Arrest the Racism; Racial Profiling on America's Roadways

Arrest the Racism:

Driving While a Minority on America's Roadways

After 9/11, racial profiling has become widely accepted as an appropriate form of crime prevention. People were sought after based solely on the fact that they were of Arab decent. But racial profiling did not start with September 11th - racial profiling has been around for ages. Tracy Maclin, a professor at Boston University School of Law, says that racial profiling "can trace its historical roots [back] to a time in early American society when court officials in cities like Philadelphia permitted constables and ordinary citizens the right to 'take up' all black persons seen 'gadding abroad' without their master's permission." (Meeks, 24). But racial profiling doesn't only occur against blacks and Arabs; it occurs against Asians, Middle Eastern Muslims, Hispanics and Latinos also.

Some Blacks and Arabs don't mind the racial profiling though. "During a time when there is trouble going on in the middle east and since there have been attacks on the US...... searching someone who looks suspicious seems somewhat of a logical action. But....these actions shouldn't be a direct result of their race alone." said Ahmed Tawfik, a Muslim from Egypt. "People often times get caught up in the whole invasion of privacy aspect, but when the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people can be prevented then some people are going to be inconvenience, and that's one of the sacrifices and slow downs I will accept for safety and peace of mind......people also often times mistake racial profiling for oppression"

The latest edition of Webster's Dictionary includes an entry for the term. It defines 'racial profiling' as "the mass police policy of stopping and searching vehicles driven by people of a particular race." (Meeks, 27). Racial profiling may be a new term, but it's a...