Is racial profiling always racist?

[theflyingpig]

LOL I knew TFP was Asian. I fucking knew it.

I'm Asian and White, which makes me better than you at everything.

 

[edro]

stereotype and prejudice != racism

 

[PaperclipGod]

It isn't necessarily racist when carefully combined with many other techniques to weed out perps, but most of the time that it is applied, it is racist because it becomes the defining mark that people look for. One is making the call simply based on looks, which people don't control anyways. Will many illegals be hispanics, especially considering where this country is located and who its neighbors are? Yes. But are all hispanics/mexicans/latino/whatever illegals? No. Not at all. Is it okay to go ahead and put an entire group under undue scrutiny and harass them? I say that it is absolutely not.

It is about purposely denying one group basic rights on the assumption that they all are criminals in some form or another solely because of the way they look. If someone is going to make an assumption that another person is some kind of criminal, I want to hear more than "Zomg he is Mexican and drives an old car...gotta be illegal!"; actually, I would be embarrassed for that person to make such a claim. Making race as THE factor to pick up your criminal makes for pretty shitty forensics, and it makes it painfully easy for others to go right through those filters.

Your view seems predicated upon police being inherently abusive, though. i.e., if police are allowed to stop people based on looks alone, then every hispanic will be unjustly stopped. If we assume that police will not abuse their power, then all the other negatives you list are null.

I'm just playing devil's advocate and trying to flesh-out when racial profiling becomes racist (whether it's real or just perceived as); I'm not trying to argue that police are infallible.

From your post, it sounds like we can break the arguments down into two more fundamental ideologies: People are inherently responsible, or, People are inherently irresponsible. Or, to make it even simpler: "People are good" vs. "People are bad".

However, in this situation, it seems much easier for whites to go along with the "people are good" theory, since no matter the reality of the situation, their rights aren't in danger. For minorities, though, it's much harder to trust people to "be good", when you are personally affected by the failure of that philosophy.

I wonder what the results would be if we polled the people in Arizona as to which philosophy of human nature they followed - inherently good or inherently bad?

 

[classy]

I think circumstances dictate. If your looking for a known criminal of known or suspected race, then looking at people who fit the profile I think is acceptable. But just pulling over a black guy or hispanic person, just because of their race is wrong.

 

[Binarycow]

Being against racial profiling is being against math.

you meant Statistics

 

[JS80]

you meant Statistics

Statistics doesn't fall under Math?

 

[ciproxr]

Probably stretched his eyes out and said "ching chong chang." That's usually why I kicked the shit out of white and black kids in elementary school.

you're going too far

 

[Binarycow]

I'm Asian and White, which makes me better than you at everything.

smaller than average penis that goes limp when reaches middle age?

 

[JS80]

you're going too far

you're being too vague

 

[Binarycow]

Statistics doesn't fall under Math?

hey at my school, they have their own dept separate from math and they are very sensitive about getting lumped together with math folks.

 

[JS80]

hey at my school, they have their own dept separate from math and they are very sensitive about getting lumped together with math folks.

Statistics is considered by some to be a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data,[4] while others consider it to be a branch of mathematics[5] concerned with collecting and interpreting data.

Interesting.

 

[Phoenix86]

hey at my school, they have their own dept separate from math and they are very sensitive about getting lumped together with math folks.

And this is why people will always laugh at nerds.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I define statistics as the most boring, mind-numbingly dull field of mathematics. Why anyone would want to study it is beyond me.

 

[Binarycow]

Interesting.

i know but try to tell them that.

 

[TehMac]

What is terrible about this is this blatant power grab the Democrat government is trying to carry out. Legalizing and then enslaving illegal immigrants to the Democrat political machine is outrageous, and the primary reason Obama cries foul on constitutional grounds (funny how this is the only time the constitution "matters" even though the 10th amendment perfectly allows this) is because he knows that fans of freedom are onto him and his democrat bedfellows' plans.

The whole thing smacks of a sheer power grab, and reveals the Left's moral vacuum and their ambitions as would-be tyrants and kingmakers.

 

[PaperclipGod]

Anandtech has become 4chan without the memes or funny pictures.

Cancer. You're all cancer.

 

[Taejin]

I define statistics as the most boring, mind-numbingly dull field of mathematics. Why anyone would want to study it is beyond me.

good thing people know better than you..

 

[rudeguy]

Probably stretched his eyes out and said "ching chong chang." That's usually why I kicked the shit out of white and black kids in elementary school.

lol no. I was sitting in his seat and wouldn't move.

 

[magomago]

Your view seems predicated upon police being inherently abusive, though. i.e., if police are allowed to stop people based on looks alone, then every hispanic will be unjustly stopped. If we assume that police will not abuse their power, then all the other negatives you list are null.

I'm just playing devil's advocate and trying to flesh-out when racial profiling becomes racist (whether it's real or just perceived as); I'm not trying to argue that police are infallible.

From your post, it sounds like we can break the arguments down into two more fundamental ideologies: People are inherently responsible, or, People are inherently irresponsible. Or, to make it even simpler: "People are good" vs. "People are bad".

However, in this situation, it seems much easier for whites to go along with the "people are good" theory, since no matter the reality of the situation, their rights aren't in danger. For minorities, though, it's much harder to trust people to "be good", when you are personally affected by the failure of that philosophy.

I wonder what the results would be if we polled the people in Arizona as to which philosophy of human nature they followed - inherently good or inherently bad?

My views are not that simple at all. If I had to take a reductionist approach (bleh), my views are "People are good, but can easily be misguided".

Law enforcement should not interfere in people's lives unless there is a good reason. Law enforcement is the key term. Sure if police were perfect my concerns are null - but law enforcement is made up of individuals, and individuals are not perfect. Some good, some bad. I'm not interested interested in the theory of perfect law enforcement because it simply doesn't exist.

You are reading too much into this even if you are looking at it form a devils advocate POV.

Who knows, I may be concerned about absolutely nothing. What constitutes "reasonable suspicion" for AZ law enforcement may be a long laundry list of things which must be professionally shown, and when, looked at as a whole, are excellent markers of who may be here legally vs who may not be legally. It may not be something that is casually established.
But I am concerned because people in general don't want to consider nuances - we like easily explainable things in our life, and when protocol is not explicitly defined to the best detail possible (are they? Any AZ wanna chime in on the details of this?), it leaves people the wiggle room to shift toward easy answers, and I can't see LEOs as being totally immune to that because they are humans just like us.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

It's never racist...according to whites :awe:

 

[rudeguy]

It's never racist...according to whites :awe:

isn't that profiling?

 

[gaidensensei]

lol no. I was sitting in his seat and wouldn't move.

Now you know not to mess with Hung Foo. He may look weak at a first glance, but he'll destroy you when you release his inner dragon.

That was a warning throw, next time you'll have a shuriken between your eyes. All the asian kids were making paper ninjastars in grade school for practice. Everyone knows this.

 

[JD50]

Hey, you look Asian.

That is racist, but it doesn't necessarily mean I'm being a #%!#

Does he have small hands or something?

 

[rudeguy]

Now you know not to mess with Hung Foo. He may look weak at a first glance, but he'll destroy you when you release his inner dragon.

That was a warning throw, next time you'll have a shuriken between your eyes. All the asian kids were making paper ninjastars in grade school for practice. Everyone knows this.

His name was actually something like Dukh Fuk. Lil dude was usually pretty cool but I guess he really wanted his seat and I was too high to move.

 

[Sea Moose]

forty two