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Checking my Facebook today I saw a message from a colleague who works at Covenant House (thx C.G.) alerting me to an incident of racial profiling on the campus of Harvard University. At First I didn't make the connection, but then former (and orginial) ACLU of West Virginia executive director (thx H.C.) reminded me that Henry Louis Gates Jr., the director of Harvard University's (YES, THAT HARVARD) W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research is originally from Piedmont, WV. He is considered one of, if not the, foremost authorities in the country ON PLANET EARTH when it comes to what he does. This comes at a pretty ironic time. ACLU of WV's campaign to address racial profiling presented to State Legislature's Select Committee on Minority Issues about the findings released last February in the Traffic Stop Study. To address an issue pointed to in the article: I wouldn't be surprised if perceived socio-economic status has an impact on whether or not anyone gets pulled over. The study did not record any information on the perceived socio-economic status of the drivers, so no one can say for sure. However, that does not account for why minority drivers (namely Blacks and Latinos) are subjected to roadside searches at a rate 2.5 times higher than that of their white counter parts. I want to point this out specifically because policy makers cannot look at what is going on in WV and simply apologize it away as a matter of poor people getting picked on. |
