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years and at different levels we get fired up by the fear of creeping
social estrangement. The "quest for community,"
was one great expression of this fear, and recent misgivings on
the matter of bilingual education and the centrifugalization of
America are often heard. One division of this social quandary is
racial profiling, what it says, and what it does. John
Derbyshire, writing in National Review, has brilliantly
examined the question and its implications.
We're reminded that racial profiling went mainstage in a public
debate between Vice President Gore and nomination challenger Bill
Bradley. The scene, New York's Apollo Theatre, February 2000. The
debate turned to the shooting of innocent African immigrant Amadou
Diallo by New York City police. Sen. Bradley said, "I…think
it reflects…racial profiling that seeps into the mind of someone
so that he sees a wallet in the hand of a white man as a wallet,
but a wallet in the hand of a black man as a gun." He promised that
if he were nominated and elected, he would, by executive order,
"eliminate racial profiling at the federal level."
How would one phrase such an executive order? How would it have
applied in Chicago, in the matter of LaTanya Haggerty? She was shot
dead in June 1999 by a Chicago policewoman who mistook her cell
phone for a handgun. The policewoman was, like Ms. Haggerty, black.
There are those who do not wish to linger over the use of racial
profiling as a means of maximizing community protection. Prof. Randall
Kennedy of Harvard concedes that crime is disproportionately committed
by different racial groups. Yes, he says, outlawing racial profiling
will reduce the efficiency of police work, and increase the burden
on them. So? "Racial equality, like all good things in life, costs
something; it does not come for free." Unhappily, goo-goo political
analysis does come for free, and can drive a stake through the heart
of purposive thought.
Mr. Derbyshire says that it is true that there are negative stereotypes,
but that these are acted upon because they can be correct, and useful.
Stereotypes, in sociological research, are held up as "essential
life tools." They introduce "the reality function." "Confronted
with a snake or a fawn, our immediate behavior is determined by
generalized beliefs — stereotypes — about snakes and fawns."
Without the capacity to make generalizations, the guidance of common
sense would be forfeited. This is acknowledged even by professional
guardians of the racial-profiling flame. Jesse Jackson rose above
his taboos to say in 1993 that "There is nothing more painful to
me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear
footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and
see somebody white and feel relieved."
Sandra Seegars of the Washington, D.C., Taxicab
| “The
law does and should prohibit discrimination, but applications
of that law have to conform with basic realities.” |
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Commission
testified, "Late at night, if I saw young black men dressed in a
slovenly way, I wouldn't pick them up…. And during the day,
I'd think twice about it." This arrant reflection of late-night
realities on Washington streets provoked hard questioning. Define
slovenly, she was asked. She replied, "A young black guy
with his hat on backwards, shirttail hanging down longer than his
coat, baggy pants down below his underwear, and unlaced tennis shoes."
Ms. Seegars, who is black, would reply to Prof. Kennedy that yes,
racial equality is a good thing, and yes, it costs something, but
driving at night in Washington, she's not willing to pay the cost.
Department of Justice figures for 1997 tell us that victims report
60 percent of robberies as having been committed by black persons.
In that year, a black American was eight times more likely than
a non-black to commit homicide.
The law does and should prohibit discrimination, but applications
of that law have to conform with basic realities. "The city of San
Jose, California, for example, discovered that, yes, the percentage
of blacks being stopped was higher than their representation in
the city's population. Ah, but patrol cars were computer-assigned
to high-crime districts, which are mainly inhabited by minorities."
The Supreme Court is not blind to reasonable distinctions. If race
is only one factor in the questioning of suspects, it can be authorized.
The critical point is: No one should be detained or questioned where
race is the single distinguishing element. "I have been unable to
locate any statistics on the point, but I feel sure that elderly
black women are stopped by the police much less often than are young
white men."
Among the new Attorney General's challenges is to insist resolutely
that due process be affirmed, without emasculating elementary approaches
to crime detection.
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