# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling (Oxford University Press, 2014) is the culmination of Professor Jack Glaser's research on racial profiling, stereotyping and implicit bias, particularly as it pertains to law enforcement.
What is implicit bias and what does it have to do with racial profiling?
Implicit biases are the stereotypes and prejudices that reside and operate in our minds outside of conscious awareness. One commonly held stereotype associates minorities, particularly Blacks, with crime. Many people explicitly repudiate that stereotype, but it is pervasive in our culture so we're all aware of it. Our unconscious is not good at distinguishing between associations that we approve of and those we don't, so merely having the two concepts (Black and crime) associated in our memories causes one to be automatically activated in our thoughts when the other is presented.

When police are making determinations about who is suspicious, and therefore warrants investigation (e.g., being stopped, searched) they are operating under considerable uncertainty-we know this because the overwhelming majority of the time the people they stop for "discretionary" investigatory purposes are not engaged in crime. When we're making decisions under uncertainty, we tend to use cognitive shortcuts. What might feel like a legitimate hunch to a police officer could actually be the influence of a racial stereotype. As a result, stops of Blacks and Latinos tend to be less productive (less likely to yield contraband) than stops of Whites are.
Shootings by police have figured prominently in the news in the past year, especially the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. How might your research speak to such incidents?
Sadly, fatal police shootings of civilians are fairly commonplace, occurring about once a day in the US. A disproportionate amount of the time, these victims are Black. Of the ten documented fatal shootings of off-duty police officers by on-duty police officers in the last thirty years, nine were Black or Latino, when only about a quarter of American police officers are minorities of any sort. This is a compelling statistic. The same implicit stereotypes that cause officers to see guns faster after seeing a Black face than a White face, or to shoot unarmed Blacks more often than unarmed Whites in "Shooter Task" simulations, almost certainly play a role in the high rate of lethal force used on Black men in America.

There is also a fear and aggression response that is triggered by those stereotypes. Police officers are human. Put in a situation that they perceive as life-threatening they will be prone to simplistic responses. That's probably why they so often use excessive force, unloading their full clip of bullets into a single suspect. It's a necessity that police officers have a means to protect themselves and the public, of course, but there does seem to be a troubling trend of excessive force, and young Black men are bearing the brunt of it.
What do you hope will be the response of law enforcement leadership to your book?
Everyone is troubled by racial bias in policing, and I think there's an opportunity to get all sides on the same page. In the book, I distinguish between implicit biases and "racism." Racism implies an ideology that one racial group is better or more deserving than others. Implicit biases are normal and largely outside of our control. Whether we apply them and act on the consequently biased inference, however, is much more under our control.
Individual situations, contexts and policies differ greatly from place to place, but are there a couple of policy recommendations you'd make to mitigate the role of implicit bias and racial profiling in policing?
The low hanging fruit in terms of policy recommendations is to reduce the discretion officers have in their decisions about whom to stop, question, and search. They currently have tremendous latitude, and that's why most of their stops are unproductive, particularly in the domain of pedestrian stops. We don't want to hamstring officers, but there are ways to reduce the number of stops by being more prescriptive about valid indicators of suspiciousness (vs. inarticulable hunches). To the extent that officers are looking for a relatively small set of legitimate, established signals of criminal behavior, they will stop fewer people (and therefore fewer innocent people) and will have a higher success rate (aka "hit rate") among those they do stop. The Supreme Court has given officers great latitude, so this policy change will have to come at the legislative or agency administrative level. Legislatures have proven very reluctant to act on this, but I think police chiefs can and will.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling (Oxford University Press, 2014) is the culmination of Professor Jack Glaser's research on racial profiling, stereotyping and implicit bias, particularly as it pertains to law enforcement. What is implicit bias and what does it have to do with racial profiling?

# data[].attributes.body
Shows how Racial Profiling Occurs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New video from racial profiling in Avondale Estates

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Last week an Avondale Police Officer stopped two brothers and their cousin in the parking lot of Pin-Ups Strip Club. Their lawyer, Shawn McCullers, is not happy with the footage.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sitting in his car outside a boarded-up house on a recent Saturday morning, Michael Hayes went through the mental checklist of things he does to make sure suspicious people know he is an enterprising young real estate investor, not a burglar or a drug addict.

He readied his business cards. He grabbed a sign with his business website and phone number to plant in the front yard of the brick house on Douglass Avenue. He queued up the contract that the homeowner signed allowing Hayes to go inside and take pictures for potential investors. He even had the owner on the phone as he worked one of the boards loose. And, as always, he exhibited a polite and respectful demeanor to anyone he met.

None of it was enough.

Before that afternoon was over, Hayes, a 31-year-old father, former teacher and an entrepreneur with a growing portfolio of rehabbed homes for sale - would have to justify his presence to a screaming neighbor and the police officers summoned to the scene.

He had committed no crime, and the police did not arrest him. But many of the millions of people who saw the video he recorded of the conflict say his transgression wasn't what he did, but who he is: He was real estate investing while black.

"You know why the lady called the police on me," he said, looking directly into the camera. "I don't look threatening."

In recent weeks, a host of viral videos have shown black Americans engaged in innocuous activities that led to 911 calls. On May 12, members of a black sorority were questioned by a state trooper while picking up litter on a Pennsylvania highway. Four days earlier, a Yale University student was interrogated by police after her dorm neighbor called the police because she was napping in a common area. And a week before that, a neighbor reported a burglary in progress as a group of black women left their Airbnb in Rialto, California.

The incidents have given rise to the hashtag #livingwhileblack and often end with a black person being interrogated by police or being carted off in handcuffs. In the worst cases, the incidents have escalated to body slams or even gunshots.

Starbucks has planned to shut down 8,000 U.S. stores on Tuesday afternoon to engage employees in discussions about racial bias after a manager at a Philadelphia Starbucks last month called police on two black men who were waiting for a friend before ordering. A viral video shot by another customer showed police removing the men in handcuffs.

Last week, NAACP President Derrick Johnson accused President Donald Trump of encouraging the trend, saying there is "a direct relationship between the racist language and policies emerging from the White House and the growing number of hate crimes and blatant attacks on the humanity of black people."

While cellphone videos have raised the profile of such incidents, they're not a new phenomenon: In 2009, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested after a neighbor saw him attempting to enter his own home when he was locked out. President Barack Obama, who would later hold what some called "a beer summit" with Gates and the arresting officer, said he didn't know whether race played a role in the incident. But, he added, "There's a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately."

When they have spoken publicly, the 911 callers and responding police departments typically have denied that their suspicion was racially motivated.

Tiffiany Albert said race played no role in her decision to confront Hayes, the black real estate investor. Albert, who identifies as Spanish and has a black boyfriend, said her reaction was reasonable, given crime in the neighborhood.

Phillip Goff, president of the Center for Policing Equity, a nonprofit that promotes police transparency and accountability, said that many people see the police as more than just instruments for enforcing the law. They use them as enforcers of unwritten social rules, which can be steeped in discriminatory thinking.

"The issue is that, for many folks, law enforcement has been seen as their own racism valet," Goff said.

"We talk about not just crime, we talk about disorder - anything that makes folks feel uncomfortable or says that the social norms that we've all agreed to are being violated," he said. "And the problem is that black skin frequently violates the social order."

Hayes does not consider himself particularly intimidating. He's a 5-foot-9 Memphis native with a master's degree who taught English-as-a-second-language classes. Soft-spoken and introverted, he seasons his sentences with "yes, ma'am" and "I appreciate it."

He started investing in real estate three years ago as a means of "keeping my family from punching a 9-to-5 clock." He finds cheap houses whose owners have an incentive to sell - recently inherited properties or homes nearing foreclosure - fixes them up and offers them to investors.

On May 5, he was prying the boards off an abandoned home when he came across Albert, 49. Albert, who had watched the house become a hub for prostitution, drug dealing and other crimes, demanded that Hayes leave and threatened to call the police. Another neighbor who saw their squabble did it for her.

Hayes pondered leaving. But he had a legal reason for being there, and he thought turning tail would have validated Albert's groundless suspicions. So he took out his cellphone and began recording.

"For one, I need this on record, just in case anything happens," he reasoned. "Two, this footage needs to be seen."

He stared into the camera and spoke to what would ultimately balloon to more than 3.4 million viewers: "A young black man out here trying to do what's right, and we get the police called on us," he said. "This hasn't been the first time I done seen this."

Recalling the incident later, Albert defended her behavior. She and her neighbors had lobbied the city for two years to board up the abandoned house and eventually did it themselves. Still, someone broke her back windows and twice broke into her shed, she said, "stealing all the tools and even the gas can."

So when she heard the boards being pried off that day, she ran outside to confront Hayes.

She asked him for paperwork; he pointed to his sign in the front yard and mentioned paperwork on his phone. Albert was not convinced.

"I said, 'You're going to be trespassing,' " she told The Washington Post. "I told him I was going to call the police."

Hayes knew he had done nothing wrong - a conviction that was confirmed when two officers arrived, one white and one black. They checked his paperwork and found that he had a legal right to be there.

That didn't sit well with Albert. In the video, she glowers from the porch, then yells that she is a friend of the sheriff.

"I don't care if you're friends with the president," the white officer says. "If you try to do anything to stop him, you're going to jail."

Albert then turned her attention to Hayes: "Hurry up and do it and get out!"

"No. No. He can take all day," the officer responded. "He's in control. He's got a contract."

The officers then waited outside the abandoned house while Hayes took pictures.

"I feel like I got two of the best police officers in all of Memphis," Hayes said later.

Memphis Police declined to make the officers involved in the call available for an interview. In a statement, the department said: "The Memphis police officers who were captured on video while on the scene of a complaint call that has now gone viral are examples of the vast majority of all MPD officers. Our officers . . . are trained and expected to respond in a professional manner."

The statement thanked Hayes for recording and sharing the interaction.

But Memphis police have not always come off so well in interactions with black residents. In April, Hayes had an unsettling encounter with an officer who berated him aggressively after accusing him of running a stop sign. The officer did not give him a ticket, but Hayes drove away shaken.

Over the years, the department has been accused of brutality in several high-profile cases, charges that rarely result in punishment. Between 2011 and 2017, police officials determined that evidence supported only 33 of the 359 allegations of brutality, according to Memphis NBC-affiliate WMCA.

"Here, police can do what they want. You can file a complaint, but nothing is going to happen, because you're black," said Brad Watkins, executive director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, a grass-roots social justice organization.

Goff, the researcher, said he was struck by an exchange near the end of Hayes's video, when Hayes tells the officers he believes the call was racially motivated.

The white officer concurs.

"The white officer knows that this is racial," Goff said. "He's got a sense of how racism functions in Memphis."

While training would help, Goff said, "there's no chief that's going to last very long that trains officers to respond to complaints by saying: 'Mrs. Smith, you're probably just racist.' "

Hayes himself hesitates to use the word when recounting the incident, in part because he doesn't want to impugn his city. Memphis is his home. It's where he's building a business he hopes will serve people of all races and backgrounds. It's where he's raising a 10-month-old son who took his first steps this month.

"I don't understand that mind-set, where you want to play with someone's life like that," he said of Albert's decision to call police.

Still, he said, "at no point was I a danger to that lady.

Ever find yourself scrolling through home-rental websites, day dreaming of a staycation or weekend getaway? Maybe you've flagged them with a heart or bookmark, saving them for easy viewing later when you're ready to book. We asked Airbnb about the most commonly "wish-listed" homes throughout Chicago. The results range from a Lincoln Park loft to a transformed garden apartment in Little Village and range from $65 to $109 a night. Two of the listings are Airbnb Plus, meaning they've passed an inspection to ensure they meet certain standards.

Through triumphs and tears, here are 18 folks who inspired Balancing Act columnist Heidi Stevens the most in 2018.

Although different, each of these rentals has one thing in common: It seems everyone wants to stay for a night.

(Susan Moskop)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Viral videos raise concerns about everyday racial profiling

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sitting in his car outside a boarded-up house on a recent Saturday morning, Michael Hayes went through the mental checklist of things he does to make sure suspicious people know he is an enterprising young real estate investor, not a burglar or a drug addict. He readied his business cards.

# data[].attributes.body
Research in the file shows the everlasting effects on teens

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
from research organizations

New research to be presented at the 2017 Pediatric Academic Societies 2017 Meeting illustrates the unhealthy effects racism can have on children, with reported exposure to discrimination tied to higher rates of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), anxiety and depression, as well as decreased general health.

Authors of the study abstract, "The Detrimental Influence of Racial Discrimination in the United States," will present their findings on Sunday, May 7, in the Moscone Covention Center West in San Francisco. For the study, they looked at data from 95,677 participants in the 2011-12 National Survey on Children's Health. In addition to providing physical and mental health data, caregivers of children in the survey were asked whether the child had experienced being "judged or treated unfairly" because of his or her race or ethnicity.

After adjusting for socioeconomic status, family structure, primary language and other factors, the researchers found a significant link between exposure to racism and health. The average proportion of children reported by parents to be in "excellent health" decreased by 5.4 percent among those exposed to perceived discrimination, for example. Exposure to racism also appeared to boost the odds of ADHD by 3.2 percent.

The biggest reduction in general health appeared among low-income, minority children, particularly Hispanic participants, said Ashaunta Anderson, MD, MPH, lead author of the study abstract and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Riverside.

Some children exposed to discrimination who were from high-income households, however, also experienced negative health effects.

"White children with high income who experienced racial or ethnic discrimination had larger decreases in general health," Dr. Anderson said, "while black children experiencing that combination of factors had increased rates of ADHD."

The study also found that children who experienced racial discrimination had twice the odds of anxiety and depression compared to children who did not experience discrimination. In turn, children with anxiety or depression had roughly half the odd of excellent general health, and four times the odds of ADHD.

"Our findings suggest that racial discrimination contributes to race-based disparities in child health, independent of socioeconomic factors," Dr. Anderson said, adding that coordinated efforts are needed to support children affected by discrimination with developmentally appropriate coping strategies and systems of care. In particular, she said, programs that provide positive parenting practices training and promote positive peer and role model relationships can help buffer children from the negative health effects of discrimination.

Cite This Page:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
children's health; attention deficit disorder; mental health research; racial issues; child psychology; add and adhd; social issues; public health; poverty and learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Exposure to racism harms children's health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
from research organizations New research to be presented at the 2017 Pediatric Academic Societies 2017 Meeting illustrates the unhealthy effects racism can have on children, with reported exposure to discrimination tied to higher rates of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), anxiety and depression, as well as decreased general health.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Racial Profiling" refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Criminal profiling, generally, as practiced by police, is the reliance on a group of characteristics they believe to be associated with crime. Examples of racial profiling are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic violations (commonly referred to as "driving while black or brown"), or the use of race to determine which pedestrians to search for illegal contraband.

Another example of racial profiling is the targeting, ongoing since the September 11th attacks, of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians for detention on minor immigrant violations in the absence of any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Center or the Pentagon.

Law enforcement agent includes a person acting in a policing capacity for public or private purposes. This includes security guards at department stores, airport security agents, police officers, or, more recently, airline pilots who have ordered passengers to disembark from flights, because the passengers' ethnicity aroused the pilots' suspicions. Members of each of these occupations have been accused of racial profiling.

