What people won't admit about racial profiling: There is a context within which racial profiling occurs

I do not justify racial profiling.

There are Asians, Caucasians, Hispanics, African-Americans, Arab-Americans, Native Americans who commit violent crimes.

A while back I was a victim of racial profiling myself.

But after the four Lakewood cops were killed in cold blood a couple of years ago, I think people need to address the issue from a different angle.

In my opinion, racial profiling does not occur just because a bunch of rogue cops want to harass people of color without any reason whatsoever (except for 'racism').

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This evening I took a bus from downtown Seattle towards the Seattle Center.   I was the only one on the bus until an African-American man got on, who almost immediately began to growl in a hostile, angry tone of voice, "Why are all the windows of this bus open?" (It was raining and windy outside).

A few stops later an Hispanic man got on the bus.  He started to sing rather loudly, not caring whether other passengers heard him or were annoyed.  Okay, I thought, "a drag," but one has to put up with things like this.  A few minutes later, I heard the African-American ask, "Why the hell are you singing?"  At that point I had the queasy feeling and thought that a knife-fight on the bus would ensue.

To my surprise, the last question must have been in jest, as the two man began to talk to each in very friendly, familiar terms.   The continued to chat.  At one point, the Hispanic man spoke of "I got of jail...and I then almost broke that guy's nose.   I mean, I didn't I broke it...he was down on the ground.  Luckily, I could have said, 'Self-defense.'  'He started swinging first.'"

* * * * *

Racial profiling of African-American and Hispanic males must be seen in the context of extremely high rates of violent crime among both demographic groups.*  Those who omit this inconvenient fact in their condemnation of racial profiling are not being forthright.   I would include President Obama among them.

To reduce or eliminate racial profiling, we need to first understand (1) what racial profiling actually is, (3) how and by whom it is determined, and (3) why it happens in different situations to certain groups.

Does a backlash against ostensible racial profiling lead to perpetrators getting off "scott free"?

A frank, open discussion is still forthcoming.  Until there is a tolerance for different viewpoints, this will not happen.



* Such information is not easily found for reasons, I believe, of political correctness.   In addition, as far as the anecdotal goes, certain communities decry the mention of the race of perpetrator(s) and victim(s) in news coverage.