Racial Profiling

Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world. Buddha

Rodney King Beating

Racial Profiling is not a new concept.  "Any police-initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than the behavior of an individual or information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal activity." -Deborah Ramirez, Jack McDevitt, Amy Farrell for US Department of Justice.  At a Federal level, racial profiling is challenged by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which guarantees the right to be safe from unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause and the Fourteenth Amendment which requires that all citizens be treated equally under the law. We know racial profiling happens every day everywhere. In 1992, race riots erupted in Los Angeles after police officers were acquitted in the beating of a black man, Rodney King, in an incident that was caught on videotape.

It’s not only law enforcement that engages in racial profiling. Ordinary people profile every day in every way. Have you ever been followed around a store, gotten a second look on the street and not in a good way?  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of American Adults say profiling - the use of factors such as race, ethnicity and overall appearance to determine the subjects of security checks - is necessary in today’s society.  That would make the United States an oxymoron. Four states in the U.S. have a majority minority population. They are California, Texas, New Mexico and Hawaii. America was rebuilt by immigrants. The only natural Americans are the Native Americans who are forced to live the government and its people say they can live – on reservations.

For more than 100 years, the Statue of Liberty's symbolism has grown to include freedom and democracy as well as this international friendship. On October 28th 1886, the dedication of the Statue of Liberty took place in front of thousands of spectators. There are seven rays on her crown, one for each of the seven continents.  At the feet of the Statue lie broken shackles of oppression and tyranny. The sonnet is placed on a plaque, currently located in the Statue of Liberty exhibit. It has come to symbolize the statue's universal message of hope and freedom for immigrants coming to America and people seeking freedom around the world. Not anymore with prejudice and racial profiling.  Perhaps it was always only for certain people.

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883

The United States is not about The New Colossus. It certainly doesn't care about the poor and homeless. Mitt Romney who represents the 1% rich made that clear on the record. A cheap arrogant  banker was good enough to leave a 1% tip for a waitress to highlight his standing.

From 1892 to 1954, approximately 13 million immigrants entered the United States through the gateway of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor.  Approximately eight million early immigrants, habitually from Northern and Western Europe came from nations such as England, Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries and constituted the first large wave of immigrants that settled and populated the United States. White people came to America on boats like the African slaves. The difference between the two, white people had an option. The people who should be shouting, “Take Back America” are the Native Americans.  The American Immigrant Wall of Honor® at Ellis Island, the largest Wall of names in the world, pays tribute to America's rich cultural heritage, celebrating American immigration from its earliest beginnings right up to present day.  Over 700,000 names are currently inscribed, representing virtually every nationality, including those who endured forced migration from slavery as well as our earliest settlers, the American Indian.

Ellis Island is located in the upper bay just off the New Jersey coast, within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. So here we have two national monuments representing the many peoples of the United States that are racially profiled on a regular basis. Prior to 1890, the individual states (rather than the Federal government) regulated immigration into the United States. Many states today believe immigration regulations should solely be their responsibility.

Reported on the Ellis Island website, the two main reasons to exclude an immigrant were if a doctor diagnosed that the immigrant had a contagious disease that would endanger the public health or if a legal inspector thought the immigrant was likely to become a public charge or an illegal contract laborer, the second reason being racial profiling. There is a Flag of Faces open to all Americans. The American Flag of Faces will soon be a "dynamic" and interactive exhibit on historic Ellis Island.

A document titled "Terrorism Awareness and Prevention" that's being passed out by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security is encouraging employees of federal, state and local agencies to identify "unusual or suspicious activities." "Exaggerated yawning when engaged in conversation," "glances," a "cold penetrating stare," and "goose bumps," apparently, are all red flags that one could be face-to-face with a terrorist. This might be the loosest definition of suspicious activities since the FBI's Communities Against Terrorism program encouraged businesses to consider customers who "always pay in cash" as possible terrorists.  Better whip out that credit card at Starbuck and Minnie D.

Leon Czolgosz

Racial Profiling can get us all killed. Leon Czolgosz walked up to President William McKinley with a hidden weapon and shot him. The Secret Service agent assigned to examine the president's visitors was fixated on a Black man in line behind Czolgosz. Paradoxically, the same man who the agent profiled as suspicious - Jim Parker, an African-American former constable - saved President McKinley from a third bullet.

Timothy McVeigh

In 1995, after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, Timothy McVeigh, the white male assailant, fled because law enforcement officers looked for "Arab terrorists.”

Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. Buddha