Sergio Ocampo

Mrs. Gongora
English 11 p.5
14 December 2015
Racial profiling on African Americans

The #blacklivesMatter movement has sparked nationwide protest and has raised awareness
worldwide about the unequal treatment of black people by police and United States. (Stephen
Lam/ Reuters). African Americans are treated unequal by law enforcement. Not only unequal,
but awful. African Americans in the United States suffer from injustice racial profiling due to
their skin tone, stereotypes, and geographic background. The skin tone of African American
affect the way African American are treated. Stereotypes on African Americans puts them in a
lower class. Due to the geographic background, African Americans are treated unequal by law
enforcement. There are many unequal treatments by the law enforcement due to racial profiling.
African American people are awfully treated unequally due to their skin tone. In 1996 ,
the television network ABC aired a report entitled driving while black in which it paid three
younger black men to drive around the city of new Brunswick, New Jersey, in a Mercedes Benz
Three officers in the city pulled over the car for minor traffic infraction and then proceeded to
search the car and young men. They show with little doubt that the only reason the three were
pulled over was their race (Racial profiling). Due to the young mens skin tone he was pulled
over. This shows African Americans are likely to be pulled over by law enforcement due to their
race. On February 4, 1999, Amadou Diallo, an unarmed 22 year-old immigrant from New
Guinea, West Africa, was shot and killed in the narrow vestibule of the apartment building where

he lived. Four white officers, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss, Edward McMellon and Richard
Murphy fired 41 bullets, hitting Diallo 19 times(racial profiling). Amadou was shot by the cops
for doing absolutely nothing, he was racially profiled due to his skin tone and was shot to death,
and the officers did not receive any charges against them. This is an example of how different
and unequal African Americans are treated by law enforcement. African Americans in the US are
treated diverse by the law due to their skin tone.
A reason racial profiling affects African Americans is their stereotypes. The existence of
racial profiling dates back to slavery. In 1693, Philadelphias court officials gave police legal
authority to stop and detain any Negro (freed or slaved) seen wandering around the streets
(Racial profiling). They enforced authority to stop them from possibly committing a crime.
When the tables are turned and its a Caucasian law enforcement would likely not stop nor arrest
them. The reason this happens is because of the bad stereotypes affiliated with them. On April
7, 2001, in the early morning hours, Timothy Thomas, a 19 year-old African-American, was shot
to death by police officer John Roach. Thomas had 14 outstanding misdemeanor warrants,
mostly traffic violations, including failure to wear a seat belt. According to a city councilman, he
was running away, holding up his baggy pants, and scaled a fence, landing in a driveway where
Roach was approaching and shot Thomas (racial profiling). Due to how he looked he was
followed and shot to death. African Americans stereotypes affect them a lot when being profiled
by law enforcements. Its unfair because if it was a Caucasian man he would not be suspected of
doing anything. Throughout the years stereotypes has always affected how law enforcement sees
and treats African Americans.
Geographic background plays a big key in inequality towards African American. African
American man in Maryland, who after moving into a white community, was attacked and

subjected to property damage. Local complaints until they arrested him for shooting his gun into
the air, trying to disperse a hostile mob outside his home (racial profiling). The African
American man was abused just because of his geographic background. Just because he was
African American they thought he couldnt live in the same neighborhood. Its another example
how and why African American are treated so different. On October 12 1995, Jonny Gammage,
a 31 year old African American male. Was killed after being pulled over while driving the jaguar
of his cousin (racial profiling). This is an example how different African Americans are treated
due to their geographic backgrounds. Just because he was African American cops thought he
couldnt be driving that jaguar, he was pulled over and killed. If it was a Caucasian men would
they even get pulled over? Caucasian men think their race is on top the African American and
cant live in the same community. Geographic is a strong reason why people and law
enforcement treats African American unequal.
African American man in the U.S are treated diverse from the law enforcement. Not only
from them but from other races. They think because theyre African American that they are
below them. Law enforcement has to right to stop and arrest them because of racial profiling.
Which is based on skin tone, stereotypes and geographic background. African Americans are the
most affected. An ACLU lawsuit uncovered police data indicating that while 73 percent of
suspects pulled over on I-95 between 1995 and 1997 were black, black suspects were no more
likely to actually have drugs or illegal weapons in their cars than white suspects (Why racial
profiling is a bad idea).Most of the stops by law enforcement are African American, they were
stopped just because of race, stereotypes and geographic background of them. African American
men are stopped because law enforcement think they have something illegal just because of
stereotypes. According to the Public Health Service, approximately 70% of drug users are

white, 15% are black, and 8% are Latino. But the Department of Justice reports that among those
imprisoned on drug charges, 26% are white, 45% are black, and 21% are Latino (Why racial
profiling is a bad idea). This shows although the Caucasian race has 70% of the drug use, drug
charges towards African American is 45% although they have 15% drug use. I think it would be
more equal if racial profiling ended because that just helps law enforcement to have the right to
stop and arrest African American people due to their skin tone, stereotypes and geographic
background.
African American in the U.S are affected by racial profiling due to their skin tone,
stereotypes and geographic background. A persons skin tone helps law enforcement to racially
profile someone to then stop and arrest. Due to African Americans stereotypes they are stopped
and arrested more often by the law. African Americans stereotypes are so bad but yet incorrect
about them, but that just makes law enforcement want to stop and/or arrest them. Geographic
background plays a key role on why law enforcement treats African American so unequal. Racial
profiling throughout the years have affected African American because of their race, most of the
time they were searched, stop and arrested just because of their race. Not always did they do
something illegal from the law to step in and arrest them. Racial profiling refers to
discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of
crime based on the individuals race, ethnicity, religion or natural origin (Racial profiling). Not
only is it unfair, but many of them are killed because they are racially profiled and think they are
bad people. African American as you can tell would be and is the most affected by racial
profiling.

Works cited
Head, Tom. Why racial profiling is bad. About News, N.d. Web. 13 Dec 2015.
Butler, Julier Racial profiling. Wikipedia, Virginia: Wikipedia 2001. Web. 13 Sept 2015.
Racial Profiling Definition. Americas Civil Liberty Union, N.d. Web. 6 Nov 2015.