Racial profiling does not refer to the act of a law enforcement agent pursuing a suspect in which the specific description of the suspect includes race or ethnicity in combination with other identifying factors.

Defining racial profiling as relying "solely" on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin or religion can be problematic. This definition found in some state racial profiling laws is unacceptable, because it fails to include when police act on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin or religion in combination with an alleged violation of all law. Under the "solely" definition, an officer who targeted Latino drivers who were speeding would not be racial profiling because the drivers were not stopped "solely" because of their race but also because they were speeding. This would eliminate the vast majority of racial profiling now occurring.

Any definition of racial profiling must include, in addition to racially or ethnically discriminatory acts, discriminatory omissions on the part of law enforcement as well. For example, during the eras of lynching in the South in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the civil rights movement in the 1950's and 1960's, southern sheriffs sat idly by while racists like the Ku Klux Klan terrorized African Americans. At times, the sheriffs would even release black suspects to the lynch mobs. A recent example would be the complaint by an African American man in Maryland, who after moving into a white community, was attacked and subjected to property damage. Local police failed to respond to his repeated complaints until they arrested him for shooting his gun into the air, trying to disperse a hostile mob outside his home.

Many racial profiling victims walk away with traffic tickets, but too often for others the outcome of racial profiling is death.

Pennsylvania (Brentwood) - On October 12, 1995, Jonny Gammage, a 31 year-old African American male, was killed after being pulled over while driving the Jaguar of his cousin, Pittsburgh Steelers football player Ray Seals, in a predominately white community. Although police claimed that Gammage initiated the struggle, a tow truck driver said he saw one officer start the fight and the others join in kicking, hitting and clubbing Gammage while he lay on the pavement. Three officers were tried for involuntary manslaughter: John Vojtas was acquitted; Lt. Milton Mulholland and Michael Albert had their charges dismissed after two mistrials. Gammage's family settled a wrongful death civil rights lawsuit against the five officers involved and their police departments for $1.5 million.

New York (Bronx-New York City) - On February 4, 1999, Amadou Diallo, an unarmed 22 year-old immigrant from New Guinea, West Africa, was shot and killed in the narrow vestibule of the apartment building where he lived. Four white officers, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy fired 41 bullets, hitting Diallo 19 times. All four were members of the New York City Police Department's Street Crimes Unit, which, under the slogan, "We Own the Night," used aggressive "stop and frisk" tactics against African Americans at a rate double that group's population percentage. A report on the unit by the state attorney general found that blacks were stopped at a rate 10 times that of whites, and that 35 percent of those stops lacked reasonable suspicion to detain or had reports insufficiently filled out to make a determination. Thousands attended Diallo's funeral. Demonstrations were held almost daily, along with the arrests of over 1,200 people in planned civil disobedience. In a trial that was moved out of the community where Diallo lived and to Albany in upstate New York, the four officers who killed Diallo were acquitted of all charges.

Ohio (Cincinnati) - On April 7, 2001, in the early morning hours, Timothy Thomas, a 19 year-old African-American, was shot to death by police officer John Roach. Thomas had 14 outstanding misdemeanor warrants, mostly traffic violations, including failure to wear a seat belt. According to a city councilman, he was running away, holding up his baggy pants, and scaled a fence, landing in a driveway where Roach was approaching and shot Thomas. He became the fifth black male in the city to die at the hands of police in a five-month period and the fifteenth since 1995. Two nights of protests left broken windows at City Hall and fires around the city. Witnesses reported that following Thomas' funeral, six city SWAT team officers shot pellet-filled bags into a peaceful crowd. Two people hit by the pellets filed lawsuits. Under community and city council pressure, both the public safety director and city manager resigned. Officer Roach was indicted on charges of negligent homicide, and obstructing official business, resulting from differences in his version of events.

Roach was acquitted in a bench trial characterized by the judge's (a former prosecutor) open admiration for Roach, and blaming Timothy Thomas for "making" Roach kill him.

A community coalition, the Cincinnati Black United Front and the ACLU of Ohio filed suit against the city and the Fraternal Order of Police, citing a pattern and practice of discrimination by police, including issuing the type of traffic citations Thomas received to African Americans at twice their population percentage. In April 2002 the case was settled, under terms including the establishment of a civilian complaint review board and the activation of the reporting of collected traffic stop data that had been enacted by city ordinance in 2001. The Department of Justice also intervened and settled with the city, including revision and review of use of force policy.

It is significant to note that research confirms the existence of bias in decisions to shoot. A series of University of California/University of Chicago studies recreated the experience of a police officer confronted with a potentially dangerous suspect, and found that:

participants fired on an armed target more quickly when the target was African American than when White, and decided not to shoot an unarmed target more quickly when the target was White than when African American;

participants failed to shoot an armed target more often when that target was White than when the target was African American. If the target was unarmed, participants mistakenly shot the target more often when African American than when White;

shooting bias was greater among participants who held a strong cultural stereotype of African Americans as aggressive, violent and dangerous, and among participants who reported more contact with African Americans. shooting bias was greater among participants who held a strong cultural stereotype of African Americans as aggressive, violent and dangerous, and among participants who reported more contact with African Americans1.

The stories above and hundreds of others present a compelling argument that not only does racial profiling exists, but it is widespread, and has had a destructive effect on the lives of communities of color, and attitudes toward police.

Asians, who, according to the U.S. census, number 10 million, or 4 percent of the population, have been victims of racial profiling as well. Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwanese American was targeted and suspected of espionage on the basis of his race. Memos by high-ranking FBI and Department of Energy officials acknowledged that Lee was singled out because he was Chinese, and eight similarly situated non-Chinese were not prosecuted. 2

In Seattle, Washington in July 2001 a group of 14 Asian American youth were stopped by police for jaywalking, claiming that they were kept against the wall for about an hour. The Seattle Times reported that one officer told them he had visited their country while in the army, and asked them repeatedly whether they spoke English. The paper also reported that U.S. Representative David Wu (D-Oregon) was detained entering the headquarters of the Department of Energy, and repeatedly.

In 2001, the Asian Freedom Project of Wisconsin issued a report that found the racial profiling of Hmong communities there, and included the testimony of adults, as well as boys and girls.

The Garden Grove (CA) Police Department settled a "gang" database racial profiling lawsuit by a group of young Asian Americans who said their civil rights were violated when officers photographed them as suspected gang members based merely on their ethnicity and clothing.

Indigenous people ( Native Americans) call it "DWI," with a new twist: "Driving While Indian." According to the National American Indian Housing Council, there are 2.4 million Indians (including Eskimos and Aleuts) in the U.S. Indians complain about stops and searches by local police and sheriffs on roads leading to and from reservations.

In South Dakota, widespread reports of racial profiling led to hearings before the state legislature, where Indians testified about their being stopped and searched not only based on race but also on religious articles hanging from rearview mirrors, and regional license plates that identified them as living on reservations.

In June 2002 scores of Indians in the state's Bennett County complained to Department of Justice attorneys, alleging racial profiling at the hands of sheriffs there, including vehicular stops in the absence of reasonable suspicion, the administration of breathalyzer tests without reasonable suspicion, warrantless searches of homes and vehicles, and demanding to see drivers licenses and vehicle registrations while inside bars.

Although "Driving While Black/Brown" traffic stops and searches are the form of racial profiling that has received the most media attention, profiling takes place off the roadways as well. Black and Latino pedestrians are regularly stopped and frisked without reasonable cause.

In New York City, the December 1999 report of the New York City Police Departments pedestrian "stop and frisk" practices by the state attorney general provided glaring evidence of racial profiling in the nation's largest city. Blacks comprise 25.6 percent of the City's population, yet 50.6 percent of all persons "stopped" during the period were black. Hispanics comprise 23.7 percent of the City's population yet, 33.0 percent of all "stops" were of Hispanics. By contrast, whites are 43.4 percent of the City's population, but accounted for only 12.9 percent of all stops. Blacks comprise 62.7 percent of all persons "stopped" by the NYPD's Street Crime Unit ("SCU").

In precincts in which blacks and Hispanics each represented less than 10 percent of the total population, individuals identified as belonging to these racial groups nevertheless accounted for more than half of the total "stops" during the covered period. Blacks accounted for 30 percent of all persons "stopped" in these precincts; Hispanics accounted for 23.4 percent of all persons "stopped."

Finally, precincts where minorities constitute the majority of the overall population tended to see more "stop & frisk" activity than precincts where whites constitute a majority of the population: Of the ten precincts showing the highest rate of "stop and frisk" activity (measured by "stops" per 1,000 residents), in only one (the 10 th Precinct) was the majority of the population white. In seven other precincts, blacks and Hispanics constituted the majority of the population. The remaining two precincts were business districts in Manhattan and Brooklyn in which the daytime racial breakdown of persons within the precinct is unknown.

In roughly half of the police precincts in New York City, the majority of the population living in the precinct is white. However, of these 36 majority-white precincts, only 13 were in the top half of precincts showing most "stops" during the period.

In Orange County California, a database containing the names and photographs of reputed gang members appeared to racially profile. 3 Latinos, Asians and African Americans were more than 90 percent of the 20,221 men and women in the Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking system, but made up less than half of Orange County's population. The disparity attracted the notice of the California Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights as well as the ACLU. We asked the county district attorney's office to establish a civilian oversight board to monitor what we saw as problems with the list.

Youth of color have been victims of racially-motivated bicycling stops, " In April, 2001, the ACLU joined a suit against Eastpointe, Michigan , representing 21 young African-American men who were stopped by the police while riding their bikes there. The ACLU argued that the bicyclists were stopped in this predominantly white suburb of Detroit because of their race and not because they were doing anything wrong. In a 1996 memorandum to the Eastpointe City Manager, the former police chief stated that he instructed his officers to investigate any black youths riding through Eastpointe subdivisions. Police searched many of young men and, in some cases, seized and later sold their bicycles. Police logs and reports in Eastpointe have identified over 100 incidents between 1995 and 1998 in which African-American youth were detained.

A throwback to the grainy '60's black and white television news footage of vicious police dogs attacking peaceful black civil rights protesters is the continued discriminatory use of canine units by police. These dogs, lethal weapons capable of biting at 2000 pounds pressure per square inch, and their handlers have been implicated in a vicious form of racial profiling that has led to legal action:

California (Los Angeles)- The ACLU of Southern California compiled reports on the hundreds of mostly blacks and Latinos who were bitten by Los Angeles Police Department dogs from 1990-1992, charging that the dogs trained to "attack and maul," were routinely sent out in non-violent situations. In 1997, California state highway patrol canine units stopped almost 34,000 vehicles. Only 2 percent were carrying drugs.

Maryland (Prince Georges County) - The Washington Post reported that in May 2001 federal prosecutors charged a county police officer with releasing her police dog on an unarmed Mexican immigrant as part of a pattern of using and threatening the use of the dog on people of color. Despite being the subject of four lawsuits, twice being guilty of making false statements to a supervisor, and five prior instances of releasing the dog on suspects who weren't resisting, and being flagged by a departmental "early warning" system, the officer remained undisciplined in any substantive way. In 1999 the Post reported that thirteen police dog excessive force suits had been filed in Prince Georges circuit and federal courts, in addition to five others that ended in judgement for plaintiffs or settlement. Of the total, ten alleged repeated bites of suspects once under police control, or while cuffed or on the ground.

South Dakota (Wagner)- While not involving the use of physical canine force, the issue reached a new low when school officials and police led a large German shepherd drug dog through classrooms in suspicionless drug searches of Yankton Sioux K-12 students, some as young as six years old. In July 2002, the ACLU filed suit in federal court.

Washington (Seattle) -In 1992 the ACLU alleged that police dog handlers used excessive force on suspects. Dogs were trained to attack and bite suspects regardless of their actions, even against alleged shoplifters, gasoline siphoners and jaywalkers. They also reported that in that year, 40 percent of police dog attacks were against African Americans, and that 91 people had received police dog bite injuries requiring hospitalization.

The following states appear to require independent reasonable suspicion for dog searches: Alaska, 4 Illinois, 5 Minnesota, 6 New Hampshire, New York, 8 Pennsylvania, 9 and Washington. 10

The targeting of shoppers/business patrons of color for suspicion of shoplifting by private security and other employees has disproportionately affected both working and prominent African-American women. TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey said she was refused buzz-in entry to a store even after seeing white women admitted and making a second attempt. After calling from a pay phone and being assured the store was in fact open, a third try failed as well (New York City) . U.S, Congresswoman Maxine Waters said she was followed around a store and required to show her key at a hotel, unlike whites who entered before her ( New York City) . Professional basketball player and Olympic medalist Sheryl Swoopes was kept waiting to be seated for almost an hour at a restaurant, while whites who arrived after her were seated before her (Houston, Texas).

Pauline Hampton and her niece, both African-Americans, were shopping at the Dillard Department Store in Overland Park, Kansas , a suburb of Kansas City, with their children. After making several purchases, they went to the cosmetics counter to redeem a coupon. A white security guard accused Hampton of shoplifting, took her shopping bag, and, without consent, searched it, emptying the bag onto the counter. After finding the receipt for the items, he shoved the goods and the empty bag back to her. When she complained about his actions, the guard ordered them to leave, and threatened to call the police and have them forcibly removed. Hampton eventually called her husband to the scene and the situation escalated. They sued, and were awarded a $1.2 million judgement; the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Dillard's appeal.

The store chain, based in Arkansas has also faced dozens of racial profiling lawsuits, claiming harassment and false arrest, in other states including Arkansas, Iowa, and Texas. Evidence produced in one case showed that although 16 percent of its shoppers were African American, 87 percent of the false arrest claims were made by them. In Texas, Dillard settled and paid money to the family of an African American customer who died at a store after being beaten and hog-tied while being detained, and has also settled discrimination suits by employees in Kansas and Missouri.

Other companies sued for racial profiling include Eddie Bauer, Avis Rent A Car, Denny's Restaurant, The Children's Place, and Holiday Spa.

Worksite Racial Profiling

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has had a history of disproportionately targeting ethnic groups of color for undocumented labor violations. Like all law enforcement, INS agents must have sufficient evidence of wrong doing to establish probable cause or reasonable suspicion to arrest or detain. They may not carry out their duties in a racially or ethnically discriminatory manner. While ethnicity or nationality are obviously critical elements in immigration violations by themselves, without additional facts there is insufficient basis for law enforcement action.

The New York Times reviewed files of INS raids released as part of the settlement of a garment workers union selective enforcement suit against the agency in New York City. The settlement included a summary that Latinos were 96 percent of the 2,907 people arrested in the 187 worksite raids carried out by the INS in the district, fat greater than their representation in the city's legal or illegal population. This occurred even where the INS acknowledged that half the workers were not Latino but Asian, including undocumented immigrants.

And while some raids were based on informant information, 80 percent were initiated by agents who cited as primary evidence subjects' appearance or language without evidence of wrongdoing. Included were skin color, speaking Spanish or English with a Spanish accent, appearing to be of South or Central American descent and wearing clothing "not typical of North Americans." Such characterizations in major American cities are common to born and naturalized citizens alike.

Undocumented workers were discovered and arrested in all but a few of the reviewed raids, but nearly everyone arrested was Latino.

