Local Student's View: Racial profiling has disastrous effects

Racial profiling has disastrous effects on African Americans young and old.

Black Americans are three and a half times more likely to die from police violence than white Americans, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Police confrontations leading to injury or death perpetuates negative relationships between precincts and communities. The effects of such confrontations can reach far beyond those immediately affected, mixing implicit bias with policing, and conducting investigations based on race instead of evidence.

Following the murder of George Floyd, more than 700 hours of body-camera footage from Minneapolis officers were reviewed. The footage indicated that Black Minnesotans were more likely to be arrested, stopped, and searched by Minneapolis police than their white peers. Additionally, those officers often used slurs that demeaned women and other marginalized groups.

Racial profiling is defined by the United Nations as “the practice of police and other law enforcement officers relying, to any degree, on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin as the basis for subjecting persons to investigatory activities or for determining whether an individual is engaged in criminal activity.” It can result in unjust investigations by police, stops, searches, arrests, convictions, and, as shown by the killing of George Floyd, dead Americans in the street.

In America, Black people comprise 13% of the population. When compared to their white peers, they are five times more likely to be killed while unarmed, the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities determined. Compared to white teens, Black teens are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police, according to the journal.

In Minnesota, data from 2016 to 2021 show that Black people comprised 7% of the population, yet accounted for a staggering 27% of deaths by use of force, as Minnesota Public Radio reported in December 2022.

Other than the obvious, how does this affect Black children? Research shows Black boys and girls are perceived as older, less innocent, and less “childlike” than other races. This strips Black children from protection, understanding, and other nurturing behaviors. I believe that making dumb mistakes and decisions with fair and reasonable consequences is essential to child development. Adults are supposed to set you straight when you make errors, with the understanding that you will make more. Reinforcement is vital for growth and development as a person. But Black children are not as often allowed to make such mistakes, research indicates. Likely due to being seen as older and less innocent, they are also seen as more culpable and responsible for their actions. This can result in harsher punishments in the justice system and in the public eye.

A somewhat recent example of this is the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Immediately afterward, many Americans rushed to excuse his death. Some claimed he died of a fentanyl overdose, even though there was video of the officer kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes and even though an autopsy concluded Floyd died of cardiopulmonary arrest. Others pointed out that Floyd had a criminal record, but did responding police know that? Or were they only aware he may have used a counterfeit bill.

Faulty justifications can halt progress on police reform. They distract those who would otherwise engage in constructive conversations by asking why and how may we prevent something like this happening in the future. If you’ve read this far you understand why but the latter is harder to theorize.

Some push for litigation strategies and policy reform aiming for stricter punishments for racial profiling and further training to diminish implicit bias. These efforts aim for change at a systemic level, altering legislation, administrating community outreach programs, and raising accountability measures.

Others reflect on historical pressure that disproportionately affected Black youth and young adults, such as the war on drugs. The Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988 dictated a 100-to-1 ratio for crack vs. powder cocaine to trigger minimum prison sentences, despite the two fundamentally being the same. This act predominantly affected African Americans, due to crack being cheaper than cocaine, resulting in 80% of crack cocaine users sent to federal prison being Black. Meanwhile, two-thirds of crack or cocaine users are white or Hispanic. Even today, this disparity has not been rectified. In 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act changed the disparity from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1. This is still far from fair. Anti-drug legislation has not led to noticeable decreases in crime rates or drug use; instead, research indicates it has disproportionately jailed marginalized ethnic groups and deprived the convicted of the right to vote.

It is essential for pardons to be issued for past and present non-violent drug charges, especially those that resulted in felonies. This would help ease legislative racial injustices from the era of President Ronald Reagan.

The war on drugs was a dumpster fire of a campaign, as history has continuously affirmed, and mending its consequences is essential to mending race relations between African American communities and white police.

The Justice Department found that the Minneapolis Police Department used excessive force, unnecessarily used tasers, and unlawfully discriminated against Black people. Clearly, fundamental changes are needed to protect Black Minnesotans and, in particular, Black youth from the harms of racial profiling. This harmful and discriminatory practice has existed far too long.

Andrew Barrows is a junior at the University of Minnesota Duluth who wrote this originally for a class called “Race, Racism, and the Developing Child.”