Racial Profiling In 'Stop And Frisk'

Racial profiling is a controversial topic in today’s society, it leads to false assumptions without having any facts. People suspect and target people based on a stereotype about their race. Many minorities are targeted by government officials such as police officers just because of their race or ethnicity. Just because a particular person from a particular race did something wrong, everyone from that race is being discriminated against by people from other races. Injustice is all around us and peoples right are being violated. In Citizen, a book of different stories, Claudia Rankine shows how the black community is being discriminated against and socially profiled. Rankine shares some of her and her friends experiences that they encountered

There are some people that believe the stereotype of African Americans being criminal when in fact it’s only a small number of them. In “Stop and Frisk” Rankine writes, “I must have been speeding. No, you weren’t speeding. I wasn 't speeding? You didn’t do anything wrong. Then why are you pulling me over? Why am I pulled over?” (Rankine 106). The man was stopped because he ‘looks’ like the suspect. He didn’t do anything wrong and was stopped because he’s part of a race that 's ‘known for crime’. As a result of that stereotype, officers suspect every African American that passes by even though they have done nothing. The officer told him that he didn 't do anything but one can tell that he stopped him simply because he’s African American. Not only do the police stop and question him but, they torture him and made him feel

Rankine shows in “Stop and Frisk” the rough treatment the police officer had on the guy. The officer says, “Put your hands where they can be seen. Put your hands in the air. Put your hands up. Then you are stretched out on the hood. Then cuffed. Get on the ground now” (Rankine 106). Even though the officer knows that the guy has done nothing he still decides to get the man on the ground. This is an act of humiliation, he’s trying to humiliate the man by this action. The man is being tortured for a crime he did not commit. Rankine also writes, “I was told, after the fingerprinting, to stand naked. I stood naked. It was the I was instructed to dress, to leave, to walk all those miles back home” (Rankine 109). This shows an act of oppression. Asking someone to stand naked while knowing that they have done nothing wrong is violating human rights. Human rights are the ideal standards which are needed for one to live with human dignity. When one is humiliated and oppressed for no legitimate reason they feel that they have lost their human dignity. Demanding the man to strip naked is very unnecessary and its a complete violation of