Racial Profiling by Institutions Like the Police and School Boards - Essay Example

? Racial Profiling by s like the police and school boards ? Racial Profiling by s like the police and school boards ? Racial profiling is the use of law enforcement in which a race, caste or minorities are ?frequently targeted and punished or unjustly treated to judge whether they might have ?committed a crime. It has been the salient issue around the world since the dawn of time ? (Henry and Tator, 2006). ?Racial ?and ethnic minority often faces difficulties in their institutions, work places and even in their ?daily lives. Racism deteriorates our mental and physical health plus destroying self-esteem. School ?is the foremost part of the society but unfortunately minority children face these complications ?even there which results in early leaving, loss of education, low attendance, anti-social ?behaviors, suspensions that adversely effects on school's environment and the educational ?experience of all students (Fordham and Ogbu, 1986). There are harsh rules implied on the students do not suppress the conflicts but results in ?further inescapable conflicts. It happened once that a Canadian-African student was suspended for wearing a hat ?in school when the temperature was below the freezing point. He was suspended on the excuse of the violation of dress code ?and defiance. Even when the student justified it as a health protective measure, the hard ?attitude can result in more prevailing of conflict (Noguera 1995). Not only this behavior is ?observed at schools but suspect is violated by police officers on even just suspicion. The practice ?of racial profiling has led people to live in fear from police who are the source of protection and ?justice. Not only American-Africans but persons who have immigrated from other countries (for ?e.g. Asians, Arabs, Chicano, European, and Filipino) are also racially and ethnically ?underestimated and rejected by mainstream (Ford and Harris 1996).? There are many research carried out all over the world on this issue. A research in ?Canada suggested that on the basic educational programs minorities (especially Black) are ?admitted and have comparatively higher dropouts from school than other students (Brown, ??1993). In addition to this African-American males are more suspended from the schools with ?respect to their counterparts. (Irvine, 1991) Available information also shows that suspension is ?the major cause of the early leavings or dropouts of the minority students. Apparently racial and ?ethnic minority students are curtained that they will receive bitter and harsher punishment for the ?same cause as the White students (Murray and Clarke, 1990). It was noted through researches ?that all the minorities perceived that the use of police to control ethnic groups were more than the ?Whites and the police is mostly called in dealing with anti-social behavior of the minorities (Henry and Tator, 2006). ? Recently Safe Schools Act has been implemented in Ontario. According to which student ?cannot be suspended more than one day by a teacher and a school principal can expel for up to ?one year. In addition, students being expelled have to attend a disciplined program strictly while the ?parents can request for appeal of expulsion. There should be a Criminal background checks for ?anyone working in a school and anyone who poses a threat to school safety could be denied to ?access the school by the principal. Apparently this has worsened the situation and as a result of ?the Safe Schools Act, students are subjected to excessive and even harder times. Due to this act ?negative impact on students of color, particularly black students is being made (Humphreys, 1988). ? In an analysis at York University, the data showed black people are charged for the drug ?possession and taken to the stations more than White people are taken on the same issue, Black ?people are more ticketed by the police for the violation of traffic rules and if they are taken to ?police stations they are likely to prisoned for a night two times more than the Whites. The victim ?are often Black, but Muslims and Arabs, Hispanics, South Asians are also being the victims of ?racial profiling (Irvine, 1991). Racial Profiling by Institutions like the police and school boards ?At Logan International Airport in Boston ?behavior detection program is carried out. Passengers who do not fit for certain looks are ?questioned. For example, Hispanics or Blacks wearing baseball caps backwards or wearing ?expensive clothes or jewelry are considered as suspicious and searched as well as interrogated. ??“The behavior detection program is no longer a behavior-based program, but it is a racial profiling ?program,” one officer wrote in an anonymous complaint obtained by The Times (Schmidt and Lichtblau, 2012). The racial ?profiling after the sad incident of September 11 also astonished which led to restrictions on ?immigration laws. Many Middle Eastern and South Asian were deported, interrogated, ?incarcerating and even prisoned without any formal charges. There were strict laws imposed. ?There has been a terrible wave of racist violence and job firings directed against Arabs (Schmidt and Lichtblau, 2012).? To stop the racial profiling after September 11 incident a letter is sent to Alabama from ?The U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division where the nation's harshest immigration ?law recently went into effect, to stop the behavior that could lead to racial profiling and if it's ?violated it would result in jeopardy any federal funding that these agencies had received. ?Through 14th Amendment the critical situation is handles which now gives right to the citizens ?of America to provide equal protection to everyone within their jurisdiction regardless of race, ?sex, religious beliefs and creed (Browne, 2003). The above study showed us that how racial profiling is affecting the society and how the ?measures are being taken for the impediment of racism. The importance of examining student's ?perceptions or views should not be underestimated but still there is large research and ?implementations on this area required (Murray and Clark, 1990). The powers should make policies to end up the racism and ?so the unfair and unjust anti-social behavior which is crept in our societies should finish.? References Brown, R. S. (1993). A Follow-Up of the Grade 9 Cohort of 1987 Every Secondary ?Student ?Survey Participants. Toronto, ON: Board of Education Browne, M. (2003). Safe Schools Act and Racialized Exclusion of ?Parents. ?Retrieved online from http://www.oocities.org Ford, D. Y., and Harris J. J. (1996). “Perceptions and attitudes of Black students ?toward ?school, achievement, and other educational variables”. Child Dev. 67, pp1141-1152? Fordham, S., and Ogbu, J. (1986). “Black students' school success: Coping with the ??Burden of ?Acting White”. Urban Rev. 18(3), pp. 176-206. ? Henry, F. and Tator, C. (2006), Racial Profiling: Challenging the myth of a ‘few ?bad ?apples'. Canada: University of Toronto Press. ? Humphreys, L. G. (1988). “Trends in levels of academic achievement of blacks and ?other ?minorities”. Intelligence 12 (1) pp231-260.? Irvine, J. J. (1991). Black Students and School Failure: Policies, Practices, and ?Prescriptions. ?New York: Praeger. ? Murray, C. B., and Clark, R. M. (1990). "Targets of racism." Am. Sch. B. J 122(6), pp22-24.? Noguera P. (1995). Preventing and Producing Violence: A Critical Analysis of Responses to ?School ?Violence. Harvard Educational Review 65 (2), pp189-212. ? Schmidt. M. and Lichtblau, E. (2012). “Racial Profiling Rife at Airport”, ?The New York ?Times. Retrieved online from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/us/racial-profiling-at-boston-airport-officials-say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Read More