Is Racial Pofiing Acceptable?

Our essential question for this unit offers us the opportunity to really search within ourselves and ponder this issue. For many of you, your first reaction was to simply answer the question with: "no way, racial profiling is wrong."

Often you based your opinion a personal experience with law enforcement or knowledge of some else's experience that you felt was racially motivated. It is always a good start to look within our own experiences and prior knowledge of something when determining our position. Yet, that is not enough to make a thoughtful and educated assertion on the topic.

Therefore, you must delve into the topic through guided research as we have begun in our class. Through the critical analysis of credible and reliable texts and media resources we can better understand the subject matter we are studying and truly evaluate it. For example, if my first thought of racial profiling is related to the FBI and CIA profiling of terrorist suspects, I might be more apt to say that racial profiling is acceptable. On the other hand if I think of a minority being targeted based solely on their race, I would be more apt to say racial profiling isn't acceptable. Only through our point/cointerpoint research will I add more knowledge and understanding of this topic. I can then base my thoughts on facts and research, rather than anecdotal evidence.

So, as you ponder this essential question, take your research opportunities very seriously and generate your own defensible assertion.