Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality

by Alison Behnke

In the United States, racial profiling affects thousands of Americans every day. Both individuals and institutions―such as law enforcement agencies, government bodies, and schools―routinely use race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of an offense.

The high-profile deaths of unarmed people of color at the hands of police officers have brought renewed national attention to racial profiling and have inspired grassroots activism from groups such as Black Lives Matter. Combining rigorous research with powerful personal stories, this insightful title explores the history, the many manifestations, and the consequences of this form of social injustice.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Teen

160 pages, Library Binding

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

Born in Rochester, Minnesota, Alison Behnke had the great fortune to live in Rome, Italy, for three years while in grade school. Not only did this introduce her to one of the world’s best and most beautiful cities, it provided her with a wealth of writing material. Even before her Roman holiday, however, Alison always knew that she wanted to be an author. Good teachers, avid reading, and a children's librarian for a mother all fed the fire. Alison went on to take a degree in English with a focus on Creative Writing, and at present count she has written more than forty books. Alison is also a book editor, as well as a photographer. She lives in Minneapolis, and when she's not reading, writing, or editing, she spends her time on pursuits including travel, film photography, listening to Morrissey, and drinking espresso.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meant for middle-grade readers, it presents how racial profiling affects the way the public view and one's individuality of their race, specifically African Americans, Muslims, and Hispanics. With many cited sources, Behnke shows how many groups are targeted unfairly based on their race, and shows how propaganda and negative stereotypes further isolate minority groups while benefitting white majority. It also introduces the idea of systematic racism, which clearly is still in play especially so with the police force. The book ends with how one can help make a change providing resources and ideas that could make progress to end racial profiling. Overall, this book would help inform young readers about the racism that still goes on and that the best call would be for everyone to take a stand and make a change.

[Kylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in making a difference and advocating for racial equality, this book is perfect to begin to educate yourself on the topic. Racial Profiling Everyday Inequality by Alison Marie Behnke talks about the injustices and daily struggles that people of color and different races face. She talks about important topics such as learning to make the distinction between racial profiling and criminal profiling to some of the history of racism. She goes over various cases where racial profiling occurred as well as cases where unfair treatment towards people of color took place. The book also goes over actions you yourself can take to participate in fighting against racial profiling and joining the movement for racial equity. She goes more in depths on other topics that some other books and articles may not talk as much about such as environmental racism and racial profiling regarding health care. Other subjects such as historic inequality, criminal justice and injustice, contemporary inequality, counterterrorism and islamophobia, and prejudice and privilege are talked about as well. She also included further information on the topic and provides other resources such as different books you can read and documentaries you can watch to further educate yourself on the subject. Behnke uses reputable sources for her information and cites them all in the back of the book as well. I also loved the layout of the book as it made it easier to read which is also why I recommend this book to start with to educate yourself on the subject. The information doesn’t jump all over the place and explains the different situations that go with the different subjects throughout the book clearly. Overall, this book was written really well and I highly recommend it to further your knowledge on this specific subject.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I checked out the ebook version of this, without realizing it was aimed at younger audiences, because my library kind of lumped all the new releases together. That said, it's a good (if short--about 30% of the book is taken up by the bibliography) primer on the subject of racial injustice in the US. It's also quite depressing, realizing how virtually nothing has changed in the three years since it was written; reading about the murder of Eric Garner, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were reading an account of George Floyd's murder, earlier this year. Right down to the rallying cry of "I can't breathe."

Though brief, Racial Profiling is still a worthwhile, and important read, considering how widespread these issues still are in this country. And if you're an adult like me who picked it up, despite being outside of its target demographic, you still might find some worthwhile information here, as this slim volume contains a good number of statistics and figures to back up what it's saying.

[Dat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality, was written by Alison Behnke and published by Twenty-First Century Books in 2017. From reading this novel, I learned the many different ways that racial profiling occurs in the criminal justice system and how unfair the criminal justice system acts towards people of color. I would recommend this book to anyone because I believe after reading this book anyone can be inspired to make a change.

In this novel, Behnke shares real-life experiences of racial profiling. In addition, this book discusses the ways that people of color pose more of a "threat" to the public and how law enforcement takes extra caution towards people of color. People of color, are treated more unfairly when it comes getting pulled over and once they are incarcerated. People with white skin color are prioritized and their crimes are taken likely.

One thing I enjoyed about this book is that the author adds real-life experiences on the side, as well as, information that we need to know about the text. For instance, on page 92, it states, " They had just left Ferguson Market and Liquor, where security video later showed that an African American male had shoplifted cigarillos and shoved the store's clerk on his way out." Later on, Brown was shot 6 times by a police officer and died. This information is important because the author could be saying whatever she wants, but this is proof of it happening in the United States. Alison Behnke has written Death of a Dreamer and Is That a Fact series. A similar book to this is The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander.

I would give this book four out of five stars because it helped to realize how racial profiling occurs and how it particularly affects people of color. Although racial profiling occurs on a daily basis, we can work as a nation to put an end to racial injustice.

