Racial Profiling

Racial profiling is the practice of suspecting someone of acting with criminal or fraudulent intent based on stereotypes, assumptions, or myths about their real or perceived race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. In the United States, racial profiling disproportionately targets BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) and has been linked to mistrust of law enforcement among Black and POC communities. Most commonly used to reference undue targeting by law enforcement, racial profiling can also describe punitive or discriminatory actions based on racialized stereotypes taken by employers, educators, retail personnel, and others in positions of authority. Crucially, racial profiling is a social phenomenon with a long history in the United States, and the types of bias that motivate acts of profiling...