall for an hour. They said they did this because they didn't speak English.

In 2001, the Asian Freedom Project of Wisconsin issued a report that found racial profiling to be common among communities there. This included the testimony of women, men, boys, and girls.

__Racial Profiling: Middle-Eastern__

Flying While Arab is a term used to describe passengers on flights who are of Middle-Eastern appearance. Racial profiling is the term used to describe government officials acting based on race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin. People who are Muslim, or who are or look like they are from the Middle East, get discriminated against on planes. This mostly involves the victim of racial profiling getting pulled off of a plane, being “randomly selected” for a security check, or, in extreme cases, having their name black-listed. Being black listed is when the victim’s name is added to a list of terrorists who airports are not allowed to put on planes. Most commonly, people on this list who are not terrorists are, in fact, innocent American citizens whose name happens to have phonetic similarities to the name of a terrorist. One man by the common South-Asian name Arshad Chowhury was born in the United States, his parents immigrants from Bangladesh. On the October 23rd following 9/11, he was supposed to fly back to his school, but he wasn’t allowed on the plane because his name had phonetic similarities to a name on the “watch” list. He soon found himself surrounded by the FBI and the security guards, and even after being cleared, he wasn’t allowed to board the plane. He had to switch airlines and then go back. Months later, he found his name was on the Terror Watch list, and was black-listed from using many airlines. He’s now in a case against four airlines with four other men for racial profiling, represented by ACLU. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon.

__Banning Racial Profiling__

(Any quotes used in this document were said by U.S. Senator Russ Feingold) On August 1, 2001 the second racial profiling hearing was had. President Bush had spoke out about against racial profiling first in his debates and campaigns and then in February as his first adress to the congress while he was in office. The first hearing talked about the humiliation that racial profiling victims had gone through in the past. There were stories about law-abiding Americans who in fact were in fact racially profiled victims. Master Sergeant Rossano Gerald spoke out against this and The Somolia Conflict and The Gulf War. Then he talked about the effects these had, had racial profiling the U.S. A gallup poll found that 44% of African Americans believed they had been stopped by police because of their race or ethnicity before in their lives. "Racial profiling is a shame on our society that must be stopped. It is injust and un-American." The End of Racial Profiling Act bans racial profiling but it also provides steps in order to ban this practice from occuring. He said "Our bill conditions and certain federal funds to state and local law enforcement officials have been talked about because of their compliance with these requirements. Also, the Attorney General would have to report to congress two years after the act has been enacted and every year there after telling the U.S. about racial profiling and what is going on. Russ Feingold also wanted to say that the majority of policemen put their lives on the line ever day and that we all must work together to tell the few policemen who have profiled U.S. citizens to stop what they are doing. He says "I am very pleased by the growing amount of officers that have begun taking steps to adress the problems of racial profiling.

__Pro-Racial Profiling__

Not everyone sees racial profiling as a problem. Some say it's a good thing. Since racial profiling is based on stereotypes (i.e. all Arabs are terrorists, all black people deal with drugs, Mexicans near the border are illegal, etc), some say these stereotypes were derived from statistics. 47.53% of all the people serving time for drug abuse in 2002 were African-American males, more than any other ethnicity. Some people believe that since most of these stereotypes are based on facts, it's only reasonable to go by these statistics. If African-American young males are more likely to do drugs then others, then fighting the War on Drugs means that police officers are going to have to buckle down on those who are most likely to use it. However, people who ARE in favor of racial profiling often do not see the other side. Just because every person on the U.S. Terrorist list was Muslim does not mean that every Muslim is a U.S. terrorist. What makes racial profiling a controversial issue is that opinions on it vary.

__Racial Profiling, Pre- and Post-9/11__

Racial profiling has changed since the tragedy that occurred on September 11th, 2001. Before 9/11, racial profiling was mainly focused on fighting the war on drugs. Law enforcement officials would mainly use racial profiling against people who were African-American, searching them for drugs or stopping them for DWB. The use of racial profiling was mainly directed against minorities to try to beat out the increasingly popular use of drugs. However, post-9/11, racial profiling's energy was redirected towards people who are of Middle-Eastern appearance, or who are Muslim. Things like "Flying While Arab" (see above) have become the new "crimes" in racial profiling. However, the other instances of racial profiling- DWB- have not becomes less common, they have just stepped out of the spotlight. Because the terrorists involved in the 9/11 tragedy were for the most part from the Middle-East or Muslim, law enforcement officials have begun to get increasingly guilty of using racial profiling against those who are of Middle-Eastern appearance. Some people may be asked to get off of a plane because of this, or maybe have people act more suspicious towards them. Just like in other cases of racial profiling, this new focus of racial profiling has different degrees of severity. However, they all have one thing in common: they assume that because someone is Middle-Eastern, Arabic, or Muslim, that they are terrorists.

__Virtual Legacies__:

Jonny Gammage- Billy Clabby Timothy Thomas- Abby Charbonneau Darryl Hunt- Abby Charbonneau Roger N. Baldwin - Whitney Hanson

__Conclusion__

An African-American man gets shot by a policeman who assumes that he's reaching for a gun when, in fact, there is no weapon on the body. A man of Middle-Eastern appearance can no longer fly on a plane without being checked by the FBI for bombs, or being asked by the pilot to get off. A Native-American man is stopped unnecessarily for unjustified breathalizer tests. Racial profiling is law enforcement based on stereotypes, and people suffer for it. A man spends 20 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and it was only assumed that he did because he was black. Racial profiling needs to be stopped now. People's lives are being ruined, or ending, because of it. Those who know about racial profiling think it's wrong; we do too. We hope that now you know about it, you can make your own choice: should it be assumed a man is a criminal because of his race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin? To learn more about racial profiling, check out http://www.ACLU.org