Racial Profiling: Fact or Fiction

Over at Ambra Nykol's blog I happened on a post about racial profiling and some of the experiences she went through being harassed by police. It seems as if this is still a problem nowadays. While I feel that it is sad that this still goes on I feel sadder by the fact that people would still have a reason to think it accurate.

Since I am a comedian I can see how successful jokes that use racial stereotypes can be. Even though they are jokes, they wouldn't be funny if they weren't based in fact. It stinks that people are prejudged by stereotypes about their gender,race,religion,or sexual preference, but the truth is that something has happened with that group of people that makes others think of them in a certain light.

For example: I am half Mexican. So I do jokes about that sometimes. One of those jokes is how since I'm half mexican I can wake up on Saturday morning and tell you where every single yard sale is within a 10 mile radius. Stereotypical? Yes, but how many times have you either had or been to a yard sale and there wasn't at least one Hispanic person who came by?

Racial profiling is negative and wrong. People should not suffer harassment by the hands of police officers just because they fit a certain ethnic stereotype. Unfortunately, I think that unless people start doing something to eliminate stereotypes it will always be that way.