Suits have also been filed in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, and Ohio claiming racial profiling by the INS. A federal court in Ohio found violations of the rights of Latinos by that states highway patrol's practice of stopping Latino drivers to question them about their immigration status, including officers even confiscated the green cards of legal migrant workers claiming they were counterfeit. In California, federal courts have found Fourth Amendment violations of Latinos in the stopping of Latinos on the basis of appearance and foreign sounding names.

The Supreme Court has held that INS agents working near the Mexican border may use Spanish ethnicity as a basis for detaining a person, but that it may not be the only basis.

A related issue is the targeting by police, first reported by the ACLU in Florida, of Latinos waiting on public sidewalks for labor employers to appear and select them for work, under the offense of being "visual clutter."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Racial Profiling" refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Criminal profiling, generally, as practiced by police, is the reliance on a group of characteristics they believe to be associated with crime.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
To those who have not experienced racial profiling or do not know someone who has, it may seem to be nothing more than a mere inconvenience. However, racial profiling is much more than a hassle or an annoyance. It has real and direct consequences. Those who experience profiling pay the price emotionally, psychologically, mentally and in some cases even financially and physically.

As noted by criminologist Scott Wortley: "To argue that racial profiling is harmless, that it only hurts those who break the law, is to totally ignore the psychological and social damage that can result from always being considered one of the "usual suspects." This feeling was well summarized by one of the participants in the inquiry:

"Some may feel this practice is justifiable because there are a lot of bad people out there and it is relatively easy/convenient to group certain clusters together based on statistics and probability factors, etc. Each person wants to be viewed and treated as an individual. Think about the harm that is being done to those who find themselves within a cluster they do not belong in. Who can begin to appreciate the level of frustration within these individuals and the future cost to society to disenfranchise these innocent citizens?" (R.R.)

The American Psychological Association notes that research psychologists have studied the psychological effects of racial profiling and found that "victim effects" of racial profiling include post-traumatic stress disorder and other forms of stress-
related disorders, perceptions of race-related threats and failure to use available community resources.

Research psychologists have also examined the effects of racial profiling on broader society and have learned that societal effects include confirmation of feelings of racism, fear and financial costs. The Commission's inquiry has also revealed that the impact of profiling extends beyond those who directly experience it. It also impacts on families, friends, classmates, and neighbours. This means that the social and economic cost of racial profiling is widespread.

The sections that follow describe how racial profiling is affecting individuals, families, communities and Ontario society. They demonstrate why profiling is a harmful practice and illustrate the need for strong measures to combat profiling.

In planning the inquiry, the Commission consulted with many of the affected groups. Aboriginal community agencies stressed the importance of engaging Aboriginal people in a way that was responsive to the unique issues faced by this group and the need for specific discussion of the social and historical context of Aboriginal people's experience with racial profiling. Accordingly, the Report contains a separate section dealing with the experience of Ontario's Aboriginal community. This is not intended to detract in any way from the experience of other communities that each have distinctive issues with profiling.

Compromising our future

The future well-being and prosperity of all Ontarians depends on our children and youth. We all want our own children and indeed all children to have a happy and fulfilling childhood and to become successful adults. And, society as a whole benefits when each child reaches his or her full potential and is not limited in his or her opportunity to contribute to the well-being of the province.

Yet, during the racial profiling inquiry, the Commission learned that one of the most significant and potentially long-lasting impacts of racial profiling is its effect on children and youth. Racial profiling in several contexts, in particular in the education system and in law enforcement, is compromising the future of our children and youth and, in turn, the future prosperity of all Ontarians.

Education is an international human right essential to the life of an individual and to a community as a whole. In Canada, education is recognized and legislated as a fundamental social good. Education provides opportunities for personal, social and academic development and is important for future employment and integration in society. The school setting is one of the first places that children learn to relate to and interact with one another and with persons in positions of authority. It is often in relation to their teachers that children begin to develop a perception of themselves and of the world around them. As such, a student's experience in school can have a major effect on his or her self-image and self-esteem and on his or her development in later life.

The Commission heard that many have concerns with racial profiling in the education system. This concern was shared by members of several communities, in particular the African Canadian, Latin, Chinese, Vietnamese and Arab communities. The Commission was told of a perception that children from these groups may be stereotyped as "slow to learn" and aggressive, and are therefore considered to be the instigators of any conflict or problems at school. Behaviour that would likely be assumed to be harmless or just a "kid being a kid" if engaged in by another child is seen as threatening if a racialized child is involved. Participants in the inquiry further indicated there may be assumptions drawn that children from their communities are involved in gang activities when they hang out with kids of the same background. And, another common concern was that when a racialized child is involved in an incident with a White child, his explanation is less likely to be believed and he is more likely to be punished or to be punished more severely.

Zero tolerance policies were cited as being of significant concern to racialized communities. There is a strong perception that the Safe Schools Act and school board policies applying the Act are having a disproportionate impact on racial minority students. The Commission's research has found that there is some empirical evidence to support this belief, although it is difficult to gauge the impact of the Act and policies from a statistical standpoint due to the fact that data on race of students disciplined is not collected. Although there is little statistical evidence to confirm the widespread perception that racial minority students are disproportionately affected by zero tolerance, the authors of the study Racial and Ethnic Minority High School Students' Perceptions of School Disciplinary Practices: A Look at Some Canadian Findings conclude that the perception of racial profiling in the school system must be addressed because it is "a psychological reality for students which undoubtedly impacts on their schooling experience."

Participants emphasized that the Safe Schools Act and zero tolerance policies made by school boards appear to be having a broad negative impact not only on students, but also on their families, communities and society at large. The most commonly identified impacts are:

loss of education and educational opportunities;

negative psychological impact;

increased criminalization of children often for conduct that does not threaten the safety of others; and

promotion of anti-social behaviours.

Loss of education or loss of educational opportunity is one of the most significant and tangible losses a child can experience. At some schools, suspensions can be experienced as early as kindergarten to grade six. In some cases, students are out of school for a long period of time. The Commission heard that remedial work to be completed during the suspension is rarely assigned and, for students who are expelled, it is very difficult to get into an alternative program or another school. The result of this can be devastating to the child's future. Ambitions to pursue higher education can be shattered and even completing high school can be in doubt.

There is also a concern that the increased use of suspensions and expulsions is pushing students to drop out of school. This fear seems to be well founded as there are American studies which confirm that suspension is a moderate to strong predictor of a student dropping out and that suspension and expulsion are one of the top three school-related reasons for dropping out.

Numerous submissions highlighted the negative psychological impact that profiling can have on children and youth who either witness or experience it. For example, one mother stated, "My children have been deeply affected, their morale has been tampered with and their emotional well-being has been destroyed." (K.L.) Another pointed out that the effects of profiling in school will likely have long-term consequences: "If this happens at schools where you are developing ideas and feelings of the world, then how do they expect Black youths to act or feel when they get out in the workplace?" (T.R.)

Even if the profiling did not occur in the school context, it can affect a child's performance in school or other future goals. One parent described the fact that an incident involving the local police force had such a profound psychological impact on his son that he is "down and does not want to go to school." In addition, this youth is a top athlete, with ambitions to represent Canada in the Olympics but this goal may now be in jeopardy. Another parent noted that as a result of a non-school related incident her son's "performance in school that year suffered."

Other parents noted that their children no longer wanted to pursue certain careers as a result of their perceptions of profiling: "My son's dreams have been shattered. Since the age of 4 he wanted to be a police officer, now he says that he will never be one." (M.P.) And young people's job prospects or ability to otherwise function in life can be directly impacted by profiling: "We have extreme stresses on young people who have become fearful. More than distrustful. They have become stoic. They've become very hard, very cold. They don't like to show emotion. They don't like to show fear. And that translates throughout their entire social life. Which means they are not very successful at negotiating jobs, or going down and negotiating loans. They become dysfunctional." (B.K.)

Another significant psychological consequence repeatedly cited by participants in the inquiry is the impact of racial profiling on a child's self-esteem and confidence. One woman described experiencing racial profiling as a six-year-old child. She was the only African Canadian child in the school and was repeatedly punished for "being bad" and labelled as developmentally delayed for engaging in normal childhood behaviours such as being talkative in class. The school suggested she be placed in a special education class. Her parents decided to move her to a new school where an IQ test indicated she should be placed in an enriched class. She is now completing her postgraduate degree in criminal justice. Nevertheless, she describes a continuing impact of being profiled as a bad child from an early age:

"I felt humiliated. Guilty of something I had nothing to feel guilty about. I began to doubt my own abilities. Maybe I am stupid. Maybe I am a bad person. An unlikable child. Just perhaps. I even got an ulcer in my mouth due to it. Can you believe ... a 6 year old with an ulcer!! That experience has caused me much damage mentally. To my self-esteem, etc. Despite the fact that I am accomplishing much academically in my life, I still feel inferior to the majority (Whites) and try each day, through psychotherapy, to overcome this dark cloud that hangs over me. I was a good, kind, loving young child that didn't deserve to go through something like that. No child should." (S.I.)

Many participants noted that the psychological impact of racial profiling on their children has led to anti-social behaviour, even in young children. As well, concern was expressed that a potential long-term impact of profiling is an increased risk of criminalization. Several parents commented that one of their main fears was that racial profiling will lead their children, especially their sons, to view themselves as troublemakers and that this, in turn, will result in them behaving badly. Other parents described being terrified that their child will eventually get frustrated with incidents of profiling and react in a way that could lead to a confrontation with the authorities and criminal charges.

"...she has seen a change in him. He was a quiet obedient child now she is seeing a different child who does not listen to her anymore and also become very disruptive." (C.L.)

"When you are a young person and people think you are bad, what is the point of behaving well anyway, if they are going to treat you like a criminal, why should you even bother trying to, you know, [be] better? ... My fear is that one of these days my kids are going to be a little too fed up with this and they are going to have an attitude, you know, and they are going to be arrested." (S.M.)

"This situation actually scares me because I have teenage children and I have an older son, and I fear when they go into a mall ... I constantly counsel my son because of issues like this that occur about going out into the public and how to conduct yourself and what happens if something like this happens, the reaction is anger, the reaction is frustration, at their young age, if they react, then the situation escalates even further." (L.V.)

"If kids are treated this way, society may as well build jails for them later in life." (C.P.J.)

Persons who work with children and youth confirm that suspended students are more likely to hang out on streets and in malls creating the potential for increased contact with the police. Children who are out of school are more likely to meet anti-social kids and learn or engage in anti-social behaviours. For example, David R. Offord, Director, Canadian Centre for Studies of Children at Risk notes:

"Once kids are out of the mainline and expelled, then they are on a different path, for sure. First, they don't have much to do during the day. They may make contact with older kids or other kids who are having difficulties. ... There is some literature that points out if you put anti-social kids together it escalates their anti-social behaviour. ... It can have an impact on the community in which they live and, of course, it contributes to an important problem in Canada, which is serious anti-social behaviour, both violent and non-violent.

Many parents reported raising their children differently because of a fear of racial profiling. This included counselling their children to behave a certain way, having rules about how their children dress in public and limiting when their children are permitted to go out and where they go. Parents felt that these strategies and coping mechanisms are necessary to prepare their children for potential incidents of profiling and to protect their children from the negative consequences. This type of experience cannot help but have a profound effect on a child or young person as the fear of racial profiling and the consequent need to alter his or her behaviour becomes ingrained in his or her psyche.

The section of the Report entitled Changes in Behaviour has a more detailed discussion of socialization of young people to cope with profiling; however, it is important to note here that these types of experiences during formative years are likely to have an even more significant and lasting impact on a young person than on an adult.

Creating mistrust of our institutions

A social cost of racial profiling that is closely related to "compromising our future" is the significant mistrust that develops, both in children and adults, of our key institutions.

No one would argue that public faith in institutions and systems such as the criminal justice system, law enforcement, customs and border control and the education system is a cornerstone to democracy, order and a harmonious society. All of these institutions require citizens to work positively and cooperatively with them to maximize their success in fulfilling their mandate. For example, a strong justice system requires citizens to have confidence in the fairness of the process; community policing relies on individuals trusting the police and being willing to work with them; and, teachers can only function effectively when they have the respect of their students. The section entitled The Existence of Racial Profiling has a more detailed discussion of the specific importance of good community and police relations, based on the experiences of various jurisdictions in the United States.

However, racial profiling seriously erodes public confidence in these institutions. Numerous submissions described an increased personal or community mistrust of law enforcement officials, the criminal justice system, the education system, customs officials, store and mall security and society in general. One person who was himself a victim of a crime even described feeling "betrayed" by the police because of his perception that the police took his criminal investigation less seriously because the suspect was "Caucasian". The sense of mistrust was most profound among racialized persons but also shared by a number of participants in the inquiry who described themselves as "White". Therefore, the issue of mistrust is not just specific to one community; it permeates all sectors of society.

Mistrust can be engendered by personal experiences, witnessing an incident of profiling, knowing someone who has experienced profiling or simply due to the widespread perception that profiling exists in society. And, as discussed earlier this mistrust is heightened by unwillingness on the part of the institutions to acknowledge the concern and engage in a constructive process to address it. Participants also explained that their mistrust of institutions can be compounded by the knowledge that the institution lacks racial diversity or that its members are not given in-depth and ongoing anti-racism training.

As indicated earlier, the inquiry covered all forms of racial profiling and did not target the police. However, the institution that was most commonly identified as having lost the faith of an individual or community were police agencies across the province. Many submissions described a shift in perception about policing as a result of even a single incident. Other submissions indicated that a number of encounters had led an individual to lose trust in the police. Many parents described feeling that they needed to warn their children or other young persons in their families to be careful around the police.

"I used to tell all three of my children that they should smile and acknowledge police officers when they see them on the street. They are their friends. I can't confidently say that now to my grandchildren. I don't know what kind of reaction they will receive. I used to feel that it was safe. I no longer smile or acknowledge police officers. ...I would like nothing better than to be able to say to my grandchildren -- remember to smile at the police officers when you see them -- they are your friends. Turn to them when you are in trouble." (T.S.)

"My nephew is the next generation and already at 15 years of age he has already developed a bias towards police." (L.F.)

One very moving submission came from a young school teacher who described being surrounded by police cars, being ordered out of his car in the middle of the street and being asked if he had any drugs or weapons in the car. While one officer checked his identification, another searched his vehicle. This occurred in the middle of the day, in the community in which this man teaches. He felt like a spectacle, humiliated and very concerned should any of his students or any of their parents witness the event. This man had experienced numerous other police stops and searches in a very short time period leading him to feel very frustrated and mistrustful of police. He described the impact of these experiences on his ability to instil trust of the police in his students.

"Growing up as a Black child in Jamaica, I was taught by my grandmother to respect the police and I aspired to become a policeman during this period of my life. After coming to Canada at the age of 13, I became more and more wary of the police following numerous unfortunate experiences.... Over time, my views regarding the motives and operative methods of the police have changed dramatically from those taught to me by my grandmother. ... I have always been a law-abiding citizen and I've worked very hard to get a post secondary degree and an Ontario Teacher's Certification. I have worked with children through my adolescent years in coaching and general instructing programs. I was always instructed by my supervisors and others to encourage the children to develop a trusting relationship with the police. My philosophy as a teacher is based on teaching the children to focus on a solid education and to look for ways to have a better future. A segment of that philosophy pertaining to the interaction with the police is difficult for me to put across in a convincing manner based on my personal experiences. I want to change that uncomfortable and untrusting feeling I have towards the police." (R.R.)

