Dear Next President,

Racial profiling is a controversial issue that is completely unjust and yet not shown much attention to. Racial profiling is the act of discrimination by law enforcement officials by targeting certain individuals for suspicious crimes based on that person's race, religion or ethnicity. Many law enforcement officials don’t realize that this issue is unjust, wrong, and illegal. It is a topic that needs a more greater look into and a more understanding for people who are faced with this everyday.

Racial profiling can be defined in many different ways but the most common way is labeling. According the Gale Database’s article on racial profiling, “examples include Muslims being labeled as terrorists, Latin Americans being labeled as illegal immigrants, and African Americans being labeled as gang members.” In various incidents law enforcement have wrongfully profiled certain races due to their own personal beliefs and ways other see these individuals. In cases such as the Trayvon Martin case where an innocent african american teenager was walking down the street and was shot by George Zimmerman due to racial profiling. Many of us hadn't recognized that it was racial profiling but in fact it was. Other incidents have occurred according to the Gale Database’s stating, “An example includes an airport security agent singling out a person because of the color of his or her skin. This has become more common since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, especially toward Arabs and Muslims”. Racial profiling occurs any and everywhere, not just with law enforcement. Its an issue that affects many of those peoples lives.

There is many ways that racial profiling affects these people. When thinking of racial profiling nobody ever thinks, “how does the victim feel?”. In the Gale Database’s for racial profiling it states, “The American Psychological Association found that the effects of racial profiling caused post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological disorders, which can lead to drug abuse, depression, and even suicide.” When law enforcement discriminate people wrongfully due to what they believe, it hurts those people. You can’t look at an African American, Latino, Muslim, etc. and think they all are bad due to past incidents. Ways to law enforcement can prevent this problem is to examine carefully. When pulling someone over make sure we’re doing it how the law shows us to do not because of their race. Racial profiling needs to be looked at more and paid more attention to.

As the next president, racial profiling is an issue that needs to be paid more attention to. We can’t live our lives constantly discriminating people, profiling them, and putting a label on them. I hope we can find a way to overcome this controversial topic. Thank you for your time and consideration.  

Sincerely, Tatiana