Nationwide Law Firm Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Answers: What is Racial Profiling?
Over the last several decades, society has moved somewhat forward on the road towards addressing explicit, implicit, and systemic forms of discrimination. However, any belief that the journey has reached an end and that we are, at last, living in a culture (to evoke the timeless words of Dr. King) in which people are “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” is not just misguided, but it is categorically wrong. Unfortunately, we need look no further than racial profiling for a glaring example of how far we still need to travel on the long, difficult, and painful road to true equality.
Defining Racial Profiling
“While the term racial profiling is being widely used these days, in many ways — especially among perpetrators, supporters, and enablers of racial profiling — it is poorly or in some cases utterly misunderstood and misapplied; sometimes out of ignorance, and other times deliberately to carry out a discriminatory agenda or vision,” commented a spokesperson from nationwide law firm Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP. “Essentially, racial profiling is a discriminatory practice used by law enforcement officials, as well as others acting in a policing or authoritative capacity for public or private purposes, who suspect an individual of committing a crime, or likely to commit a crime, based on that individual’s race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin.”
The phrase “others acting in a policing or authoritative capacity for public or private purposes” that Faruqi and Faruqi refers in this definition is particularly important to highlight, because racial profiling is not just carried out by police officers. Racial profiling is also perpetrated — and hence, also illegal — when it is carried out by security guards, border agents, or even airline pilots and flight attendants. For example, actor Nathan Davis, in July 2020 filed a lawsuit against United Airlines that alleges a flight attendant, and later a pilot, relied on racial profiling to accuse him of having a gun, and ultimately have him escorted off a flight in a violent and degrading manner.
“What perpetrators of racial profiling fail to grasp, but must be made to understand, is that racial profiling is not just immoral and unethical, but it is patently illegal and is in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which promises all people equal protection under the law and freedom, but does not cover unreasonable searches. The 4th amendment covers that,” commented a spokesperson from Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, which since being founded in 1995 has served as lead or co-lead counsel in numerous high-profile cases that ultimately provided significant recoveries to consumers, victims, employees and investors.
Still, there is another convincing reason why racial profiling should be consigned to be a shameful historical deed, instead of an unacceptable everyday reality for millions of people from all walks of life: it does not work.
The Bottom Line
“Numerous studies have confirmed that the functional bankruptcy of racial profiling is not an opinion, but a fact,” commented a spokesperson from Faruqi & Faruqi. “Not only does it significantly and in some cases permanently disrupt and damage lives, but it extends the divide and distrust between law enforcement and communities. It is also an enormous waste of resources, which could be much more prudently and effectively allocated elsewhere. The bottom line? There is no redeeming value or benefit of racial profiling on any level. It is nothing more than racism in the guise of something else, which arguably makes it even more insidious and damaging — because there are many people and groups who practice or support racial profiling, and yet do not realize, or more likely do not want to accept, that they are behaving in a discriminatory manner and breaking the law.”
