Racial profiling

Racial profiling

Racial profiling refers to the biased practice of law enforcement officials targeting individuals on the grounds of suspicion of crime based on race or ethnicity. The Arizona immigration law has been considered as a tool for racial profiling as it targets people with accents as well as people of colour. The law mandates all immigrants to carry immigration registration documents to allow law enforcers to detain illegal immigrants. On the other hand, this law is determined to discourage immigration to Arizona. Contact hypothesis diminishes racial profiling by reducing prejudice based on race and sex through intergroup contact.

2. Ethnocentrism is highly relevant and can explain many current political trends in a progressive, multicultural, and democratic country like the United States. Trail of tears is a form of ethnocentric practice which took place in the United States which involved the transfer of native Americans from their ancestral land to Georgia by the US government. The relocated indigenous tribes died before reaching their designated destinations due to exposure to infections and starvation.
3. The social construction of race refers to developing knowledge and meaning of race in a social context and that whatever we perceive about race depends on the society we dwell in. The socially constructed existence of racial categories in America can be shown by analyzing historical events. Widely used racial groups have been formed to demonstrate how these categories and their definitions have changed over time.
4. Model minority refers to a community whose members are considered to have a higher degree of socioeconomic success and status quo than the average population. This ideology is mainly associated with Asian Americans because of their high social classes and educational persistence. The major disadvantage of being a model minority is discrimination against the less fortunate group of the model minority label. The merit of being a model minority label is that the state may formulate policies to favour your label. For example, the immigration act of 1965 that encouraged many rich Asians to migrate to the US.