[Boni Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I walked into my local library and was quite pleasantly surprised to see this front and center as a recommended read by the librarians. So naturally, I picked it up, as I have been studying and critically thinking about this topic for the last year or so. I say I was surprised, as I have searched for at least a dozen books at this library concerning black history and they don't have it.

This YA book is a great, concise summary (only 139 pages, with lots of charts and pictures) that explains racial profiling. It doesn't only discuss racial inequality concerning profiling from the police, but it explains inequality in education, housing, economy, etc. It explains the historical inequality of these areas and how we got to where we are today. Vocabulary terms are introduced and explained in a simple way such as: micoraggressions, school-to-prison-pipeline, redlining and white privilege.

If you cringe or get defensive when you hear "white privilege" I respectfully ask you to read this book to get a better idea of what that means. I have found it is helpful to be humble and to sit back and listen to perspectives from people of color and try to understand their viewpoint. When you do, you're eyes will be open to so many injustices they face and privileges that white people enjoy without even realizing it. Also, you will see how strong they are and what they have overcome.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars
A very well done, concise and devastating exploration of racial profiling. This is pitched perfectly for 8th grade through high school. The text is simple, there is a fair degree of repetition, plenty of photographs and profoundly persuasive statistics.

"In NYC Between 2004 and 2012 police conducted 4.4 million stop & frisks. 83% of those stopped were Black & Latino. During all the stops guns were discovered .2%, knives & drugs 1.5% of the time. Only 1.5% of all stops resulted in jail time & there was .1% violent crime conviction. Blacks & Latinos stopped were less likely than stopped Whites to be carrying illicit substances." (We are not told if this likelyhood is proportional or in absolute terms.)

My only quibble is the unfortunate error on the second page: the photo text misidentifies D.C. as where police shot Tamar Rice; it was Cleveland, Ohio. The final two pages offer suggestions for what the reader can do. End matter includes a glossary, source notes, selected bibliography, further information, index and photo credits.

[Dee Halzack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read. (It took less than a day.) It was a bit simplistic, but then when I got to the last chapter it became clear it had been written for students. Still it put some things in perspective. The statistics alone are mind-boggling as well as enlightening: Statistics on not just stop-n-frisk, traffic stops, arrests, and convictions, but also on sentences show disparities. American Indians experiences sentences approximately 59% longer than whites for similar crimes. The majority of states that do not ban racial profiling are in the NORTH (including New York and Michigan). The only southern states that do not ban it are Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

[Katie Huang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality was written by Alison Behnke. From reading this book I have learned a lot about how the criminal justice system has repeatedly targeted people of color with violence and getting away with it. There are opinions and thoughts from people in interviews. There are also graphs that show the major gap difference between white and colored people. I think the author did a really good job of explaining life as a colored person as a young adult, but also what school was like. I would recommend this book to anyone that believes that we can change the current system to create a more fair and equal system.

[Moon Petrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book would be perfect for high schoolers with limited or biased exposure to history, or for middle schoolers who are good readers or are going over the material in a group or with a parent or teacher. It included succinct but clear information about various periods in American history, recent events, great explanations of things like implicit bias, and concrete examples of ways people can make a difference. I will definitely plan to include this in our homeschooling curriculum once my kids are in the 11-12 range.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really excellent book about current affairs including police brutality, systemic racism (including a good chunk on the Flint water crisis as systemic environmental racism), and other things. I learned a lot about housing equality, the FHA (which was super interesting because I just went through the house-buying process and so all the stuff about mortgages made perfect sense to me) and more. Put this on your YA nonfiction shelf for report-writers.

[sjams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good overview of racial profiling and the rise of concern about violence against people of color. Includes some historical overview of the U.S.'s racist history and talks about a lot of the high-profile killing of black people in the last few years, what happened, why activists are talking about it, and especially how racial profiling plays a role. Written for teenagers and younger-adults-than-I, but still a good primer on a lot of the conversations about racism today for all people.

[OlympicReadings · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is complete nonsense and fake stories and facts. This book is projecting a lie and a very dangerous lie at that. This book isn't helping anybody but in fact getting more people killed. Making minorities believe that people are just generally out for them. Which is getting them and cops killed.

[Nae · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good starting point for people who don't have a lot of base knowledge about research, stats, etc. It's concise and straight to the point. It is definitely a good recommendation to give to someone.

[Chewie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good.

[Diane Lynch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concise, informative, overly persuasive.

[Kelsey Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very straightforward. Definitely meant for a younger audience, but I think a good introduction to the topic.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well researched and written. I believe this book needs to be available in every middle and high school classroom.

[Braveheart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opening.

[Marie Zahnle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive overview includes poignant personal experiences

[Laura]

I was provided a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.

Easy to read and understand, Behnke's Racial Profiling is an excellent starting point to understanding an issue that affects many people's lives. I work in an inner city school, and for many of my students this is a reality for them daily. I was aware of it happening, but the examples, explanations and facts presented in this text further cemented my position on the issue. A must read for anyone interested in social justice, police reform, justice system reform and more. Each year my students do a research project about a social justice issue they feel passionate about, and I know will be a valuable research tool for any in my class who are interested in this subject.