Racial Profiling and the African American Male

What comes to your mind when you think of an interaction an authoritative figure (police, teacher, principal)? In the African American community it is usually fear and anxiety of the motive of the authoritative figure, especially if you are a male. The intersection of race and gender for the African American male provides a basis for premature judgment by many authoritative figures in their lives.

African American males deserve the same equality to succeed in life as any other human being without the threat of the damned if you do, damned if you don’t moniker that defines the functional ability of African American males. Attention to the American judicial system produces daily evidence that African American males are disproportionately represented, convicted, and sentenced when compared to any other ethnic or gender group separate or combined.

This includes interactions with authority from grade school to prison and any other interaction with society even amongst their own people. For African American males profiling is just an extension of the background injustice of being nonwhite in America. By definition racial and gender profiling involves targeting people of specific race and or gender groups for a given purpose, usually negative, on the basis of their identity group. Stereotypical profiling is not new to America nor is its presence fading, what it does is evolve to hide its face among normal operation.

There varying opinions as to the validity of profiling according to race and gender but to be honest with Americans, the sentiment of racism in America influences many functions within. Social divide is not something that can be stomped out like a small fire or swept under the rug like dust. It is alive and well, although well ignored. Social divide is a determining factor in any profile that involves race or gender. To do this objectively undermines the complete definition.

As a country even the president is continually profiled as an African American male, oh wait a mixed race (aren’t all Americans mixed race according to history unless they immigrated) African American male. The plight of African American male (AAM) equality begins in grade school as they face major educational challenges at the hands of perception and profiling. The first social interaction for many black males is based on the non-indigenous culture and expectations that many administrators, African American or Caucasian, are not equipped to address.

This lack of understanding often leads to the alienation of particular groups of children specifically AAM’s that results in a self-fulfilling prophecy of academic and social problems. Historically the educational experience of AAM’s has led to poor performance and extreme poor self-imagery that hinders their development. According to Leake &Leake (1992) and Polite (1993), schools are not only failing to meet the particular social and developmental needs of African American males, but are academically abusing them.

An analysis of the education of African American males show disproportionate at every level, including expulsion, knowledge below grade level, and insufficient educational accountability within the educational structure due to the differing expectations. African American male students are disproportionately assigned to the “sports curriculum” or special education classes, their academic skills suppressed and failures ignored as they are passed through the education system without merit to enhance the school ratings.

Even though public school systems are well aware of the status of African-American male students, they are ignored, neglected, labeled, stereotyped, and written off as dysfunctional (Weatherspoon, 2006). Schools teach more than academic education for the AAM they are teaching a pattern of social behavior tattered with inequality, preparing them for a life of unequal treatment and warehousing revenue for the privatized correction industry. A criminal history for many AAM’s begins as early as childhood as the inequalities experienced in grade school follow them through life.

The lack of equality for the AAM does not stop in grade school. There is a direct correlation between the failure of AAM’s to obtain quality education and their over representation within the judicial system (Weatherspoon, 2006). It trickles into the adult life of AAM’s as they are profiled, stopped, arrested, prosecuted, sentenced, incarcerated, and placed on death row at a disproportionate rate. As inequality manifests to follow them into adulthood these inequalities ultimately result in a limited bility to function productively in society further fueling the misconceptions placed on the AAM.

Upon entrance into the judicial system the basic foundation of productive living (voting, employment, or qualifying for educational assistance as well as many other aspects that rely upon criminal background to determine worth) becomes a part of the social restriction placed upon them, further exacerbating stereotyping and profiling by ensuring it perceived validity in the eyes of the perpetrators.

In a study of racial profiling Fridell (2001) found that 60% of the 1,087 police chiefs surveyed do not think racial profiling is a problem, whereas a survey of the African American community produced results indicating they feel they will be automatically deemed involved in the presence of authority. This is sentiment is reinforced by statistics such as this; of 289 total post-conviction exonerees in the United States since 1989 African Americans account for 180 of them (Innocence Project, 2012). Now consider the number of innocents that never get this chance at redemption.

Currently the Federal Bureau of Investigation is collecting racial and ethnic information and mapping American communities based on crude stereotypes about which groups commit different types of crime and sharing it with unknown state, local and federal agencies (American Civil Liberties Union, 2012). Since 9/11 the operating parameters Americans expect to protect their rights to privacy have been obliterated. The FBI can now initiate an investigation of a person without the standards of just cause that once protected the rights of all Americans.

To the African American male this is nothing new, random searches and undue investigations have always been a part of being an AAM. From a police prospective there are ongoing efforts to equalize the authorities governing the communities focused on diversifying the system and gaining trust amongst the inhabitants. Jones-Brown (2001) argues that to be black and male amounts to a fatal profile for which there has been little to no judicial redress. She cites Natapoff (2004) in noting that one in four black males 20-29 years of age is locked up, on probation or parole, or being pressured to snitch.

The research goes further to say that one in twelve in high crime areas are snitching under duress causing a social breakdown of communities nationwide. Let’s not assume that the prejudiced profiling of AAM’s is limited to persons of others races, or that profiling is limited to AAM’s. Experience has shown that in an effort to assimilate fellow African Americans participate in exacting inequality amongst themselves as well. In the African American community there is a divide based on other factors (socioeconomic, family composition) outside of race and gender that also perpetuates the restrictions of inequality among African American males.

From the African American prospective, low expectations compromise equality. Many downtrodden by doubt and restriction never set goals or develop ambition to pass to the future generations of African American males. Historically, the cycle of the slave mentality has not ended. For some freedom is a state of mind while others struggle to adjust their thinking to allow them to progress beyond the shackles of oppression therefore living up to the expectations of society’s doubt in the humanity of African American males. In a sense the thinking patterns programmed during youth plague the development of a self-image.

Imagine hearing the history of the black male as a child and building your life around those images of inconsistency, shattered family structures, denial of access, and many other denials of worth that still exist today. African American males are responsible for racial profiling just as much as the next person. Proper representation of self is important to how a person is perceived. Image is image but the underlying fruit of a being is developed in patterns, the fundamentals of life teachings are all too often compromised by upholding an image for all people.

There happens to be some basis for any prejudice but basis does not make it right. The effects of race and gender profiling upon AAM’s has immense effects from fear, anxiety, doubt, and esteem issues to compromised functional ability. Many develop a deep seeded resentment and anger that is perpetuated through generations. An instance of profiling is a humiliating event that can blow up into real serious crime. Many times that is the goal of the offending person or entity, to bait a reaction that will stock the prison system.

Which happens to be a proverbial gold mine in America. An African American male cannot move freely in this free land of the United States, they must be cautious, and submissive to continue to live freely and hope that they do not end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. As parents of sons we must be proactive. You must teach your sons how to interact with the police in an effort to save them in the future. Teach them to be accountable for the situations they put themselves in, guilt by association is real as is guilt y reputation. Let them know everything is not for everybody and know the possibilities of what can happen. It sounds like a negative way to live but we must protect our sons even against us.