Crytical Analysis

Essay by carmella robinsonUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, June 2005

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Racism is one of the most challenging issues confronting America, a nation whose ancestry includes every people on earth. Racism is an affront to human dignity, a cause of hatred and division, and a disease that devastates society. Though racism is alive and well and infects every aspect of human nature, the ongoing issue is whether or not law enforcement is immune.

"Minorities who have committed no crimes, especially African American males, are disproportionately stopped, searched and detained by police". Racial Bias Influences Law Enforcement Decisions, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.

James Taylor maintains the view that police arrest blacks and Latinos more than whites because these minorities commit a disproportionate amount of crimes as explained in his writing entitled: Racial Bias Does Not Influence Most Law Enforcement Decisions.

According to Keeanga-Yamahtta police use race-based profiling in determining which cars to stop on the highway. Blacks make up 14 percent of drivers, yet account for 72 percent of all traffic stops.

Studies have shown long-standing and routine police brutality in high crime districts. In police training video blacks are the criminals to be pursued. Police departments, vehemently deny using race as a determinative factor in stopping an automobile. Instead, they justify their actions as a part of enforcing the traffic laws of their respective states. The real reason that blacks and Hispanics are subjected to disproportionately higher rates of traffic stops is because the police have profiled these races for involvement in illegal drug activity. This profiling is not based on just pure speculation. Members of law enforcement have admitted that being black or Hispanic was and is a factor in their drug courier profile on which they decide who to stop and search.

These stereotypes of African-Americans and Latino-Americans as "drug dealers" are motivating which motorists on our highways are actually being...