Whats Race got to do with it by John Cloud, Marguerite Michaels and Sarah Dale - Essay Example

?The article “What’s Race got to do with it?” bylined by John Cloud, Marguerite Michaels and Sarah Dale appeared in the internet version of Time Magazine July 30, 2001. Addressed in the article were issues of racial profiling allegedly being employed by law enforcement during instances involving stop and frisks, traffic stops and arrests; under this theory, cops were allegedly more likely to stop an African American man driving a car on suspicions of driving under the influence (DUI) rather than a white man. They were seen as more likely to subject Arab-Americans to additional screening at airports than other airline passengers. Additionally they were more likely to question young Hispanic men on suspicions related to drug involvement than other races or ethnicities. Widespread reports of racial profiling led to incidents in around the United States, notably to the issue in Cincinnati where police clashed violently with black protestors for three days; these events have called attention to the alleged problems from the general public and political leaders. Cloud et al observes a nationwide scrambling for legislative approaches approaching the use of racial profiling among law enforcement. Bans have been advanced against the use of profiling (race related) as a law enforcement tool. The writers anticipate, however, a problem in implementing a sweeping prohibition in racial profiling as was being contemplated by the End Racial Profiling bill, pending as of 2000 before Congress. One potential outcome of such legislation seems to cause hesitation with law enforcement, an example of which can be seen in the Cincinnati riots where arrests declined in numbers despite there being a large amount of criminal incidents. Additionally, there is the problem of showing that racial profiling is indeed occurring. The article itself was approached with a logical consistency that allowed the reader to draw conclusions based in evidence while still presenting the ideas the authors wanted its readers to see. The general impression that one gets after reading the article is that the writers wanted to impress the American readers of the craziness of a sweeping anti-racial profiling law, considering the absence of a mechanism that could measure racial profiling with surety. Along these lines, the article begins taking into account the perspectives of police officers, particularly those who complained about the reverse stereotyping “guilt by uniform” phenomena. The article also points out that there is no exact definition for what racial profiling is and hence, the consequent difficulty in telling police to stop employing it (Cloud et al 2). Still later, it stresses the difficulty in gauging the actual amount of racial profiling being practiced by the police force (Cloud et al 3). Understandably it seemed that the writers approached this subject in a delicate manner, choosing to allow the interviewees opinions and collected data, do the talking for them. The article does not make much use of ‘pathos’-the writers seemingly holding back perhaps out of fear that they would be stirring the hornet’s nest. On the other hand, the writers attempt to resort to the appeal of logic and reason by providing interviews, reports and factual accounts of events throughout the article that represented their perspectives well. The appeal to logic and reason seems to be employed in the attempt to sidestep the emotional nature of this issue, which is not a bad approach except that it makes the writers seem to be without a position and leaves the readers struggling to figure out what the objective of the article is. In this way, the writers allow some police personnel to recount the depression that fill their respective agencies leaving their hands tied with charges of racial profiling looming above their heads like the proverbial sword of Damocles. The article follows with details of racial profiling incidents such as “flying while black” incident involving the seizure of $7,000 from a black businessman by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) on the ground as suspected drug money, this is later proven false. Another example is the “ailing while black” confession from a pain specialist who admitted that doctors often held back from giving sickle-cell-disease patients painkillers for the reason that they are more susceptible to addiction (Cloud et al 2). In addition, as the article presents an authoritative view that describes the difficulty of measuring racial profiling and a city police chief crisis in publicizing raw data involving his officers stopping of minorities in his area for fear that it will lead to misleading headlines. Another account was related to the DEA’s Operation Pipeline where many young Hispanic males were subjected to searches based solely on the suspicion that they may be drug couriers (Cloud et al 4-5). This approach with the article is something that can generally be found in Tim Magazine, where write-ups are expected to be professionally written and as unbiased as possible. The article makes a point. Seeing how and when racial profiling is being committed presents some complication that can deter and hamper police effectiveness. On what basis, for example, should a police officer be adjudicated as having committed racial