Some of the words that were used to describe the effects on relationships with police included: suspicion, distrust, anger, antagonism, hostility and fear. Many described fearing for their own safety when interacting with police officers and some said that, rather than feeling that the police were there to protect them from crime, they felt the need to be protected from the police.

"Even if I am standing in a MTHA [Metro Toronto Housing Authority] area with another university student and cops pass I always stop and look to make sure that I am not being challenged by the cops. It's a feeling of fear, and of being less than them as they are in an authoritative position. We shouldn't be afraid of people who are supposed to be protecting our rights."(S.B.)

Parents in particular described feeling terrified that their children, particularly their sons, could come to harm every time they leave the house. One mother described the trauma of learning that her son, a University of Toronto student, was reading a book while waiting for the subway in the station near his home when he was pushed to the ground by two law enforcement personnel. Comments were made to the effect that he could not be a university student and that he could not afford to live in the upscale neighbourhood.

"My son graduated as an Ontario Scholar, from Ridley College. His awards are too numerous to mention. Suffice to say he will be one of tomorrow's leaders if given the chance to survive. As a medical doctor I am now faced with the stark reality of statistical facts. The top three leading causes of death in males, ages 15 to 24, are homicides, suicides, and motor vehicle accidents. He does not drink, smoke, use illicit [drugs], and does not own a car. Will I get a call saying that he has been shot and killed by a police officer? The psychological trauma of these experiences often leaves the most pernicious scars." (Dr. S.B.)

Many other parents described the feelings that they experience, for example:

This same type of fear was reported by Stephen Lewis in his 1992 report on police-visible minority relations. And, a recent survey of youth in the Toronto area reported a fear of treatment by police.

For persons who have come from countries with repressive governments or law enforcement systems, feelings of mistrust are particularly acute as incidents can trigger memories of the system that they have left: "Many of the people in the Latin American community have come from countries where state policing and repression have been rampant. In fact, we have talked a lot about how some members of our community are fearful of police. We have a connection between police states and repression. [When] I was arrested, my family was quite shaken by the experience, because it immediately brings memories of police repression." (M.S.M.)

The Somali community in one Ontario city reported as having the same reaction to their experience with local police: "Among immigrants, the Somali population, the African population, it seems that the police here are no different from the police under dictatorships overseas. Where they have seen abuse and they experience abuse here they say, yeah, cops all over the world are just exactly the same. ... And this does not contribute to the kind of diverse cultural understanding, acceptance and involvement that this country is supposed to stand for." (Windsor and District Black Coalition)

When discussing feelings of mistrust, most participants also mentioned that they lack faith in the processes that have been implemented to receive complaints against the police or other institutions such as the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. Participants stated that they felt they were prevented or discouraged from filing complaints, that they lacked confidence in the complaints process as they perceived it to lack independence and that the outcome further compounded their sense of mistrust or injustice. A consistent theme that emerged was that of the appearance of a lack of independence, often described as "police investigating the police":

Comments were also made about a loss of confidence in and respect for our justice system, for example: "I used to have faith and respect for our justice system. How foolish of me! The justice system only protects those they choose to, the rest of us are castaways, the ones not worthy because of either our social or economic background." (M.Q.)

Unfortunately, some individuals' feelings of mistrust of law enforcement and the justice system has resulted in a feeling of not wanting to go to the police with a problem or not cooperating with the police.

"I do not go to the police when I have a problem. I will not do so in the future, either. However, if there is a problem that absolutely requires police assistance and I can request help on the phone anonymously, so they can't see that I'm Black, then I will." (T.B.)

"Profiling does nothing but create distrust and resentment when it is done. This in turn causes a negative backlash in the community. This is part of the reason that the police force gets very little cooperation when dealing with the Black community. If a person does not feel valued by the system, you will in turn see how that person can become a negative force."
(W.H.B.)

"People are afraid to talk to the police in the Black community... There are good cops, but the bad ones make us mistrustful of all police. It makes it hard for them to solve crime." (S.N.)

Some even indicated that they felt that incidents of racial profiling would affect people's willingness to comply with the law.

In some cases, persons characterized police-community relations as marred by escalating conflict and noted that, in the community, many perceive the situation as becoming "explosive".

These consequences of racial profiling have been confirmed by the experience of jurisdictions in the United States. And the Task Force on Race Relations and Policing headed by Clare Lewis confirmed in its 1989 report that "the worst enemy of effective policing is the absence of public confidence." Similarly, a study by Carl E. James concludes that the adversarial nature of police stops contributes strongly to Black youth hostility towards the police.

While police agencies are negatively impacted in their ability to effectively serve the public by allegations of racial profiling, the effect on the individual who develops a mistrust of the police and criminal justice system can be even greater. A criminal defence lawyer has written:

I cannot count the number of times when young Black clients have said to me in frustration, "If the police are going to arrest me anyway (when I haven't done anything wrong), I might as well do something (bad), so at least I would deserve it." This is a most insidious damage being wreaked on our youth by racial profiling. It perpetuates a cycle whereby youths lose respect for the law; this in turn leads a small number of them to act out.

The mistrust of police was also cited as contributing to an unwillingness to pursue a career in policing. The relatively low representation of racialized persons in law enforcement agencies, particularly in senior positions, in turn has a negative impact on these agencies' ability to effectively respond to community concerns with profiling.

Some reported losing respect for other types of authority figures as a result of their experiences: "I feel differently about security guards. Before I understood their job to protect the building, but now if I see a guard I want to avoid them and walk away. I don't have respect for them." (T.J.)

In the context of the education system, many parents reported feeling that they have lost faith in teachers and school administrators. They indicated that this loss of confidence makes them feel uncomfortable sending their child to school and that they must seek out opportunities to transfer their child to another school or take them out of school altogether for home schooling. In either case, major inconvenience can be the result, not to mention the disruption to the child. In addition, parents reported their children mistrusting the education system as well as losing respect for their teachers.

"[My son] is back at school now, and is nervous to even walk by the school office. He is very intimidated and traumatized by the issue. He gets anxious in the presence of the school officials. There is no trust after what they did to him. He stays clear of authority figures. The trust is broken. ... Focussing on his studies has become pressured and difficult. He is very uncomfortable in an environment that should be conducive to learning." (K.N.)

"I tried to work with school staff with little success. I am angry and very frustrated and cannot take it any more. I have taken my child out of the school system and placed him in my mother's care and he is now doing home schooling." (N.C.)

"I try to keep a positive head for my daughter's sake. But I truly feel uncomfortable leaving her at the school but feel like I have no choice at this time being a single mom." (C.L.)

"I do not trust the public school system, the police or the court system. I feel betrayed, manipulated and abused. This is how I feel." (E.M.)

In addition, parents indicated that they must constantly take steps to try to instil respect for persons in authority as this respect is undermined by incidents of profiling: "People in positions of authority are setting an example that I have to counteract daily to ensure that my children and their friends do treat others with respect. It is an uphill battle." (K.I.) Obviously, this has a direct effect on the child's education and development as well as the education system's ability to deliver its services to these children.

Ultimately, it is society that is most harmed if racial profiling results in the loss of confidence in law enforcement, the criminal justice system, the education system and other institutions. As demonstrated by the impacts of profiling outlined above, the social cost of creating a mistrust of institutions includes a lack of respect shown to people associated with them, greater acting out against those institutions or the law, and an unwillingness to work with those institutions, for example by reporting crime, acting as witnesses, etc. The American experience has shown that these are tangible results of racial profiling and that eliminating racial profiling can result in bridges being built between the institutions and communities, to the greater good of all:

Many other U.S. cities have now followed similar strategies with similar results. Communities rally behind the approach, showing that if [law enforcement] authorities can use their power transparently and selectively - focusing [sic] not on whole classes of young people, but on clearly dangerous offenders, and even then judiciously and with fair warning - support for [law enforcement activities] will be forthcoming.

Alienation and a diminished sense of citizenship

It is public policy in Ontario, as expressed in the preamble to the Ontario Human Rights Code, to foster a province in which all persons feel an equal part of the community and able to contribute fully to the development and well-being of the province. Ontario is home to over 2 million people who identify as "visible minorities". Yet, the Commission's racial profiling inquiry revealed that individuals belonging to these communities do not feel like equal members of our society. And this feeling exists for recent immigrants as well as for persons whose families have been here for many generations.

Many participants in the inquiry reported feeling like an unequal or less worthy member of society as a result of their experience of profiling. This realization was described as a humiliating, dehumanizing and painful one:

"How long do you have to live in Canada before you're accepted? 150 years of contribution in this community seems not to be enough." (A.M.)

"I have lived in Canada since January 1980, and have been here since I was three years old. I've gone to school in Canada since Kindergarten and being "Canadian" is the only identity I have. It became painfully clear at that moment that there were two levels of citizenship. Those of Caucasian descent, and those from other countries. I would never be able to be a full Canadian citizen -- one that was treated with all the privileges of being a citizen. It was a very dehumanizing experience." (H.K.)

"[I felt] degraded, debased, ridiculed, and definitely not like a Canadian Citizen, which I have been for 90% of my life." (L.L.)

"I was born in Toronto and have lived here all my life...I wish I could feel like my Canadian citizenship rights and status as a Toronto dweller were as secure as my White colleagues." (S.S.)

"It is painfully obvious that these sales staff either assume that I am unable to purchase the expensive items in their establishment or in the alternative, am entering their establishment in order to steal their merchandise. This behaviour causes an enormous amount of self loathing. It continuously causes one to feel somewhat inferior." (T.E.)

Individuals who felt that they had accomplished much and were contributing significantly to Canadian society contrasted their sense of value added to Canadian society with how Canadian society appeared to view them. They felt that no matter what they do and how successful they are, they are still assumed to be part of an undesirable element of society and this was very distressing to them.

Persons who have immigrated from other countries also described a profound sense of not belonging as a result of experiencing profiling. They described it as a sense of being rejected by mainstream Canadian society and being told that they would always be considered an outsider. Some immigrants also told of a sense of disillusionment or betrayal as they had come to Canada to escape an unjust society and expected that they would be treated equally here.

One account that clearly illustrated this came from a woman who immigrated to Toronto from Chile. She had participated in a demonstration and was arrested along with other demonstrators. When she was taken before a Justice of the Peace for a bail hearing, the Justice of the Peace concluded that she should be denied bail based on a discriminatory assumption that since she was born in Chile and people from Chile are "known" for throwing stones, she must be a public danger. When her lawyer emphasized that she had been a Canadian for 27 years, the Justice of the Peace emphasized that she was born in Chile. As a result, she spent four nights in jail, simply because of racial profiling. The Justice of the Peace Review Council investigated the case and determined that the comments by the Justice of the Peace were inappropriate and he was required to issue an apology. But, this did not change the fact that a decision was made that resulted in this woman spending four days in prison. The initial charges were eventually withdrawn. She described the feeling that this experience left her with in the following words:

"It shakes [your] whole idea that you have become a Citizen of this country. In fact, you are told blatantly that you will never be a citizen, as when he said that because I was born in Chile, it didn't matter how many years I had been a Canadian citizen. You are told point blank that you don't belong here, no matter if you work, you know, how productive you are in society, etc., etc., you will not belong here. And so ... suddenly you are again reminded that you are an outsider, and as an outsider, you don't have the same rights..." (M.S.M.)

Persons who identified as Muslim, Arab and South Asian described feeling unwelcome after the tragedy of September 11, 2001. There was a significant reluctance on the part of members of this community to come forward with their accounts due to a fear of potential consequences. Nevertheless, some of the examples the Commission heard included:

a Sikh man who wears a turban being asked to leave a plane at Pearson International Airport due to a passenger complaint;

law enforcement officials going to the workplaces of community leaders and questioning them in front of colleagues;

a money transfer agency refusing to transfer money to a man's parents without first conducting a security clearance because his first name is "Muhammad";

a Palestinian child being exposed to a guest speaker in her classroom whose presentation implied that Palestinian persons should not be trusted as they are raised to be hateful and perpetrate terrorist attacks;

children and youth being subjected to comments linking them to terrorism by teachers and other students;

being terminated from employment and/or having trouble finding a new job due to a perception of being a 'security threat';

being questioned by law enforcement authorities due to membership in a Muslim religious organization; and

being searched more often or scrutinized differently from others when flying or crossing the Canada/U.S. border.

Some of the effects of these incidents were described as follows:

"My daughter's stream of tears had my husband and I ready to pack our bags and leave. We have heard so much hate and incitement to hate post September 11, but we thought we could face it all as long as our children were protected. When our daughter came home crying, we knew we had lost our strength to go on and to stand up to racial profiling. It was simply becoming overwhelming." (S.E.)

"My family is devastated as we no longer feel safe here. We are not sure what will be next. We don't know what and who we are dealing with." (M.A.)

"[As a result of this incident in which a Muslim man was questioned at work in front of co-workers] ... in many ways [he and his family] were hurt, because these were people who had come to Canada for a particular reason and felt very happy and were very -- I mean, in many ways proud of Canada and patriotic, so they felt that suddenly they were put under suspicion and that maybe their country didn't trust them... they felt that they were not considered Canadians anymore." (I.S.)

A common concern in this community is of facing increased deprivations of liberty in future or that persons' names may end up on "lists" which will result in a loss of privacy, further incidents of questioning, or worse.

Representatives of Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities also pointed out that one of the chief complaints has been that it has been treated as a community to be looked into, rather than invited to help solve the problem. This community is just as concerned about Canadian safety and security as everyone else and would like to be invited to the table to offer assistance or advice on improving security for everyone, rather than to just be treated as a security threat.

In some cases, the sense of feeling like a "second class" citizen or unwelcome in Canada is so profound that some people described leaving or considering leaving Ontario. For example, a Korean woman described members of her family getting together to seriously discuss returning to Korea.

Not surprisingly, parents also described this feeling of damaged citizenship having taken its toll on their children. One mother who indicated that her sons have been stopped and searched by police numerous times, including two incidents where the officers pulled their guns, explained: "[This city] is their home and has been for 16 years, and they no longer feel welcome here." (D.W.) Other parents stated:

"...he has always thought of himself as Canadian and very happy and everything, and he never had any problems. [I] remember four years ago when he was 12, would say, you know, there is no racism in Canada. ... [As he got older] and, again, as I said, first it was the stores, some of the stores and then ... at the school .... And you know, for him it is like feeling that he said, well, you know, so I am not really Canadian, am I? You know, that's what he asks me." (S.M.)

"Just before take-off [my colleague and I were] called out from inside the plane and asked to bring out our carry on luggage. We were told ... that due to a security reason we will not be able to take this flight. After asking repeatedly for the reason I was told that a passenger complained to the pilot that I was staring at the passenger. The pilot considered this to be security risk. ... I wear a turban and the pilot mistook my identity for a Muslim person. ...[As a result of this incident] my son (15 years old) was really hurt and questioned if our religious values are safe as citizens of Canada." (B.S.D.)

