In today's world, it seems skin color makes you a suspect. It makes you more likely to be searched and more likely to be arrested. "Tens of thousands of motorists on highways across the country are victims of racial profiling" (Dawson online). Fighting crime is surely a high priority but it must it must be done without damaging other important values. Such values as the freedom to go about our business without unwarranted police interference and the right to be treated equally before law without regard to race and ethnicity. Unless we address this problem all of us, not just people of color, stand to lose.
             Most of the blame to racial profiling can be put on the so-called "war on drugs". This war on drugs gave police a pretext to target people who they think fit the description of a drug courier or gang member. This war was officially declared in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan established the Task Force on Crime in South Florida. The mission of the task force was to intensify air and sea operations against drug smuggling in the South Florida area, but it was not long before the Florida Highway Patrol got involved. In 1985 they issued guidelines for the police on the common characteristics of drug couriers. The guidelines cautioned troopers to be suspicious of rental cars, scrupulous obedience to traffic laws, drivers wearing lots of gold, and drivers who do not fit the vehicle. Traffic stops were initiated by this overtly racist profile. Since when does it mean if you wear a lot of gold that you most sell drugs? And when does a person not fit the vehicle they are driving.
             If these guidelines are not targeted toward minorities, I don't know what is. I'm not sure many white people understand what it is like to be pulled over because of an assumption. As a minority I can tell you that that makes me feel unhappy knowing that I can be pulled over just on the bases of my appearance. It seems as if every time you he...