profiling? Should this entail every policeman writing a report detailing how many stops or apprehensions he or she made specifically drawing attention to those involving minorities? This approach could potentially have the effect of psychologically interfering with police work, and on the criminal justice system in general. Officers would be forced to hesitate even more than normal which could potentially place the officer and other innocents at risk. The threat of a potential liability issue with regards to racial profiling would hang over the officers heads daily further reducing their ability to perform due to increased job related stress. In the American Criminal Justice system, justice, is expected to be equally applied to all regardless of skin color. A police officer should not be blocked from arresting any suspect because they fear repercussions based on an idea that is not clarified fully. Nonetheless, racial profiling exists and the article acknowledges it. Yet, even while it acknowledges it, somehow the writers seem to be justifying racial profiling. Statistically certain races and ethnic groups tend to commit certain crimes more or are involved in different types of accidents at a higher rate. This shows that racial profiling may not in fact be the only factor when police stops and arrests. The article cites an Accident Analysis and Prevention study where it was shown that more African Americans failed alcohol breath tests then did Whites. Statistics are unable to give a full understanding by themselves. Statistics also cannot justify what is wrong in and of itself, in this case racial profiling. While it will reduce the ability of police to place limits on arrest numbers with regards to race, it is equally wrong to police to use race alone as a factor to stop a driver or stop and frisk a pedestrian simply because they are in that minority that fits a profile. In its effort to appear rational and unbiased, the article ask “But is any of this relevant?” after it displays a stream of statistics showing how Blacks and Hispanics figured high in studies and surveys on drunk driving and other criminal acts. It then justifies police stops as mostly found by suspicious circumstances rather than race or ethnicity. Additionally it cites another study from San Diego showing a 10 to three ration of probability of searches between Black and Hispanics on one hand and Whites, on the other. In those searches, the article continues, the search on Blacks and Whites generate a 13% chance of contraband and only a 5% chance in Hispanics (Cloud et al 6). One is reminded of how the writers previously attack the idea of a legislation banning racial profiling on the ground that there would be difficulty in determining when and how it is actually committed. One is surprised, therefore, that after adopting such an objective frame of mind, they suddenly turned around and thoroughly account for police stops and searches on the road as established by multiple of concerns other than racial profiling as if they are hidden in the minds of these police officers. The article supports this claim by presenting yet another statistical figure. It is evident that the article tried to include as much logic and rationale as it can to appear objective and unbiased, tactfully including information and data about actual racial profiling, to soften the impact of its position, this later ending with the rejection of a pending racial profiling legislative approach. This has the effect of making the writers appear in a constant balancing act between supporting and defending racial profiling. Nonetheless, with the article title as a dead giveaway, the effort proved useless in the end as the article suddenly shifted from an unbiased standpoint to a prejudiced advocate of partial race profiling grounded on the justification that race and ethnicity have been proven in many statistical studies and surveys. This approach could possibly alienate the reader the inclusion of certain surveys and studies does indeed indicate what they state. Regardless there is no justification for racial profiling, stops and other forms of apprehensions must be based in more than a person’s skin color, legally there has to be a reasonable suspicion based on actions but there should not be a suspicion directly related to skin color. In conclusion, the law must find a balance between preventing racial profiling and allowing police the necessary space to complete their job properly without being potentially hampered by accusations of racial profiling or even the use of numbers to reduce the number of minorities which could make the perception of racial inequality worse. The fact that racial profiling exists is a reminder that even after decades of fighting against it racism is still an issue though apparently a much less public issue then it has been. It is a reminder of the weakness in our society that persists to restrict man from achieving increasingly higher points in our advanced civilization. As a member of this society, racial profiling forms a personal dilemma for me who, even though I have not had direct experience with it, can still see how it continues to eat away at the fabric of our society. Cloud, John & Michaels, Marguerite & Dale, Sarah, What’s Race Got to Do with It? 30 July 2001. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000421-2,00.html Read More