Prompt 1: Racial Profiling

A. Racial profiling is an illegal activity in which law enforcement officers utilize a person’s race as a justification to suspect them of committing a crime (Griffiths and Keirns, 2015), which is against the law. Racial profiling is a term that refers to the discriminatory behavior of law enforcement officials in which they target people on the basis of their race, ethnic origin, religion, or national origin. Racial profiling is a practice that is illegal in the United States. 

B. The stereotypical assumption that Trayvon Martin was displaying suspicious behavior in a new neighborhood he was visiting is perhaps the best example of racial profiling. Yet, it happens in many other areas of life in the United States including special search procedures for people of Arab descent in airports, stop and frisk practices on people of color by the police, and pulling over people of Hispanic and Black racial groups by the police.

C. According to the contact hypothesis, intergroup interactions under the right conditions may effectively minimize prejudice between the minority and majority group members (Griffiths and Keirns, 2015). For example, it is said that the police force (predominantly white) has prejudices over colored males. Then, contact hypothesis requires that the stereotypes be reduced by having members of the police force interact more with young black males in an environment that is supportive and friendly. This way, racial profiling will be reduced because members of the police force will start seeing these young black males differently and will likely eliminate any pre-held biases regarding them.

Prompt 2: Social Construction of Race

For symbolic interactionists, ethnicity and race function as potent symbols of identity, serving as compelling symbols of belonging. According to this viewpoint, racism is caused by the symbols of race rather than by the race itself. It is via interactions between members of the dominant group that racism is formed; if these interactions did not take place, it is unlikely that members of the dominant group would hold racist attitudes. Following these conversations, an abstract picture of the subordinate group is formed, which allows the dominant group to defend its perspective on the subordinate group, so maintaining the status quo. For example, the case of an individual who forms his or her beliefs on a given group solely on the basis of images seen in popular media such as social media and who then unquestioningly believes those opinions since the individual has never met a member of that group in person. In this view, an individual makes a social construct of race (in this case biased view) based on the symbols available to them.

Prompt 3: Model Minority

A. Model minority is used in reference to minority groups or members of a said group who are stereotypically perceived to be more successful compared to other minority groups or people. Minority is used on the basis of ethnicity, religion, social subdivision, and racial background. Model is used to mean ideal example or standard for comparison and imitation due to the perceived success.

B. Asian Americans are especially seen as reaching significant educational, professional, and socioeconomic levels without challenging the existing establishment (Griffiths and Keirns, 2015). The effect is that Asian Americans are put under undue and unrealistic pressure and expectations, by stigmatizing members of the group that fail to meet the expectations.

C. A notable advantage of the concept of model minority for Asian Americans is the positive effect on members of the group in learning, working, and other spheres of life. The expectations may be used as motivation to succeed. It is also a tribute to the American dream of hard work and passion for success. However, it could be detrimental to those that are unable to meet the expectations. for example it may lead to depression and suicide surges among young Asian Americans who are unable to keep up with the pressure to always be successful especially in academic circles.

Part 4: Questions

Do you think there are possible remedies to racial profiling in the country given the deep-rooted societal issues that continue to define our culture as a people and our racial identities as a group?

References

Griffiths, H. and Keirns, N. (2015). Introduction to sociology 2e. OpenStax. Texas. Available at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-2e/pages/1-introduction-to-sociology