Finally, many described feeling ashamed to be part of a society where racial profiling exists and appears to be tolerated. This sense of embarrassment was particularly profound for participants in the inquiry who self-identified as White: "I felt embarrassed to be a Canadian and my husband [who immigrated from Latin America] changed his mind about what kind of a country this was." (A.F.) It is clear that many people feel that racial profiling is un-Canadian, in the sense that it is not consistent with Canada's values and reputation.

Undoubtedly, the damage to feelings of belonging and citizenship that results from racial profiling is undesirable on several different levels. Firstly, it is not consistent with the values that Canadians and Ontarians hold in high esteem. It should be of significant concern to us to know that fellow citizens do not feel that they are being treated with the same dignity and respect or feel as if they are seen as less worthy of recognition or value as a human being or as a member of Ontario society. Secondly, there is a direct cost to our society of fostering a two-tiered sense of citizenship. Experience has shown that persons who do not feel valued in society cannot contribute or participate to their full potential. And, if a large segment of our population is not attaining its fullest potential, neither is our community.

There are also long term social consequences of diminishing people's sense of citizenship. Foremost among these are a diminished sense of patriotism, loyalty and national unity.

The impact on our communities

Members of racialized communities in Ontario have described themselves as living within a perpetual state of crisis due to the effects of racism. The African Canadian community in particular stressed that racial profiling is having an overwhelming impact in their community. The sense of injustice that develops among individuals in these communities creates a state of psychological imbalance and inner conflict and reinforces their concern that racism exists and that they may be subjected to it at any time.

Research has found that, in these circumstances, minority groups use several coping strategies to deal with the effects of their experiences. In some cases people accept the negative stereotypes that are being applied to their group as true. In other words, they come to see themselves as inferior. They may be ashamed of their background, skin colour, etc. For example, the Commission heard about a young boy named "Muhammad" who wanted to change his name to "Joe" as a result of his experiences after September 11 th. Another strategy is to try to turn the negative experience into a positive one by fostering pride in one's identity and by mobilizing for political purposes.

In addition, studies have repeatedly shown that racial discrimination results in disparities in the areas of housing, education, employment, economic status, arrests and court sentencing.

These effects on the communities who experience racial profiling were confirmed during the course of the Commission's inquiry. Additional effects noted were that the experience of racial profiling compromises people's ability to be represented in positions of power, results in community division and heightens community fear. Solidarity can also be fostered as communities rally together to tackle the problem of profiling.

One consistent community effect that emerged from the inquiry was the disempowering impact of profiling. Several participants used the words "impotent", "powerless", "helpless" and "emasculated" to describe how they felt as a result of one or more incidents of profiling. This was experienced when a person was subjected to profiling or when a friend, relative or role model was profiled. This sense of powerlessness can impact on an individual's ability to seek out and gain positions of power or authority in society. This, in turn, means that these communities are not well represented in key societal institutions, including the ones that have some control over the issue of racial profiling itself.

For example, numerous accounts described persons from racialized communities no longer wanting to pursue a career in law enforcement or the justice system. Several people commented that these professions are not seen in a positive light among certain communities or in some neighbourhoods. One participant, himself a police officer, described an incident of profiling in another jurisdiction that involved a disproportionate use of force and in his being accused of impersonating a police officer when his police identification was found. This incident reinforced his parents' concern with his career choice: "My parents who were already disappointed with my career choice [police officer] reaffirm their discontent with any news of these kinds of incidents." (S.B.) And other participants noted, in certain communities law enforcement is not seen as a career to aspire to: "Well, my son wanted to be an officer years ago (as a kid) but I had told him to find a profession that is more respectable in our community." (J.H.)

This phenomenon was not unique to law enforcement. The Commission also heard about profiling challenging people's ability to be teachers, social workers, youth workers, nurses, lawyers, and even to hold political office. A vicious cycle is created whereby profiling results in fewer minority persons being represented in positions of power, and with insufficient minority persons in these positions the problem of profiling cannot be effectively tackled.

Another effect of racial profiling is to create community division or an unwillingness to identify with one's community. For example, one individual who was the object of scrutiny after September 11 th due to his involvement with a Muslim youth organization noted that this has resulted in youth and their parents being fearful of having any involvement in Muslim youth groups: "My community's youth are now discouraged by their parents to get involved in activities for Muslims out of fear of interrogations and wrongful persecution." (M.A.A.). Representatives of the Canadian Muslim Lawyer's Association and the Canadian Arab Federation confirmed a widespread fear of involvement in community groups or activities among Muslim, Arab and South Asian persons for fear that this might lead to an assumption by the authorities that they are a security threat. All other groups who participated in the inquiry also described the existence of community-wide fear of racial profiling.

On the other hand, several accounts noted that profiling has increased community unity and cohesion. In some instances, communities rallied behind someone who had experienced profiling to provide assistance, encouragement and support. Measures were taken such as the Latin American Coalition Against Racism launching a formal complaint about racial profiling by a Justice of the Peace, individuals starting petitions concerning incidents of profiling, forums being organized to discuss community concerns with profiling and so forth. The Windsor and District Black Coalition has been very successful in mobilizing the community and bringing the community's concerns to the local police service.

Several people noted that profiling has strengthened their resolve to serve as a positive force in their community through acting as a role model, working with youth and instilling pride in young persons about their identity. Some individuals who identified as White also indicated that as a result of witnessing profiling, they have become educated about racism and have taken actions against it.

However, while some have cited community cohesion and activism as an outcome of profiling that may be viewed as positive, it only arises as a result of something negative and at great cost.

Changes in behaviour

One of the most striking impacts of racial profiling repeatedly described by participants in the inquiry was the effect it has on people's behaviour and activities. A large number of participants in the inquiry reported significantly altering their actions as a result of an incident of profiling or taking measures to avoid the experience of profiling.

People reported changing their driving habits in a number of ways. Some reported no longer driving a particular type of vehicle, e.g. an expensive car, a sports car or SUV, as they feel that such vehicles, when driven by racialized persons, attract police attention. Some even noted that they believe that particular brands of cars attract more scrutiny because of stereotypes that drug dealers or others involved in illegal activity favour that particular make and model. In addition, many people reported altering the tinting on their car, either by adding tinted glass or buying a vehicle that does not have tinted glass: "I have since gotten a very dark tint on my truck since that incident in the hopes that the fact that I am a Black woman driving a nice vehicle would become a non-issue." (C.B.) Some even reported giving up driving altogether.

One participant described ten interactions with police which he felt involved racial profiling. However, he also listed several positive experiences with the police. He went on to list a number of strategies he employs to avoid negative experiences.

"I have looked at the way I speak to them. I still ask when I'm pulled over...why are you stopping me. I have no tint on my car for the last 7 years. I am very polite. I say 'thank you'. I ask, 'How are you today officer?' My car is not the dream car anymore as I don't want to be branded as one of "those". My appearance appears to be more conservative." (N.W.)

Many individuals also reported systematically checking their documentation and inspecting their vehicle every time they get in their car. They indicated that they feel that as they are more likely to be stopped and that they will not get any leeway should they forget a driver's licence, proof of insurance or registration, they employ extra diligence to ensure that all these papers are in order each time they get in their car to drive. Similarly, participants stated that, as they do not want to attract police scrutiny, before driving they always check their vehicle to ensure all the lights are in working order, the license plate is clearly visible and that there are no other issues with the appearance or function of their car. Many noted that they are extremely careful to obey the rules of the road, such as coming to a complete stop at stop signs and driving within the speed limit.

While all of these measures to ensure that the law is being followed should be taken by all citizens, the reality is that those who do not experience profiling often take these things for granted. Most people do not double check their papers and inspect their car each and every time they go for a drive. This is because most people are rarely stopped and assume that they will not be pulled over on any given occasion. And, even if they are stopped, they expect to have a courteous and professional interaction with the police or customs officials and do not worry that the incident may prove humiliating or turn into an unpleasant situation. The communities who experience profiling told the Commission that they do not share this expectation.

Aside from altering driving behaviours, many submissions also described individuals and families developing complex systems to cope with the experience of profiling. Several people reported imposing a "before dark" curfew on themselves and their family members, especially their teenage sons. Others described never walking alone or on certain streets or going to certain neighbourhoods. Some reported carrying cellular telephones at all times so they could call home to record experiences of profiling as they are happening. Others, especially parents, reported carrying cellular telephones so they could be contacted at all times in case their children need to reach them as a result of an incident of profiling.

One man changed the location of his wedding to avoid his guests having to cross the Canada-U.S. border. African Canadian persons in Windsor reported a particular impact as many have relatives living in the U.S. and can have particular problems when crossing the border. And several persons noted being more cautious about what they bring back from vacations or how they dress clearing customs: "I make sure I don't do anything to attract attention to myself, including bringing back items that I am not supposed to bring back or bringing back more than what is allowed. To hear White travellers brag about the quantity of cigars and liquor that they brought back, and yet they were not questioned about it, was very insulting for us." (M.J.)

Several participants described the difficulty that African Canadian men have in hailing taxi cabs. They indicated that in their experience, drivers are wary of picking them up because of stereotypes that they will either not pay for the ride or cause other problems. One man described how he now hails a cab:

"...there are ways for a Black man to get a cab in Toronto. The direct way is to stand in the middle of a busy street waving a large-denomination bill in the air. That almost always works. ... The indirect way also works quite well. Simply get a non-Black friend ... to flag down the cab. The first cab with its light on will stop on a dime for her. Then, the Black male can come out from the doorway of the building he is hiding in and get into the cab. Unfortunately, at this point, the cab driver will often ask for the money up front. I normally refuse to do this because [others] ... are not required to do this." (T.B.)

Some people actually reported choosing to live outside of Ontario as a result of having experienced one or more incidents of racial profiling which led them to believe that they would be safer in a different province or even in the United States.

"Given that the overall climate for ethnic Chinese is more hospitable in New York (at least that's how I feel), I am considering staying in New York after I graduate. I am also considering moving to Montreal... I am a Torontonian and will always be (I know the place like the back of my hand), but I will probably not return to live there because I (and some of my friends) feel that the Chinese are treated unfairly because our presence is seen as a "threat"." (K.C.)

And parents reported having their children change schools as well.

Developing these systems to deal with profiling reflects how serious a concern it is for the communities who experience it. It is a major part of their life experience such that they are forced to alter their behaviour around it. The perception that profiling will occur in future, hence measures are needed to avoid it or plan for it, also speaks to the widespread perception that profiling will continue to be a problem unless measures are taken to tackle it.

In addition, as discussed in the section Compromising Our Future, many parents reported restricting the actions of their children to minimize the risk of experiences of profiling. Similarly, they said they have no choice but to warn their children to anticipate future experiences of profiling and to teach them how to respond.

"I have warned my son to be very careful of where he goes and who he associates with. ... We have changed his winter coat from a black bubble jacket to a beige and black "ski" jacket and he is no longer allowed to wear a baseball hat. He did have his hair braided - which we have now cut to a very close shaved head ...I do not allow my son to go to the store without me. ... I try to avoid all situations of him being on the street alone. ... He gets a ride home from a friend's mom every day after school if he does not take public transit." (M.N.)

"The coaches have now been driving the young men home after basketball practice, and I don't allow him to go out alone at night anymore." (D.W.)

"Yes, my parents didn't want me driving late at night and I wasn't allowed to go into "undesirable" neighbourhoods. Just the fact that my parents had to curtail my activities had a negative affect on all of us." (D.V.)

"I have a teenaged grandson who should be able to go out, visit his friends, and do the normal things that teenagers do. We don't allow him to. His mother chauffeurs him or I chauffeur him or his aunts chauffeur him or his uncle chauffeurs him." (M.W.)

"I remember as [my son] was growing up and starting to drive, some of the things that I would say to him: 'Listen. When they stop you, make sure they can see your hands. Make sure you have your overhead light on in the vehicle. Make sure your hands are up on the steering wheel. Make sure'." (M.W.)

This is a form of socialization, which is a process by which the child grows up to accept the basic social behaviour that is taught and practiced by his or her family. This teaching provides the child with an understanding of its world and forms the concept of identity. This socialization determines for our entire lives, our every day behaviour, our reflex-reactions, our moral values and how we see the world. Therefore, the effects of having children and youth alter their behaviour or perception of the world as a result of racial profiling is profound and enduring. It will likely last them the rest of their lives and may be passed on to future generations.

Finally, a consistent trend that emerged in the submissions received was the normalization of the experience of profiling; in other words, when an individual accepts or expects that racial profiling will happen as a normal part of his or her life and feels that there is nothing that he or she can do about it.

People felt that they have no choice but to live their lives around the expectation that they, their family members and their children, especially their sons, will experience incidents of profiling. Many also expressed a sense of futility at trying to address profiling or a fear that attempting to speak out would result in repercussions. Several participants who identified as White and who had witnessed incidents of profiling also commented that when they expressed a sense of outrage about the incident to a friend, the response was that this is a normal experience that racialized persons have come to accept.

An African Canadian man, who had experienced the same feelings after an incident of profiling 30 years earlier, described the sense of futility and helplessness his son exhibited after being stopped by police three times in four weeks: "I kept saying [to my son], well, why don't you do something? I mean, I am willing to go with you to the police station or to a lawyer, what do you want to do? ... and he just said, there is nothing you can do, he was just absolutely -- I don't know the word. He is not the kind of a person to sort of stay in his room and close the door. So I guess he felt like I felt 30 years before [when I experienced profiling], absolutely powerless, and humiliated." (R.M.)

Others used the following words to describe their acceptance of profiling:

"That is the worst part of it all. We as visible minorities have accepted something that is completely and utterly unacceptable. This is wrong and must be righted." (S.G.)

"It's life in any big city. When you are a part of a disadvantaged group, those with power will step on your rights at some point and time. This type of event has become normalized in my life and I live my life around it now." (A.A.)

"It is alarming to see a generation of children expect and even accept that they have no civil rights." (K.I.)

"This is a systematic occurrence that males like myself have lived with and will continue to live with. The next step for me is to educate my children especially my young boys that occurrences like this will occur with them and they should expect it. Nevertheless they should always obey and uphold the law and conduct themselves decently." (R.G.)

"I have a life to live and the risk of creating more problems for myself or others of my background is enough of a deterrent not to try and do something." (T.E.)

This sense of acceptance and futility was very moving as it showed how deeply ingrained the perception of the problem of profiling is in Ontario. It also demonstrated the profound effect it is having on the psyches of those who experience it.

The unseen toll of racial profiling

One of the most fundamental needs of every human being is the need for human dignity. Human dignity means being treated with respect and having a sense of self-esteem and self-worth. It is concerned with physical and psychological integrity and empowerment. Perhaps nothing inflicts greater psychological and emotional damage on a person than to compromise his or her sense of dignity.

Racial profiling does just that. It violates human dignity by sending a message to the person that he or she is less worthy of consideration and respect as a human being. The impact of racial profiling on people's dignity and self-esteem was confirmed in almost every submission to the Commission's inquiry.

The impact on dignity was so significant that people wrote about incidents that had happened as much as 30 years earlier: "I have never forgotten the sense of powerlessness or the sense of absolute humiliation that I felt." (R.M.)

