Racial profiling ‘through the glass’

People are often identified by race and although the prevention of terrorist attacks has become an important issue in the United States, racial profiling can be used as a way to stereotype, according to FBI Special Agent Shannon Coats.

Coats along with two other panelists led a discussion titled "Through the Looking Glass: Perspectives on Racial Profiling" in the Student Union Building Wednesday, sponsored by the Law and Social Thought Program. Approximately 100 students, faculty and community members gathered to participate in the forum dedicated to the discussion of racial profiling in the U.S.

According to Darlene Sweeny-Newbern, the regional director of Ohio Civil Rights Commission and panelist at the forum, there are differences between using racial profiling to track down criminals, such as serial killers, and stopping suspects on the basis of race.

"If I'm in the airport and I am stopping only Arab males between 18 to 25 based on solely the fact that they are Arab males between 18 to 25, then that is wrong and I cannot do that," Coats said. "If I am stopping them because I have a tip, now I have some reason to be stopping Arab males in between 18 to 25, looking for this person, who according to the tip has a backpack."

According to Morris Jenkins, an associate professor in criminal justice and panelist at the forum, racial profiling is "the use of race as the sole factor to search or seize an individual."

"Racial profiling is when any type of decision is based solely on the race of the individual," Sweeny-Newbern said. "Usually with racial profiling, there is a negative stereotype attached."

According to Coats, a physical description should be used to assist in finding a suspect, but when the description is based exclusively on race, then it is wrong and "a waste of time."

"Race is one of the considerations when trying to find somebody who has potential plans to harm other persons," he said. "But it is that race and something else, and quite frankly the ‘and' is really more important than the race is."

Coats said after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 the FBI has become primarily responsible for preventing future attacks.

"What we now must do, what's been described by some, [is become] the ‘thought police.' You have to figure out what someone is thinking before they act on that thought," he said.

Sweeny-Newbern said racial profiling occurs in other situations than dealing with criminals.

"Racial profiling does exist. It exists in employment, it exists in places of public accommodation," she said. "We know racial profiling is in society, we hear about it everywhere."

Examples of "places of public accommodation" include malls, nightclubs, stores, hotels and restaurants, Sweeny-Newbern said.

Jenkins said if an unethical use of racial profiling is used to prosecute someone, then the case should be thrown out, regardless of what may come in the future.

"I believe that the Constitution states, in order to search and seize an individual you must have probable cause," Jenkins said. "In order to have a free society, there has to be some sacrificing."

According to Coats, if someone is stopped by a law enforcer based on race, then the government will lose "everything that comes after that stop."

Jenkins said the media helps people wrongfully associate different races with terrorists, gang members and criminals.

"When I say white collar, you think of an old white dude, [if] you are thinking gang, you think black or Latino because of the media. [When] you think of terrorist, we don't think of the Ku Klux Klan, we think of people in the Middle East," he said. "I think a lot of the stereotypes, of all of us, is brought up by the media."

Sweeny-Newbern said the media has influence, and most people will believe what is presented to them.

"All you have to do is have one experience that mirrors what you saw and you say ‘Ah-ha! It's more than just the media because it happened to me,'" she said.

Jenkins said knowing our rights and being educated is the best way to stop racial profiling from happening.

"As citizens I don't think we really know our rights," he said. "Things are going to happen, we're not going to have a perfect society, but the more educated we are, and I'm not just talking about education in the higher education field, but education in the streets."

"Education really is the key. You have to educate not only the people, but you have to educate law enforcement, you have to educate employers, you have to educate landlords. It all comes down to education," Sweeny-Newbern said.