[Jamie89]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Hmmmmmmmm it's hardly a new concept, it's called racial profiling, and also, it's not like someone just came up with the idea of racial profiling out of nowhere: certain types of crimes are more likely to be carried out by certain demographics.

However, there are also VERY GOOD REASONS to avoid being tempted into using racial profiling. It's "shortcut logic" that can lead to devastating misconceptions and mistakes. In other words, there are well researched reasons that law enforcement agencies don't (or shouldn't) do it.

It also creates self-fulfilling prophecies. For example; in certain areas, young black men are far more likely than any other group to be carrying a blade. This lead to pretty widescale racial profiling for "random" stop and search practices by the police. Not only is this unfair, it also (for obvious reason) helps to create a pariah-culture amoungst that group, and ends up pushing more young people down the sort of route where they ARE more likely to be carrying a blade, reinforcing the stereotype, and seemingly justifying the profiling.

TL;DR - there's a very good reason, sometimes, not to share an assumption no matter how convinced of it you are - and even if it turns out to be an accurate assumption.



ALSO Kirk, I resent the implication in your post. Frankel is not a sex predator, that old fella's jizz is worth a fortune

I haven't really got anything useful to add to this debate that hasn't already been said, but I just wanted to say this is a fantastic post TS. Especially the paragraph about self-fulfilling prophecies. As a white british male I can't imagine what it's like to walk down the street and feel like people/the police are looking at me with suspicion, but I imagine that it would probably affect me negatively in some way.