Racial Profiling Essay Example

Have you ever heard of the term social construct? Social construct is an idea that has been made and accepted by the people in society. Social construct of race is an idea that labels categories and attaches meanings to individuals based on their phenotype because of its socially constructed racial boundaries and meanings. Social construct in ethnicity is a non-phenotypic trait that relates to the culture passed down ancestry beliefs and language. Social constructs are important to consider how they impact others around us by understanding a different perspective based on a prior experience. Even though someone's belief may contradict someone else's idea, other individuals still feel the need to judge the other. Whether we believe it or not most individuals experience some type of bias towards them just by going off someone’s first impression, this is the idea of unspoken bias(reflect on how social constructs changed society in the way the term is redefined which makes social constructs become irrelevant). This is what also leads to individuals experiencing racial profiling while others experience white privilege. 

When it comes to individuals having white privilege, I think of the social Darwinism theory, it was the notion that some groups or races had evolved more than others and thus were better fit to survive and even to rule other races. I say that because just like the theory says, “thus were better fit to survive and even to rule other races'' and “some groups or races had evolved more than others”, this only explains/ is the definition of  white privilege, they are individuals that are fit to survive in the world with no struggle because they have that extra hand and more opportunities, which makes them better than other groups and races. (Whiteness is an “invisible knapsack of privileges” that puts white people at an advantage, just as racism places nonwhites at a disadvantage”(Mclntosh p.366). While they are living a normal life, others are facing obstacles like racial profiling.

Racial profiling is the act of discriminating or targeting against someone based on their ethnicity or race, than on that individual intuition. While whites get to deal with having white privileges, others races like blacks and latinos have to deal with racial profiling which affects those individuals mentally and physically. It violates individuals rights, “Racial profiling is an act of discrimination. There is no getting around this fact. The bias of the law enforcement official is treated as a resource. If that official thinks a person “looks” guilty, then they are treated as being guilty until they can prove their innocence. When people can be stopped because of how they look instead of a violation or crime they have committed, then it restricts the rights of everyone at a core level”(Gaille). With that being stated you can see that races do not get the chance to be themselves without getting judged by what they look like. 

When it comes to the question, “how is your life affected by socially constructed ideas about race and ethnicity?”I would say my life is affected by socially constructed ideas but I would say my life is more affected by socially constructed ideas about race more than ethnicity. Nine times out of ten everywhere I go I experience racial profiling, when I’m looking for a job (when it comes to looking for a job it comes with extra proacalls just because of the race Iam, it’s not just a easy your hired. It’s also hard being an African American and trying to find a good paying job because some organizations do not want blacks part of their program even though discrations is not legal work places still do it) or walking around a store (me being an African American I couldn’t even walk around a store for a long period of time, for example I was in target just looking around and a worker asked if I needed help and I responded that I did not but as I kept looking around that individual kept an eye on me from a distance) and even at school (while at school I experienced some things students should not go through with teachers. Even though teachers say they don’t discriminate, I have had multiple teachers treat me differently than others in my class. I was once going to a school which there wasn’t many blacks and they treated us like we wasn’t nothing, I couldn’t even be apart of the basketball team which was fine but then things got worse to the point me and my family had to move out the little town) I experience this but me being a black African American I understands what comes with being this race. Even though it’s not right to be treated the way we do, I grew up learning that all people do not get treated the same and that was something that we have to live with.   

Racial and ethnic stratification affect my life because it causes problems with my schooling and has an effect on my opportunities in life and because of the fact I have less opportunities I do not have a great chance to gain a great income which will lead to me not getting a degree. Having racial minority groups at the bottom of the racial and ethnic hierarchy negatively affects everyone. That's why we the people should deconstruct race and ethnicity and get rid of racial stratification. Just like Tomaskovic believed that the same politics and practices that produce racial profiling can be done to eliminate racial profiling within the police and law enforcement, I believe the same thing can be done with deconstructing race and ethnicity and eliminating racial stratification. At the end of the day there shouldn’t be such a thing as white privilege and races shouldn’t be racially profiled, everyone should have the same opportunities and be treated the same no matter what their race or ethnicity. We are one and should be treated as one.