And, the effect was not confined to the person who experienced profiling. Parents, especially, described a significant emotional or psychological impact of an incident of profiling experienced by a child: "As a mother I feel depressed. Every time the phone rings, I believe that it is the school calling to say that my son is in trouble." (C.P-J.) Other people indicated that they had not told their families of incidents to protect them from the hurt that it would inflict: "I never told any of my family. All my family is in Trinidad, the States, England, I didn't want to tell them because I didn't want to unnecessarily hurt them because of my experience." (G.V.)

Many people reported feeling profound embarrassment and shame at an incident of racial profiling that occurred in public or in front of family, friends or co-workers. They feared that people would assume that they had done something inappropriate to bring on the incident. For example, an African Canadian man who teaches in an elementary school and was pulled over and searched by police during the day in the neighbourhood in which he teaches said: "What if a parent of one of my students was driving by at that moment and saw me in the middle of the street on a police car with my hands up, with my back turned to them? Obviously, they would think twice about sending their kids back to my class, right? Also, what if, as we know, children are very [impressionable], and if they see something, even if they don't believe it, it is going to be in the back of their minds. They are going to think about it and say maybe he did do something." (R.R.) Similarly, the Commission heard about a Muslim man worried that his co-workers would think he was a security threat after he was questioned about his beliefs and activities while at work.

An African Canadian father of the Jewish faith described an incident that occurred when his teenage sons went to pay a utility bill for their mother at their bank branch. Unfortunately, their mother had unknowingly received several counterfeit $10 bills which she gave her sons. Rather than asking questions to determine whether the boys were involved in illegal activity or whether they were unknowingly in possession of the bills, the bank manager assumed the worst and called the police. When the police arrived, it was again assumed that the young men were involved in illegal activity and they were handcuffed and detained for seven hours. The police interrogated the boys in a very aggressive fashion, without contacting their parents. They were brought home in handcuffs in front of the neighbours. The father noted the embarrassment caused by the incident: "My younger son's Rabbi and teacher who lives next door to us witnessed his student being led in handcuffs by the police. How do you think this will affect my son's reputation at his Yeshiva (school)?" (J.B.)

Others described the humiliation associated with profiling events as follows:

Many reported feeling blamed for society's problems or being made to feel like a criminal simply by virtue of race, colour, ethnic origin, religion or ancestry: "These incidents leave me very discouraged as I seem to be lumped in with a bad or criminal element of our society although I know right from wrong and have a determined desire to better myself without breaking the law." (R.R.)

Several noted that their experience involved being challenged on their social status or place of employment. By way of example, an African Canadian mother stated that when her son told the law enforcement officials that he attends University of Toronto, they suggested he could neither be a student there nor a resident of the affluent neighbourhood he was in. Another man reported an incident where officers challenged his assertion that he was a paid employee as opposed to a volunteer. One woman described an incident where she was pulled over after the officer had "run her plates" and discovered that her car was a company car, which the officer found suspicious. Another woman was told that she couldn't be the owner of the expensive car she was driving as it was registered to a company. In fact, it was her company.

A young African Canadian woman described an incident she experienced with her mother who is a doctor. When paying for a meal at a restaurant, the restaurant employee called the credit card company to see if the card had been reported stolen solely because the card said "Dr." on it and was being used by an African Canadian woman.

A police officer who experienced an incident in another jurisdiction was accused of "impersonating a police officer" when his police badge and identification were found. And, A.B.L.E., the Association of Black Law Enforcers, reported similar incidents where African Canadian law enforcement officials are assumed not to be officers due to their skin colour.

All of these individuals felt very demeaned by the assumptions that had been made that because of their skin colour, they could not hold the social status that they do.

Many reported that racial slurs and comments were used during the incident of profiling, further compounding the impact on human dignity.

Many people explained that racial profiling caused problems in their relationships with others. Several people reported problems in spousal relationships as a result of profiling: "That incident for a couple of hours really stayed with me and I got into kind of a little confrontation with my girlfriend because I was so upset." (R.M.). In one instance, spousal breakdown was cited as a consequence of racial profiling. The man, who reported losing his job because of profiling related to September 11 th and consequently suffering depression, indicated that his marriage has broken down as a result.

Persons in inter-racial relationships described unique issues that were raised for them as a result of profiling. Some reported experiencing profiling because of the nature of their relationship. For example, racialized women reported incidents where they were assumed to be prostitutes because they were in a car with a White man who was assumed to be a customer, and racialized men described being stereotyped as pimps if accompanied by White women.

Almost everyone in an inter-racial relationship reported that the White partner was deeply affected and felt responsible when the racialized partner was exposed to profiling.

"My husband was also deeply hurt. I was in a weeping rage when I got home that night and whenever we discuss the incident I go back to those same emotions. The impact on him is that he feels he should be able to protect me, as his wife, from hurtful things. Through my experience he has been given a hint of what his brothers-in-law and father-in-law -- men whom he respects, loves and admires -- experience and the devastating emotions it generates. His tendency was to apologize and to feel ashamed. But he has nothing to apologize for. We are not our brothers' keepers. We are individuals, to be judged as such and respected as such until we prove ourselves individually unworthy." (A.B.)

Submissions discussed the impact that profiling has on friendships and other relationships between racialized and White persons. In some cases, an incident of profiling resulted in persons who self-identified as "White" becoming aware for the first time of the existence of profiling and realizing the impact it has on the people who experience it. Several people reported having a major transformation in their understanding of racism.

Some participants described feeling as if they had to educate others about the phenomenon of profiling. And, unfortunately, some people reported pulling away from non-racialized persons because they have found that they are not empathetic, deny the existence of profiling or say it is a legitimate practice.

As discussed above, the American Psychological Association and others have documented the psychological effects of profiling and the submissions received in the Commission's inquiry confirm them. Profiling takes a profound psychological and emotional toll on those who experience it and their families and friends: "It is sad indeed that we have to live under such a cloud. It is frightening, it is degrading, and there are high emotional tolls on all of us. Both the children and their parents..." (D.W.) Another participant described profiling as a "psychological time bomb". (B.K.)

Many of the people who participated in the inquiry described direct psychological impacts including: fear, anxiety, intimidation, and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. And, others reported manifestations of these feelings such as tearfulness, nightmares, difficulty sleeping, suicidal thoughts, depression and drug abuse. Several participants reported seeing, or having their child see, a psychologist or therapist to cope with the mental aftermath of racial profiling.

"[Being unjustly pulled over and spoken to in this aggressive and bullying fashion] affected my work, my health, my relationship, my ability to cope. ... I almost lost my job because I was unable to cope for quite some time after this incident. I had nightmares about it, panic attacks, and ultimately ended up in hospital and later therapy [for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] because of it." (C.B.)

"That experience has caused me much damage mentally. To my self-esteem, etc. Despite the fact that I am accomplishing much academically in my life, I still feel inferior to the majority (Whites) and try each day, through psychotherapy, to overcome this dark cloud that hangs over me." (S.I.)

"Now I feel very afraid for my two boys. I'm afraid for them to go out. I can't sleep when they go out." (S.N.)

"Even now, I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares as I relive the experience in my mind." (L.H.)

"At the time I felt violated. I would cry at night after these things happened, sometimes." (O.B.)

It is impossible to quantify the cost to those individuals, their families and friends, their communities and society overall of these psychological effects. Neverthe-less, it is clear that the emotional and psychological damage inflicted by profiling is significant and we as a society cannot afford to ignore it.

In addition to indirect costs imposed by the emotional and psychological toll of racial profiling, some participants in the inquiry reported direct financial costs of profiling.

Direct financial costs include legal fees from defending criminal charges that result from profiling and costs of civil suits that people have brought against organizations they allege profiled them. For example, one participant described a young man having to use university tuition money to defend unfounded charges resulting from profiling.

Participants in the inquiry reported financial consequences due to a loss of employment income either on a temporary or permanent basis. The Commission received several submissions from Muslim persons of Arab or South Asian origin who reported losing their jobs as a result of a perception that they might be a security threat after the terrorist attacks of September 11 th. These individuals also reported having a very hard time regaining employment for the same reason: "I posted my resume on the net. I used to get at least 20 hits per day before 9/11, but after that, I only got 11 in one month, only because of my name and my place of education, Tehran, Iran." (M.I.)

Interactions with police can result in people not being able to get security clearances for certain jobs, thereby directly compromising their job prospects: "Consequently this has affected my career path as well. I have a charge now, although no convictions but in the kind of work I do, ... my job prospects have dramatically narrowed." (S.B.) In addition, the Muslim and Arab communities have expressed concerns that incidents of profiling in the United States may compromise their ability to secure jobs that involve travel to the U.S.

Moreover, the destruction to a profiled individual's sense of self-esteem and self-worth described earlier in this Report can have a direct impact on his employability. A person may not even apply for a job because of self-doubt. If he does apply, it is likely that he will walk into the interview worried that the interviewer will apply stereotypical assumptions. In essence, his experience results in doubt that he will ever be judged fairly and on the basis of something other than the colour of his skin: "And if a young Black man comes into an employment situation where he has been attuned to react in that way to authority and confronted with an authority that may hire and fire, well you can see that he may have ...not a very productive attitude towards what would otherwise be an opportunity." (H.M.) None of this is conducive to this individual gaining employment and, once hired, he may perform well below his potential for the same reasons.

The physical effects of racial profiling

Some participants in the inquiry recounted physical effects as a result of their experience of profiling. In some cases, these effects concerned their physical autonomy, dignity and privacy, for example, being strip searched, being frisked, sometimes by officers of the opposite sex, or having intimate body areas searched in public. In other cases, people were made to endure uncomfortable conditions while the incident of profiling occurred such as being made to stand in pouring rain or freezing cold for a long period of time or having a two-year-child sweating in a snowsuit during an excessive delay at Customs.

Other examples related to physical injuries as a result of excessive force or an aggressive response to a situation. The inquiry revealed that one manifestation of racial profiling can be a more physical or aggressive response based on the race, colour, ancestry, ethnic origin, place of origin or religion of the person. For example, a man who self-identified as older and White recounted an incident when he was in a store and got into a dispute with the sales clerk. The police were called and this person left the store at the same time as a young Black man. When the police arrived "they saw a shabbily dressed, middle-aged White guy and a smartly dressed Black man exit the store simultaneously, they proceeded to pounce on the Black guy, slam him up against the front window of the store, smash his face against the glass, and then started to cuff him. Instead of sneaking off during the excitement, I stood my ground and waited for them to figure out their mistake. ... When they realized that I was the suspect, did they treat me in the same violent fashion they had treated the Black guy? No. They simply got my side of the story, and took my ID information as we stood around outside the store." (D.P.)

In another example, an African Canadian man, himself a police officer, was in another town and had been out with friends. The man admits that he was jay-walking when an officer stopped him but the response of the officer was disproportionate as he "slammed [him] against the wall of the restaurant without any warning". The officer then handcuffed the man and despite his complete cooperation, slammed him against the trunk of his car and conducted a hasty search. On finding the man's police identification card and badge, the officer did not accept that this individual was himself a police officer and threatened to charge him with "impersonating a police officer":

"I know that I was not completely free of blame in the events that led to my contact with the police that night; I had been drinking, and I was jay walking, but it seemed so disproportionate to what transpired following my contact with the police. ... I was also embarrassed that my friends had to witness me getting thrown around and manhandled. I was in physical pain for a few minutes while the police officer jammed my arm to my back to handcuff me, and slammed my face down on his car. I felt like fighting back, and actually thought about this as an option as I could not even imagine under what pretext the police officer could legally be interfering with me. I felt like I was being assaulted. I was ashamed at how fellow officers sometimes behave and how it can belittle and victimize regular citizens." (S.B.)

One man reported receiving compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board as a result of a physical assault precipitated by profiling. This person has also moved to the southern United States as his injuries are permanent and are affected by cold weather.

Studies from the United States have shown associations between perceived racial discrimination and hypertension, self-reported health and days off sick. In addition, a United Kingdom study found victims of discrimination were more likely to have respiratory illness, hypertension, long-term limiting illness (a long-term illness or disability that limits daily activities or work), anxiety, depression and psychosis.

The physical impacts of profiling are profound and enduring.

The economic cost to society of racial profiling

The foregoing discussion of the negative impacts of racial profiling should make it evident that racial profiling has direct and indirect financial costs to individuals, businesses and society as a whole. There is, therefore, good reason to be concerned about racial profiling because of its economic cost to society, even if one belongs to a group that might not otherwise feel its direct effects.

But what are the direct economic costs to those who do not experience profiling? The Commission's inquiry learned that there are a number of ways in which racial profiling can affect an organization, including its bottom line. Firstly, many participants in the inquiry whose concerns about profiling involved private sector enterprises, such as stores and malls, reported boycotting those businesses. And, in some cases not only do those individuals boycott the store but so do friends, families and even entire communities if that business happens to earn a reputation for engaging in profiling type activities.

In the United States civil suits have been launched against several major retail stores alleging they engage in racial profiling. Research by three university professors in the U.S. found more than 80 cases citing consumer racial profiling filed in U.S. federal courts since 1990, with even more having been brought in state courts. And, there have been several multi-million dollar settlements of these types of lawsuits. Of course, apart from the potential damages that could be awarded should the suit be successful, the cost to these businesses in damage to their reputation could be substantial.

Businesses may experience less direct losses as a result of racial profiling. For example, many businesses are seeking to increase diversity in their workforce. They realize that achieving equity and diversity is both the right thing to do and a key component of their business strategy. However, racial profiling may have a direct impact on an organization's ability to recruit and retain qualified racialized candidates. As noted earlier, profiling can have the effect of increasing anti-social behaviour and contributing to increased marginalization of racialized groups. In other words, profiling can directly lead to a reduction of the pool of available candidates who have skills or education required by businesses.

In addition to the issues above, racial profiling also has a very negative impact on the morale of racialized employees. One of the most direct descriptions of an employment-related effect of profiling described during the inquiry came from a man subjected to a racially poisoned work environment, in part due to an incident of racial profiling. While at work, this man, who is African Canadian, and two White co-workers heard a woman from a nearby gas station screaming for help after she had just been robbed. They chased after the culprit, a White man, and the African Canadian man was the one who tackled the perpetrator. By the time they got back, a SWAT team from a police force outside of Toronto was on the scene. The police asked, "Did you catch him?" The manager answered, "Yes", and an officer immediately assumed the African Canadian was the robber and grabbed him by the arm and said, "Come with me."

The two White employees involved in the capture were interviewed by the police for witness statements and ultimately received civilian citations while the African Canadian man did not. His employer did not stand up for him and other employees laughed at him because of this incident. He ultimately filed a human rights complaint and was successful in showing that this and other incidents contributed to a racially poisoned work environment.

"Well, the people in my workplace felt it was funny to make different comments regarding race, racial harassment basically, and because the police grabbed me in that instance because I was the only Black person there, they thought it was hilarious. My manager at the time laughed until tears came out, because I was the person who was grabbed by the police. The police thought it was me, although I was the one who caught him." (M.S.)

This example highlights the importance of employers being understanding and supportive of employees who have experienced profiling. And while this example is extreme, the racial profiling incidents described in this inquiry had clear impacts on individuals' general level of morale, whether they occurred inside or outside the workplace.

It is widely acknowledged that employee morale is inextricably linked to customer satisfaction and organizational performance. Thus, through this link to the morale of the individual, the Commission concludes that racial profiling may well have an effect on the performance of both public and private sector organizations.

