grr, salon article response cgi thing first and now blogger, the net is broken
It seems to me that the man simply doesn’t understand the problems with broad generalizations. While he complains about it, he uses that exact method to build his article. “In sum, every element of the anti-Republican paranoia rampant in African-American communities throughout this nation was deliberately planted there by the Democratic Party and the civil rights leadership.” Oh yeah. Everything i hear against Democrats was planted by the vast-rightwing conspiracy. “Black males will always be stopped and arrested in far greater numbers than they make up in the population because black males commit violent crimes in far greater numbers than they make up in the population.” (notice the change of tense) True, if the public and police allow the essence of prejudice to override rational thought. What about the non-violent crime, doesn’t that count? I’ve always thought thats what drug crimes generally are, non-violent. To continue, Mr. Horowitz writes that “‘Racial profiling’ is only an injustice if it is profiling solely on the basis of race.” Then he attempts to explain that race should be allowed as “one element in a clearly defined criminal dossier”. The problem is that he fails to address the middle-ground, when someone is pulled over because they are black and/or male and/or listening to rap and/or driving an extremely nice SUV or a very run-down compact. It seems that as long as race isnt the only criteria, its not ‘racial profiling’. Maybe we disagree on what the terminology should be, but it is still being prejudiced and an injustice to those they serve.