Chapter 6 of Urban Issues contains an important discussion on racial profiling in the US. The chapter touches upon current policies, issues, and statistics, and it takes the historical development of racial profiling into consideration. As someone who loves history and seeks to use it as a tool for understanding contemporary society, I think the chronology listed in the chapter was especially useful and informative. In my opinion, when it comes to controversial issues, people tend to look more at the issues manifested in modern society rather than examining their roots. However, racial profiling is not new: the foundations for conflict were laid during the Revolutionary Era, and were only expanded upon in the Civil War, the Mexican War (where we also see the rise of transcendentalists who advocated for abolition), and beyond.

In particular, one of the historical events mentioned that I found especially important is Korematsu v. United States (1944). The Second World War created so much tension and bias in American society that internment camps gained prominence. During this period, more than 110,000 Japanese were imprisoned, and most of them were US citizens. The paranoia and fear surrounding the Japanese, especially after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, resulted in a very dark moment in American history. After the attack at Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt approved Executive Order 9066, which mandated that Japanese Americans be moved to internment camps. Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American citizen, refused to move to a relocation camp and even had plastic surgery to conceal his identity. He brought a case against the US and argued that the executive order was unconstitutional. Korematsu established the idea that ethnic restrictions in the law are “immediately suspect,” and that courts “must subject [such restrictions] to the most rigid scrutiny.” Although this trial was a landmark case that required law enforcement agencies to scrutinize racial and ethnic profiling, many law enforcement officials still succumb to stereotyping.

We cannot look at racial profiling as a solely political issue: there is a great deal of psychological and sociological influence in legislation and law enforcement. Humans are psychologically inclined to create categories and assign values to these categories. Stereotyping goes deeper than an arbitrary decision to target blacks and Latinos for traffic violations. It is perpetuated by a lack of communication and understanding, by human fears and paranoia, and by the necessity to assign value, whether that consists of personal affirmation or profiling to keep others safe. In addition to political and legal intervention to decrease racial profiling, our thinking as a society needs to change to see true progress. It is difficult to overcome human tendencies and find the flaws in laws, but open communication and an encouragement to look beyond ourselves is a step in the right direction.