Another significant issue of concern to employers is employee mental and physical health and emotional well-being. As outlined earlier in this Report, racial profiling has a direct impact on all of these. An employee who has experienced profiling, directly or indirectly, or one who is simply concerned about its existence, will tend to worry that he or she may be profiled and this concern could very well have an impact on his or her job performance. And, there may be work time lost due to dealing with profiling ( e.g. meeting with school officials, attending court etc.) or due to its physical, mental and emotional impacts.

Parents, in particular, described spending a great deal of time and exhausting their physical and emotional energy to deal with profiling issues that concerned their children, for example: "I was at my wits' end. Short-tempered, agitated and depressed. My doctor placed me on sleeping medication. I did not know what to do. I could not focus at work." (K.N.) Employers cannot help but be impacted when an employee is under this degree of stress.

The Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health has estimated the cost of mental disorders at $11 billion in productivity and $33 billion in total. It is clear that the stress to the individual, caused by racial profiling, forms some part of this cost.

Profiling may also directly interfere with an employee's ability to carry out day-to-day job functions. For example, an employee who travels a lot for work may be impacted by issues of profiling by airport security or Canada customs. One participant who is a professional and travels on business trips outside Canada reported being questioned and delayed several times at borders and airports since September 11 th. He indicated that as a result he has curtailed business travel.

In addition, employees who drive company cars may be stopped for questioning only for the reason of being in a company vehicle, as happened to several persons who participated in the inquiry. Many people described being delayed for work, meetings and so forth as a result of incidents that involved profiling

Finally, there is the impact on Ontarians' standard of living. Research suggests that higher levels of social cohesion are significant contributors to a prosperous economy and society. Social cohesion has been defined as "the ongoing process of developing a community of shared values, shared challenges and equal opportunity within Canada, based on a sense of trust, hope and reciprocity among Canadians". It has been described as characterized by individuals having a sense of belonging to the community, participation in the management of public affairs, the recognition of tolerance of differences as a virtue and the maintenance of legitimate public and private institutions.

As illustrated in this Report, racial profiling, among other things, compromises our future through its impact on our children and youth, creates mistrust in our institutions, impacts our communities' sense of belonging and level of civic participation and impacts on human dignity. Therefore, social cohesion is no doubt undermined by racial profiling at a high economic cost to Ontario society.

S. Wortley, American Psychological Association, Letter to U.S. House in Support of the End Racial Profiling Act, H.R. 2074 (9 August 2001), online: American Psychological Association: < R.J. Skiba & R. Peterson, "The Dark Side of Zero Tolerance: Can Punishment Lead to Safe Schools?" (1999) 80(5) Phi Delta Kappan 372, online: < (2001 Census), online: Statistics Canada < C. Fröhlicher-Stines, "The Effects of Racism on Group and Individual Identity", Nationale Tagung de EKR, 20. Mar 2002, online: < (Research Paper, February 2000), online Ontario Human Rights Commission Racial Differences in Customs Searches at Pearson International Airport: Results from a Pilot Survey, supra, note 11.
http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/pracialprof.html>.
Ibid.
Convention on the Rights of the Child, Entry into force 2 September 2 1990, ratified by Canada 13 December 1991.
M.D. Ruck & S. Wortley, "Racial and Ethnic Minority High School Perceptions of School Disciplinary Practices: A Look at Some Canadian Findings" (2002) 31(3) Journal of Youth and Adolescence 185 at 186,194.
The Education Digest http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kski9901.htm>; L.M. DeRidder, "How Suspension and Expulsion Contributes to Dropping Out" (February 1991).
Interview with David R. Offord, Director, Canadian Centre for Studies of Children At-Risk, McMaster University, 6 May 2003.
V. Lu, "Youthful Fears Include Police Treatment" Toronto Star (16 January 2003).
The Report of the Race Relations and Policing Task Force, supra, note 7 at 23.
C.E. James, supra, note 11 at 173.
Raymond W. Li, Letters to the Editor, Share (19 June 2003) 9.
D. Kennedy, "We need not yield to them: Some U.S. cities have made great strides in dealing with violent kids. But for starters, adults must act, says Harvard's David Kennedy" The Globe and Mail (18 August 2003).
Statistics Canada, Visible minority population, provinces and territories

Ibid.
Ibid.
See for example: Canadian Race Relations Foundation, Unequal Access: A Canadian Profile of Racial Differences in Education, Employment and Income (Prepared for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation by the Canadian Council on Social Development, 2000), Report of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System, supra, note 1 and Ontario Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Commissions and Economic and Social Rights http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo40b.htm>. Statistics Canada indicates that the total "visible minority" population of Ontario based on the 2001 census was 2,153.045. Ontario's total population was 11,285,550. Listed "visible minority" categories are: Black, South Asian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Southeast Asian, Arab/West Asian, Latin American, visible minority not included elsewhere and multiple visible minority.
http://www.ekr-cfr.ch/tagungen/2002/carmel_froehlicher_stines.pdf>. C. Fröhlicher-Stines, supra, note 45.
For example, Dr. Sanchez-Hucles, Professor of Psychology at Old Dominion University in Virginia has studied the effect of living with racism on minority citizens. She argues that chronic problems arising from the severe stress of racism should be viewed as a type of post-traumatic stress disorder. For a discussion of the psychological effects of profiling see D. Harris, Profiles in Injustice, supra, note 27 at 97-8.
N. Krieger, "Discrimination and Health" in L. Berkman & I. Kawachi, eds., Social epidemiology. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) 36.
S. Karlsen & J. Nazroo, "Relation between racial discrimination, social class, and health among ethnic minority groups" (2002) 92 Am J Public Health 624.
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/human-rights-commissions-and-economic-and-socia... "Lawsuits Cite Consumer Racial Profiling" Associated Press (9 June 2003).
Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health Web site:
R.D. Putnam, "The Decline of Civil Society: How Come? So What?" 27 Optimum 27; D. Stanley & S. Smeltzer, Many Happy Returns: How Social Cohesion Attracts Investment, Draft, November, 1999, SRA-389 as cited in S. Vail, Changing Values the Canadian Way (Paper prepared for the Conference Board of Canada, September 2000) at 16.
Policy Research Committee, Sustaining Growth, Human Development and Social Cohesion in a Global World (Ottawa, 1999) as cited in Changing Values the Canadian Way, ibid. at 15.
J. Jenson, Mapping Social Cohesion: The State of Canadian Research, CPRN Study No. F/03, 1998 as cited in Changing Values the Canadian Way, ibid. at 16. http://www.mentalhealthroundtable.ca/june_2003/HealthMandateArticles.pdf

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To those who have not experienced racial profiling or do not know someone who has, it may seem to be nothing more than a mere inconvenience. However, racial profiling is much more than a hassle or an annoyance. It has real and direct consequences.

# data[].attributes.body
This really depicts the effects it has on teens

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Thanks to the ongoing effects of systemic racism, research shows black people living in the United States aren't as healthy as their peers in Canada. Now a new study reveals some of the race-related stressors-such as police violence and gentrification-that are impediments to health and wellness for young people of color in America.

Released last week by the Center for Promise, a research institute housed at the Boston University School of Education, the study, Barriers to Wellness: Voices and Views From Young People in Five Cities,shares the perspectives and experiences of youths of color in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, and St. Paul, Minnesota.

RELATED: When Black Teens Get Real About America's Love of Light Skin

"Many young people of color in the study cite feeling over-policed, undervalued, and unsafe in their own communities as barriers to wellness," Jonathan Zaff, executive director of the Center for Promise, said in a statement. "These feelings often stem from pervasive stress and trauma associated with a lack of access to high-quality nutritious foods and medical care and concerns of racial discrimination that can lead to risky behaviors and a distrust of institutions. The result is entire generations growing up in constant fear, which affects their lives and can limit their potential in so many ways."

Addressing the well-being of children and youths of color is critical: They're the fastest-growing demographic in the United States and the majority of the youth population in roughly half of the 100 largest cities in the nation. To gain a better understanding of the barriers this demographic faces, the center decided the health and wellness assessment should be designed and implemented by young people. Youths ages 13 and up created questionnaires and interviewed their peers. The study is, according to the center, the first multicity, youth-led community health assessment to be conducted in the U.S.

Sixty percent of respondents from Chicago said they believe that youths are antagonized by police. To avoid police interactions or surveillance, the Chicago respondents said they are more likely to stay indoors-at friends' houses or at their own homes-than go out in public. "Kids can't freely walk or play in the community without being worried about getting beat up or shot and killed," one person told a youth researcher. This, in turn, makes youths of color less willing to leave their communities-which are frequently food deserts -to find healthier food options.

RELATED: Beats, Rhymes, and Vegan: The Hip-Hop Activists Are out to Save Black Lives

The Philadelphia team of youth researchers used a "photovoice" method to study stereotyping-which the study defines as "a form of visual ethnography employed by community action and health promotion researchers to catalyze community change."

They found that young people naturally begin to feel unwelcome or unsafe given the amount of stereotyping and racism they are subject to or witness. Negative stereotypes of clothing, hair, gender, or race become internalized, leading to impacts on the mental well-being and self-esteem of youths of color.

Another outcome of the stress: engaging in risky behavior as a coping mechanism. The respondents commonly listed drug use as a form of stress relief, and nearly 73 percent of the Chicago and Philadelphia respondents said they engaged in unsafe sexual health practices.

"It boils down to the environment, in my opinion. If we don't see more positivity around us, we're likely to behave negatively and, in an already impoverished state of mind, we act based off of survival," said a St. Paul survey respondent.

RELATED: Racial Profiling by Police May Encourage Black Men to Run, Court Rules

"We're afraid to talk about our problems because we either feel like no one's listening, cares, or we don't want to seem inferior," said the survey respondent.

Given that racial bias begins in preschool and that it's tougher for people of color to find a therapist, improving the health of youths of color won't be easy. "Youth-serving organizations, educators, and local political officials should be equipped with the appropriate training to create safe spaces for racial healing, particularly for youth of color who have experienced traumatic events with community violence and police brutality," recommends the center.

Otherwise, young people will keep "growing up in constant fear, which affects their lives and can limit their potential in so many ways," Zaff said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Racism Has Youths of Color Seriously Stressed Out

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Thanks to the ongoing effects of systemic racism, research shows black people living in the United States aren't as healthy as their peers in Canada. Now a new study reveals some of the race-related stressors-such as police violence and gentrification-that are impediments to health and wellness for young people of color in America.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Brendesha Tynes is a visiting associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan (2015-2016). She is also an associate professor of education and psychology at the University of Southern California, where she is director of the Digital Learning and Development Lab. Her research focuses on the role of the internet in adolescent development with special attention to academic and socio-emotional outcomes. She is also interested in the use of mobile devices to enhance learning and the design of online interventions. Tynes is co-editor of the Handbook of African American Psychology and is completing a term as associate editor of the American Educational Research Journal. She received the 2015 American Educational Research Association Early Career Award, the Spencer Midcareer Award and was named one of Diverse magazine's Emerging Scholars Under 40. Her work is published in journals such as Developmental Psychology and the Journal of Adolescent Health and has been cited across a number of outlets including the New York Times, Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times.

Racial discrimination is a common stressor in the lives of adolescents of color in the U.S. Previous empirical research suggests that the majority of minority youth perceive themselves to be the victims of racial-ethnic discrimination (Benner & Kim, 2009; Harris-Britt, Valrie, Kurtz-Costes, & Rowley, 2007; Huynh & Fuligni, 2010; Martin et al., 2011; Medvedeva, 2010; Neblett et al., 2008; Pachter, Szalacha, Bernstein, & Coll, 2010; Seaton, Caldwell, Sellers & Jackson, 2008). A growing body of research also suggests that the contexts in which discriminatory experiences occur matter and have differential impacts on child and adolescent adjustment outcomes (Greene, Way, & Pahl, 2006; Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000; Riina, Martin, Gardner, & Brooks-Gunn, 2013). Given the facts that 95 percent of youth have access to the internet (Madden, Lenhart, Duggan, Cortesi, & Gasser, 2013) and that adolescents of color spend 4½ more hours per day on average than their white counterparts using various forms of media, including mobile devices (Rideout, Lauricella, & Wartella, 2011), it is important to understand discriminatory experiences in electronic formats, including widely used social network sites.

Early writings on the topic of race online argued that the internet could reduce or eliminate racial discrimination that people of color typically experience in offline settings (Glaser & Kahn, 2005; Kang, 2000). Recent theorizing suggests that social media often requires users to reveal their identities and that doing so can make individuals more susceptible to experiencing racial discrimination (Kahn, Spencer, & Glaser, 2013). In addition, victims may have a potentially permanent record of their online interactions (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008) that they carry around on their devices. While we have quite an extensive literature on general forms of online victimization, research on experiences with race is surprisingly limited.

This article describes preliminary findings from two recent studies using data from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-funded Teen Life Online and in Schools Project (Brendesha Tynes, principal investigator), a longitudinal study of the risk and protective factors associated with online victimization. The mixed-method explanatory sequential design includes online surveys, interviews, samples of online experiences provided by participants and observations from a school-based sample of diverse youth. The sample was recruited from schools in the Midwest with varying demographic compositions including relatively equal numbers of African-Americans, whites and Latinos as well as schools that were over 80 percent either Latino of African-American.

In the first study, we (with Eleanor Seaton) examine reports of online racial discrimination and the prevalence of these experiences for adolescents of color from 2010-2013. We also outline age, race and gender differences along with the contexts in which online racial discrimination occurs. In the second study, we outline the nature of these messages using thematic and content analysis of students' qualitative descriptions. We define online racial discrimination as denigrating or excluding individuals or groups on the basis of race through the use of symbols, voice, video, images, text and graphic representations. Like its offline counterpart, these experiences include racial epithets and unfair treatment by others due to a person's racial or ethnic background, such as being excluded from an online space. These incidents may be directly experienced (also called individual experiences) by victims or may be vicariously experienced or witnessed (Tynes, Giang, Williams & Thompson, 2008). Online forms of racial discrimination also include what are commonly known as "cloaked sites" that are created to spread misinformation about the history and culture of certain racial/ethnic groups. One example is "martinlutherking.org" which was created to disparage Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement all while appearing to be a legitimate site.

Prevalence of Online Discrimination

Using a sample of 340 African-American, Latino, Asian and biracial adolescents (drawn from a larger sample of 1028 sixth-12th grade students at year 1), online survey data from study one revealed that 42 percent percent of minority youth indicated that they had experienced at least one direct (individual) discriminatory incident in the first year, with 55 percent in the second year and 58 percent in the third year reporting such an incident in the third year (see Table 1). Sixty-four percent of minority youth indicated that they had experienced at least one vicarious discriminatory incident in the first year, with 69 percent the second year and 68 percent the third year. The most common direct discriminatory incident across the three years was "People have shown me a racist image online." The most common vicarious discriminatory incident across the three waves was "I have witnessed people saying mean or rude things about another person's ethnic group online."

Changes in Online Racial Discrimination Over Time and Differences across Age, Race and Gender

We also found that reports of direct racial discrimination increased across the three time periods. Minority youth perceived an average of less than one incident (M=.72) at the first time period, one incident (M=.94) the second year, and slightly more than one incident (M=1.1) at the third. The results also suggested that vicarious racial discrimination increased across the three waves. Participants perceived approximately one and a half incidents of vicarious racial discrimination (M=1.43) at the first time period, and nearly two incidents of vicarious racial discrimination the second (M=1.69) and third (M=1.70) years.

