Racial Profiling

Recently a livery cab driver of African descent was shot and robbed by a young Hispanic thug. Now Fernando Mateo, an Afro-Hispanic man who who is the president of the NY State Federation of Taxi Drivers, says that livery hacks should be careful of who they pick up. He says that the "God’s-honest truth is that 99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these drivers are blacks and Hispanics. So if you see suspicious activity, you know what, don’t pick the person up."

People are outraged by his statements. I don't get it. What he said is, unfortunately, true. He is, of course, using that old double standard: "we can say it about ourselves, but other folks can't." So now the (white) news media is up in arms talking about how he's racially profiling, and Al Sharpton is all in the mix....

Who DOESN'T racially profile? I'm not trying to justify it; I'm stating that we live in an incredibly racist society. We constantly make value judgements and assumptions about people based on race. Think I'm off my rocker? Get a couple of 20-somethings or a couple of 30-somethings, two white and two of color, either black or Hispanic. (Asians would likely fall into the "white" group in this experiment, just like they do with reading scores). Have them scruffed out, like they've been playing ball on a Saturday afternoon or something. Then have them go into Tiffany's or some other Fifth Avenue store. I guarantee you that the white folks will be met face-to-face by salespeople while the people of color will be followed or monitored by security guards (if they're allowed in the store).

I know from experience that the way to get customer service in the big midtown stores when it's busy is to look a little rough around the edges. When the stores are absolutely packed with people and even white folks can't get a salesperson, all I have to do is hang out and wait and look a little scruffy. With my skin color, someone WILL approach me. True, they might be security, but someone WILL approach me.


We constantly assume that people who look a certain way fall into a certain class. Part of our assumptions are based on skin color, clothing, haircuts, footwear -- it's all part of the package, and they are all part of our quick and dirty social referent system that (we think) gives us indicators about an individual's standing in society and (for those of us who evaluate such things) about the probable outcomes of our interacting with those people.

Let me know your thoughts. I have to get to work, and this is only the beginning of my thoughts. Will try to post more on this later, but would love to know what others think.