Racial Profiling Continues to Hurt America

Gonzalo Garcia

Miranda Gardner

English 101

October 11th, 2018

Racial Profiling Continues to Hurt America

The fight against racism has been continuous in the United States. A persistent and troubling issue is racial profiling, which is defined as the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. This form of racism has deeply impacted the lives of many minorities, to the extent that they sometimes fear for their lives. Due to their skin color, minorities such as African Americans are viewed as criminals and are neglected. In Born Bright by C. Nicole Manson, “Neighbors” by J. Cole, and a TED Talk, the practice of racial profiling is evident.

In Born Bright, C. Nicole Manson discusses an incident of the past that involved racial profiling within a black neighborhood. “The LAPD treated black men and women as enemies of the city […] those who dared venture past the barrier were harassed, beaten, or threatened with arrest” (Manson 22). The police have been one of the biggest groups involved with this act of racism which I find deeply disturbing. The very group of people that are supposed to protect us are the ones generating fear and causing great suffering to minorities. The fact that their motive to physically abuse and falsely accuse a group of people lies based on their skin color is horrifying. Another example of racial profiling in Born Bright was when C. Nicole Manson’s mother was hospitalized, “To the doctors at Brookdale Memorial Hospital my mother was just another unwed, pregnant black teenager on Medicaid, and they treated her as such” (Manson 18). Since she was a young African American mother, the doctors assumed she would not care about the child, so they neglected her. I find this very wrong because they associate black mothers with ignorance and believe that they are uncaring. Therefore, often treating them with contempt because of racial profiling and are not given quality service or access to vital resources.

The rapper Jermaine Lemar Cole, better known as J. Cole raps about an occasion in which he personally experienced racial profiling and the effect it had on him. In his song “Neighbors” he raps, “I can't sleep cause I'm paranoid, black in a white man territory, cops bust in with the army guns no evidence of the harm we done just a couple neighbors that assume we slang" (Cole). The rappers house was broken into by police because the neighbors assumed he was selling drugs and clearly their judgment was solely based on the fact that he is black. I also have experienced a similar type of racial profiling in my life. On one occasion, a group of friends and I were walking around my neighborhood just enjoying the day and after a while, we saw a police car pass by us and ask us what we were up to. The police officer later informs us that a neighbor called them because of “suspicious activity”, that individual believed we were going to break into someone's home. Experiences like those leave you marked and hurt because you start