Church should speak against racial profiling, agency leaders say

Racial profiling threatens to affect 87 million people in the United States, according to Amnesty International USA.

Sept. 15, 2004      

By Shanta Bryant Gyan*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) — A report that 32 million people have been victims of racial profiling practices since September 2001 should move United Methodist churches to speak out on injustices against racial and religious minorities, according to two denomination leaders.

The unlawful use of race in police, immigration, and airport security procedures has expanded since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, and threatens to affect an estimated 87 million people in the United States, according to the report by Amnesty International USA. The report, “Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security and Human Rights in the United States,” was released at a press conference Sept. 13 at the National Press Club.

The Rev. Chester Jones, top staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race, said the sheer number of people reporting that they’ve been racially profiled “is out of control for any nation.”

“The church should weep over the national use of racial profiling against such a large population of the nation,” Jones said.

While acknowledging law enforcement’s need to protect national security, he stressed that individuals should not be unlawfully stopped and searched because their appearance is different from the mainstream population.

The Rev. Chester R. Jones

The report from such a highly respected human rights group should give all Americans pause, said Jim Winkler, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society in Washington.

Through the board, the denomination is committed to protecting civil rights and civil liberties, he said. “Each local church should also be actively engaged in guarding the freedom and dignity of every person in the United States.”

According to Amnesty International, law enforcement authorities’ use of race, ethnicity and religion for unlawful stops and searches undermines national security.  The report was based on a series of consultations and public hearings across the United States and a yearlong analysis of law enforcement profiling practices.

“Racial profiling blinds law enforcement to real criminal threats and creates a hole in the national security net large enough to drive a truck through,” said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

“Unless the federal and state governments end this pernicious practice,” he said, “the frightening reality is that with terrorist acts on the rise, that truck may be loaded with explosives and the driver anyone but a Muslim or person of Middle Eastern descent. We are all at risk.”  

Racial profiling has the potential to allow people such as suspected al-Qaida members John Walker Lindh, who is white, and Richard Reid, who is British, to elude authorities, while law enforcement authorities are searching for people of Middle Eastern origin, the report said.

Racial and ethnic minorities are frequently profiled during routine tasks, according to the report.

“During our research, we collected testimony from Native Americans who were profiled going to and from religious ceremonies, Hispanics who were profiled while in the sanctity of their homes, African Americans who were profiled walking down the street, and a Boy Scout, who happens to be Muslim, constantly being subjected to airport searches,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, director of Amnesty International USA’s Domestic Human Rights Program.

“Anecdotally,” Winkler said, “we know there are racial minority staff of the General Board of Church and Society who receive more scrutiny and profiling daily as they approach checkpoints set up near the Capitol and the United Methodist Building. This is wrong, and it is unfair.”

A recent poll, cosponsored by Amnesty International, showed that 45 and 46 percent of Arab and Muslim Americans believe the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice use racial profiling to screen people for security purposes.

Currently, 46 states do not ban religious profiling, the report stated. Additionally, 35 states allow pedestrian “stop and frisk” searches, and only six of the 15 that ban such searches use a definition of racial profiling that can be enforced, it said. 

Jones said church leaders, policymakers and community leaders must work together to end racial profiling.

“We should be able to speak out and teach people what they don’t know,” he said, noting the church’s experience with racism and justice issues. “It’s not right to make ourselves safe by putting half of the population at risk.”

Amnesty International is launching a public education campaign to support a comprehensive federal ban on race-focused law enforcement practices. The proposed legislation, End Racial Profiling Act of 2004 (H.R. 3847 and S 2132), has 140 bipartisan cosponsors.

*Gyan is a freelance writer in the Washington area.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Suggested Resources General Commission on Religion and Race General Board of Church and Society Amnesty International