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Miriam Maravillo
English 114B
Professor Melisa Malvin

Target the Truth Not a Race

As we grow up, our parents and teachers always tell us to never judge a book by its
cover but for the most part it is easier said than done. Throughout the years judging someone by
their appearance is merely seen as a normality where people naturally stereotype certain race
groups in which affects society itself. Today, race is an important aspect in society where
innocent people are being targeted by their color of skin and nationality. Racial profiling is
defined as a target of an individual on committing an offense/crime based on a persons race or
ethnicity. Racial profiling has been seen as a method in which not only police officers have
encountered but rather seen as a normality in which society has adapted to. In the book, Always
Running, Luis Rodriguez demonstrates a gang lifestyle that he faced growing up and how police
enforcements treat minorities as criminals based on stereotypes and the discrimination that is put
upon them. As years go by, people are targeted with assumptions where they are looked and
frowned upon because of their color of their skin. Racial profiling is not based on any given facts
or truth, it is merely seen as an inaccurate stereotypical assumption on a person that has lead or
can lead to a consequence to ones life.
When people think of racial profiling, majority of the people tend to think about
racial remarks being brought to a certain person. It is clear to say that race is an important factor
in this current issue but what people dont seem to understand is where and how these racial

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remarks were made. People assume that these remarks are said and done by racists when the
reality is that society itself come up with these types of remarks. Humanity and Action did a
study on comedy and how it affects society today, where they state, remarks show that comedy
can reinforce stereotypes (Cohen,Richard), where they explain how comedy can be used to
release humor and also be a gateway to portray certain ethic groups as the same. Now a days,
people unwillingly stereotype others by their own race, color, religion, and/or nationality.
According to Merriam Webster Diction stereotypes can be defined as an unfair belief where
all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same (Merriam Webster). In
other words, our generation has created different stereotypes that help characterize a
certain group as all the same. For example, now a days when you turn on the television
and turn on Comedy Central, you may see George Lopez, Kevin Hart, Gabriel Iglesias,
or Amy Schumer all making jokes about different assumption about different races and
culture because we as the audience know that those stereotypes can be true for the most
part which causes it to be seen as a humor rather than a criticism. As we continue to
make these assumptions we begin to think that although the jokes are funny they also
hold a certain truth that eventually results in racial profiling.
These types of stereotypes is what helps people define what
other now days think of one another depending on their race or nationality which
eventually leads to racial profiling. Stereotypes is one of the main causes that leads to
racial profiling because people begin to portray different ethnic groups the same and
eventually makes themselves believe that it is true. This is where people begin to use
racial profiling whenever they feel uncertain about a person, group, or situation. For the
most part racial profiling can be seen almost every day at any given time or place. For

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instance, we have police authorities pull over car over trivial misdemeanors in which
most car owners are of the minority population. According to the American Civil
Liberties Union, racial profiling is a law enforcement and private security target people of
color for humiliating and often frightening detentions, interrogations, and searches without
evidence of criminal activity (American Civil Liberties). This type of humiliation and
interrogations have put a certain disrespect to many people and cause them to feel unwanted
because of their color of skin or appearance.
There many example of racial profiling that leads to more than one
altercation. One example of racial profiling, is when an African American is standing by a bus
stop late at night and a cop may stop and interrogate him because he feels that he is doing
something wrong. Regardless of where and what you are doing, law enforcements should not
assume that someone is committing a crime because of what they look like. Actions like these
causes people to disrespect the authorities and cause hatred between one another. People begin
to think that every action that they doing is being watched and is also seen as a negative
approach. Examples like these help others feel ashamed on how they look and feel hatred toward
the people that people treat them different.
The city of Los Angeles is known to be the place of
diversity, where you different types of races, Hispanics, African Americans, Caucasian, Asians,
etc. According to the L.A times, they demonstrates statistics that show on how many of the law
enforcements treat minorities, they shows the type of people they pull over, Stopped blacks
are 76% more likely to be searched, and stopped Latinos are 16% more likely to be searched than
stopped whitesStopped blacks are 29% more likely to be arrested, and stopped Latinos are
32% more likely to be arrested than stopped whites.(Los Angeles Times). In other words, in the

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L.A area many people of color are most likely to be stopped because of their color of skin rather
than an actual crime that was committed. In most situations, most of these types of crimes are
considered to be minor but as time progresses, many of these incidents turn into a bigger issues.
For instance, one well known incident that occurred was the Rodney King trial, where an African
American male was brutality injured by the police department because of a so called speed
chase. Even if, Rodney King committed a certain crime or misdemeanor, which does not justify
the fact that he deserved to be beaten almost to death for an incident that would not have
occurred if he were white. As the trial continued, the five police officials that were involved in
this altercation were all released and found not guilty by the jury. Many people at that time
believed that the justice was unfair which soon let to the L.A riots. Many people since then, now
believe that Caucasians receive a different type of treatment than those of a different race, also
known as white privileged.