Gender, race and age differences were examined in direct and vicarious discrimination over the three time points. The results indicated no gender differences in either direct or vicarious discrimination in any of the three years. This was also the case for race (note there are mean differences, but these analyses included counts only). There were, however, age differences such that middle to late adolescents perceived more direct online racial discrimination than youth in early adolescence in the first year. There were also age differences in vicarious racial discrimination; youth who were middle to late (M=1.73) perceived more vicarious discrimination than youth in early adolescence (M=1.06). There were no age differences in individual racial discrimination at time two. However, middle to late adolescents perceived more vicarious discrimination than their early adolescent (M=1.29) counterparts. There were no age differences in direct or vicarious discrimination at time three.

Contexts of Online Discrimination

The contexts for online discrimination were examined. The most frequent contexts for these experiences were social networking sites like Facebook and text messaging. Forty-four percent of minority youth indicated that they had experienced online discrimination on a social network site at time one, 51 percent at time two and 48 percent at time three. Twenty-two percent of minority youth indicated that they had experienced online discrimination through text messages at time one, 18 percent at time two and 19 percent at time three. Because researchers noted shifts in the popularity of online contexts among participants in interview data, specific sites (e.g., Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube) were assessed for the third time point. Twenty-one percent of minority youth indicated that they had experienced online discrimination on Twitter and YouTube.

Participant Descriptions of Experiences with Online Racial Discrimination

To complement survey findings, in the second study we (with Allana Zuckerman) asked African-American students in grades sixth-12th at year 1 about their worst online experiences. This question was included in the online survey about their online victimization experiences outlined in study one which 1028 students completed. The item was open-ended to allow students to provide details about this experience in their own words. African-Americans were chosen because follow-up interview data revealed they experience a particularly virulent form of online racial discrimination. Thematic and content analyses were conducted with open-ended responses across three waves of data. Narratives were coded and a word cloud with the most frequently used words was also generated using NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Thematic analysis showed emergent themes primarily revolved around the nature and content of online racial discrimination as well as the contexts in which they occur. Participants reported six primary types of experiences:

1. Racial epithets.

2. Statements that were untrue, stereotyping and implicitly racist statements.

3. Racist jokes.

4. Symbols of hate, such as the Confederate flag.

5. Threats of physical harm or death.

6. Graphic representations/actual images of dead black bodies.

Examples include the following:

"The worst thing that has happened to me on the internet is that someone threatened to kill me because of my race."

"Almost everyday on Call of Duty: Black Ops (a video game) I see Confederate flags, swastikas and black people hanging from trees in emblems and they say racist things about me and my teammates."

"The worst internet experience that I received was online scrolling down my Facebook stream and seen a picture of an Obama doll hanging by a nuce [sic] at a gas station... I showed it to my mom and my co-workers but really nothing we could do about it."

"Me and my friends were playing Xbox and some kid joined the Xbox Live party we were in and made a lot of racist jokes I found offensive."

Interestingly, experiences across time appear to account for current events and technological trends. For example, a female student reported seeing the President Obama effigy hanging during his second campaign and election year. Experiences also occur on the most popular online platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The word cloud below is from year three and reflects the most commonly used words in participant narratives, including the terms racist, black, online, page, people, picture, race, angry, game and Zimmerman (a reference to George Zimmerman, who killed 17 year-old unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in 2012 and was acquitted in 2013) (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Most Commonly Used Terms in African American Participants' Worst Experience Responses for Year 3

Implications of Findings for Adolescent Mental Health

As expected, the majority of the sample reported being victims of online racial discrimination and these reports increased across the three time periods. This is consistent with a general increase in online hate activity associated with the campaign and election of the first African-American president in the U.S. Despite claims of a post-racial America, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (2009, 2012) reported the numbers of extremist and hate sites rose from 6,000 in 2006, to 10,000 by 2009 and to 15,000 by 2011. Not only does this fringe element of society contribute to the racial discrimination that adolescents are potentially exposed to, but average internet users may also be more likely to engage in discriminatory behaviors online (Kahn et al., 2013). Given the perception of privacy online, perpetrators can feel as though they are in a large crowd of others with a low likelihood of identification, which arguably leads to less self-monitoring when expressing beliefs (Kahn et al., 2013). Moreover, research has shown that adolescents may be more likely to engage in discriminatory behaviors when they perceive they are not being monitored (Tynes, Reynolds, & Greenfield, 2004). Scholars posit that although the internet represents exemplary societal progress, online contexts often resemble pre-Civil Rights Era race relations in which prejudice is overtly expressed (Glaser & Kahn, 2005) and discrimination practices are common.

Given the increasing amount of time that adolescents and young adults spend online, experiences of racial discrimination via the internet have implications for their mental health and other developmental outcomes (Tynes et al., 2008). Studies show that online racial discrimination is associated with depressive symptoms, anxiety, lower academic motivation and increased problem behavior (Tynes et al., 2008; Tynes et al., 2014; Tynes, Hiss, Ryan, & Rose, 2015; Umana-Taylor et al., 2015). Most importantly, online racial discrimination contributes uniquely to adjustment outcomes over and above offline experiences. Given the current racial climate in the U.S., it has never been more important for researchers and practitioners to understand how race related experiences impact youth of color over time.

Equally important is the potential role these findings might play in informing the design of cyberbullying prevention and internet safety programs. They may also be used in the development of interventions that help youth to cope with and critique the information they are exposed to in online settings. These interventions should be comprehensive with an explicit focus on adaptive coping strategies and developing critical media and racial literacy.

Acknowledgments

Parts of this brief were drawn from unpublished manuscripts co-authored by Eleanor Seaton, PhD, of Arizona State University and Allana Zuckerman of Georgia State University. The order of authorship should read Tynes, Seaton & Zuckerman. I thank the co-investigators of the Teen Life Online and in Schools Project, including David Williams, PHD, Harvard University, Adriana Umaña -Taylor, PhD, (Arizona State University), Kimberly Mitchell, PhD, (University of New Hampshire) and Chad Rose, PhD, (University of Missouri), for their time and many contributions. This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01HD061584. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

References

Benner, A.D., & Kim, S.Y. (2009). Intergenerational experiences of discrimination in Chinese American families: Influences of socialization and stress. Journal of Marriage and Family, 71(4), 862-877. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00640.x

Fisher, C.B., Wallace, S.A., & Fenton, R.E. (2000). Discrimination distress during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29(6), 679-695. doi: 10.1023/A:1026455906512.

Glaser, J., & Kahn, K. (2005) Online prejudice and discrimination: From dating to hating. In Y. Amichai-Hamburger (Ed.), The social net: Understanding our online behavior, (pp. 247-274). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Greene, M.L., Way, N., & Pahl, K. (2006). Trajectories of perceived adult and peer discrimination among Black, Latino, and Asian American adolescents: Patterns and psychological correlates. Developmental Psychology, 42(2), 218-236. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.42.2.218.

Harris‐Britt, A., Valrie, C.R., Kurtz‐Costes, B., & Rowley, S.J. (2007). Perceived racial discrimination and self‐esteem in African American youth: Racial socialization as a protective factor. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 17(4), 669-682. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00540.x.

Huynh, V.W., & Fuligni, A.J. (2010). Discrimination hurts: The academic, psychological, and physical well-being of adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 20(4), 916-941. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00670.x.

Kahn, K. B., Spencer, K., & Glaser, J. (2013). Online prejudice and discrimination: From dating to hating. In Y. Amichai-Hamburger (Ed.), The social net: Understanding our online behavior, (pp. 201-219). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kang, J. (2000). Cyber-race. Harvard Law Review, 113, 1130-1208.

Madden, M., Lenhart, A., Duggan, M., Cortesi, S., & Gasser, U. (2013). Teens and technology 2013. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/03/13/teens-and-technology-2013/.

Martin, M.J., McCarthy, B., Conger, R.D., Gibbons, F.X., Simons, R.L., Cutrona, C.E., & Brody, G.H. (2011). The enduring significance of racism: Discrimination and delinquency among Black American youth. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(3), 662-676. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00699.x.

Medvedeva, M. (2010). Perceived discrimination and linguistic adaptation of adolescent children of immigrants. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(8), 940-952. doi: 10.1007/s10964-009-9434-8.

Neblett, E.W., White, R.L., Ford, K.R., Philip, C.L., Nguyên, H.X., & Sellers, R.M. (2008). Patterns of racial socialization and psychological adjustment: Can parental communications about race reduce the impact of racial discrimination? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 18(3), 477-515. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2008.00568.x.

Pachter, L.M., Szalacha, L.A., Bernstein, B.A., & Coll, C.G. (2010). Perceptions of Racism in Children and Youth (PRaCY): Properties of a self-report instrument for research on children's health and development. Ethnicity & Health, 15(1), 33-46. doi: 10.1080/13557850903383196.

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). "Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives." New York: Basic Books.

Rideout, V., Lauricella, A., & Wartella, E. (2011). Children, media and race: Media use among White, Black, and Hispanic, and Asian American children. "Report of the Center on Media and Human Development School of Communication Northwestern University."

Riina, E.M., Martin, A., Gardner, M., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2013). Context matters: Links between neighborhood discrimination, neighborhood cohesion and African American adolescents' adjustment. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(1), 136-146.

Seaton, E.K., Caldwell, C.H., Sellers, R.M., & Jackson, J.S. (2008). The prevalence of perceived discrimination among African American and Caribbean Black youth. Developmental Psychology, 44(5), 1288-1297. doi: 10.1037/a0012747.

Simon Wiesenthal Center. (2009). "iReport online terror + hate: The first decade." Retrieved from http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7BDFD2AAC1-2ADE-428A-9263-35234229D8D8%7D/IREPORT.PDF (PDF, 1.51MB).

Simon Wiesenthal Center. (2012). "2011 Digital Terrorism & Hate Report launched at Museum of Tolerance New York." Retrieved from http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441467&ct=9141065#.U6hpkfldWON.

Tynes, B., Giang, M., Williams, D., & Thompson, G. (2008). Online racial discrimination and psychological adjustment among adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 43(6), 565-569. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2008.08.021.

Tynes, B.M., Hiss, S., Rose, C., Umaña -Taylor, A., Mitchell, K. & Williams, D. (2014). Internet use, online racial discrimination, and adjustment among a diverse, school- based sample of adolescents. International Journal of Gaming & Computer Mediated Simulations, 6(3), 1-16.

Tynes, B.M., Hiss, S., Ryan, A. & Rose, C. (2015). Discrimination in school vs online contexts, mental health and academic motivation among diverse adolescents in the U.S. "The Social Psychology of the Classroom International Handbook." New York: Routledge.

Tynes, B., Reynolds, L., & Greenfield, P.M. (2004). Adolescence, race and ethnicity on the internet: A comparison of discourse in monitored and unmonitored chat rooms. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 25(6) 667-684. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2004.09.003.

Umaña-Taylor, A.J., Tynes, B.M., Toomey, R.B., Williams, D., & Mitchell, K. (2015). Latino adolescents' perceived discrimination in online and off-line settings: An examination of cultural risk and protective factors. Developmental Psychology, 51(1), 87-100.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Online racial discrimination: A growing problem for adolescents

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Brendesha Tynes is a visiting associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan (2015-2016). She is also an associate professor of education and psychology at the University of Southern California, where she is director of the Digital Learning and Development Lab.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This is why everyday racial profiling is so dangerous | CNN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Racial profiling happens in ways many people don't realize. And it doesn't just hurt the victims - it harms the rest of society, too.

# data[].attributes.body
Article Gives Significant Details on the matter at hand

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Racial discrimination isn't just a civil rights issue - it can also affect teenagers' health, a new study suggests.

Adolescents who experienced frequent racial discrimination without emotional support from parents and peers had higher levels of blood pressure, a higher body mass index, and higher levels of stress-related hormones at age 20, placing them at greater risk for chronic disease as they get older.

While other studies have looked at perceived racial discrimination and health among adults, this study, published Monday in the journal Child Development, is the first of its type to track the effects in youth. The good news: Teens who did receive emotional support didn't show the biological effects of racial discrimination.

Researchers wanted to look at the relationship between racial discrimination and what scientists call allostatic load, basically the "wear and tear" on the body over time caused by frequent and repeated stressors. Frequent activation of the body's stress response causes a cascade of problems including high blood pressure, cardiac disease, stroke and increases in the body's inflammatory response. The researchers also wanted to determine whether parental and peer support would help mediate that stress, leading to potentially better health outcomes.

The study involved 331 African Americans, all of whom lived in the rural South, who were asked to rate the frequency of perceived discrimination at ages 16, 17 and 18. These discriminatory events included racially based slurs and insults, disrespectful treatment from community members, physical threats, and false accusations from business employees or law enforcement officials.

"When a person's sense of human dignity is violated, there are physiological consequences."

When the adolescents turned 18, the youths were asked to assess their peer emotional support during these years. Caregivers, too, were surveyed regarding the emotional support they provided, with questions including "If my child talks to me I have suggestions about how to handle problems," and "If my child needs help with school or work, she/he can ask me about it."

Blood pressure, body mass and stress-related hormones were assessed when youths turned 20. The researchers controlled for variables including low economic status, depression, or unhealthy behaviors such as drug use, for example, all of which can affect health.

Although many African Americans, as well as other minorities, experience discrimination as a stressor, only a small percentage show increases in the biological havoc that stress can cause.

"People ask why is that, and one reason we've shown is that it's due to emotional support, which is important at all times in life, but especially during adolescence,' says lead investigator Gene Brody, Regents Professor and Director of the Center for Family Research at University of Georgia. "These kinds of relationships can be a protective barrier from stress-changing biology."

In recent years, racial discrimination as a stressor affecting biology has been the subject of numerous studies, mostly involving adults, says David Williams, a professor of public health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Other research has shown that racial discrimination and resulting health problems are a global phenomenon.

"It is not just an African-American problem, it is a universal problem, affecting the health of disadvantaged populations across the world," adds Williams, the developer of "The Everyday Discrimination Scale," which is widely used to assess perceived discrimination. "When a person's sense of human dignity is violated, there are physiological consequences."

Although the study does have some limitations since researchers still must determine the mechanism by which parental or peer involvement actually worked in reducing the stress response, it challenges researchers to explain "the how" of their findings, says Megan Gunnar, Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota.

"While we are working out the how this comes about in the body, this study provides us with rich targets for increasing resilience in youth and, as if we needed them, more arguments for working to reduce racism and discrimination in our society."

For caregivers the message is simple. "Just sitting with them, gauging how they are doing is not race specific, it is important across all races, and can have a powerful effect in buffering the effects of discrimination," says Brody.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Racial Discrimination in Teen Years Could Create Health Problems

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Racial discrimination isn't just a civil rights issue - it can also affect teenagers' health, a new study suggests. Adolescents who experienced frequent racial discrimination without emotional support from parents and peers had higher levels of blood pressure, a higher body mass index, and higher levels of stress-related hormones at age 20, placing them at greater risk for chronic disease as they get older.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this picture it depicts it well