In many parts of Los Angeles, racial profiling is seen in

areas where there is most violence and aggression towards one another. In the book, Always
Running, Luis Rodriguez speaks about his life as he was growing up as a gang member. In this
book he talks about different events in which he was able to face discrimination, racism, and
stereotypes because of the way he looked and the way he approached himself. One incident in
which he encounters is the racial profiling with the law enforcements when he states, I was
arrested and put in murder's row. They were trying to get me for some murders I didn't do. They
had me in a cell next to Charles Manson; he was going to trial at the time (135). Luis
Rodriguez explains on the situation on how he was blamed for murders he did not commit and
how whether or not he should be considered guilty. For instance Rodriguez states that he was in
murder row, which basically demonstrates that they were 100% sure that he had committed the
murders without looking for another suspect. With that said, Luis Rodriguez represents not just a

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single group but also the situations in which people had to face throughout the 60s and how law
enforcements always assumed the worst for this type of race. Although this is just a simple
example of the book, the title itself Always Running is used as a metaphor in which he repeatedly
states that he must remain running ,which means that he must run away from the humiliation,
discrimination, hopelessness that society and law enforcements have brought to him.
Although, some people believe that some people misjudge a law enforcement that may be
just be doing their job on keep the city safe, some of the police offices fall into the misguidance
of the differences between profiling and racial profiling. According to The National Institute of
Justice they demonstrate the different ways that government officials decide on when to pull over
a person during traffic, it states Despite training to avoid discrimination, officers may still rely
on cultural stereotypes and act on their perceptions of a person's characteristics ( National
Institute of Justice). In other words, although sometimes police officers do misjudge a person by
their appearance but they still commit the act of racial profiling by assuming that a minority is
committing a crime because they were at a certain place and a certain time which indicates that
police officers still find a valid excuse to be able to pull over a minority and assume that what
they had witnessed was a crime or a misdemeanor. This just demonstrates how police officers
still have assumptions on a certain ethnic group and follow their cultural stereotypes to decide if
the actions that a minority had committed are seen as a crime.
Stereotypes, discrimination, racial profiling, and racism all play an important role
in which we are able to judge a certain ethnic group by the false assumptions that we as a society
create. Today in society, government officials believe that is lawful to target a certain ethnic
group by false assumptions that they hold on a culture group but instead of targeting a certain

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person by their appearance they should start targeting the truth and finally being able to
demonstrate actual facts on the actions that people commit.

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Work Cited
Ayres, Iam. "Racial Profiling in L.A.: The Numbers Don't Lie." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles
Times, 23 Oct. 2008. Web. 27 April 2016.
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
"Racial Profiling." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
"Racial Profiling." National Institute of Justice. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2016.
Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. Willimantic, CT:
Curbstone, 1993. Print.
"When the Truth Hurts, Tell a Joke: Why America Needs Its Comedians." Humanity In Action.
N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.

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Dear Professor Malvin,

This essay was probably the one that made me double think on what I wanted to write. As
I wrote I began to double think on what exactly I wanted to talk about since I began unsure on
my stance on racial profiling. I kept thinking about how wrong it is to judge a person by its cover
but the more I wrote and researched the more I believed that society has switched the judgment
to the police department. Now a days I see how police offers are always blamed for the action of
racial profiling were in reality all they want to do is their job. This where I began to think about
how maybe how police officers also face racial profiling because their past and how people
normally blame them for racism. This leads to another problem that I faced and how I became so
lost in writing only writing about racial profiling because I focused a lot about prejudice, racism,
discrimination, and macroaggressions. At a certain point I believed that I just became redundant
and did not know how to find words to say without describing a different topic other than racial
profiling. For many reasons, I could not find a way to format my essay and began to focus more
on the layout of the essay rather than actually paying attention of what to write about it
specifically. Another thing that I noticed was that I had a hard time on wording the essay itself.
Since I had seen racial profiling itself I did not know if I should include the word I since it had
to be based on facts and statistics where my anecdote was more about perspective rather than
logic. I honestly believe this essay was the hardest for me because I had to be able to incorporate
many resources that I had read in class and be able to put my ideas together and to persuade
myself and others to agree that racial profiling does exist and how it effects of it and how it has
shaped to the society we live today.
Sincerely,

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Miriam Maravillo