I would like to begin by relating a story. I was at my part-time monkey job, the same sort of two-day-a-week, get by in college, job many of us have. A gentlemen walked over to me and asked some questions regarding a few products, I answered, he chose a product and continued his shopping.

A few minutes later I noticed he was looking at some high dollar items. Not 10 seconds after a fellow employee walked over to me and warned me to “Keep an eye on that guy, I think he’s going to try to steal.”

What led him to this conclusion? What clue lead this armchair detective to suspect the gentleman of theft? Perhaps it is because I have left a fact out, the gentleman in question was black.

This was all the evidence that was needed to convict this soon-to-be thief. I forgot, as we all know, black men are much too poor to ever by a high dollar item. Clearly he must have wanted to steal it.

What? I should not even have to explain the level of ignorance involved in a judgment like that. This man was just another customer trying to shop like any other person in the store. This was an example of that R-word we hate so much, racism. Specifically, this was a very basic example of racial profiling.

This week marks the one year anniversary of the death of Timothy Thomas. The Cincinnati youth was shot to death by police while fleeing from misdemeanor charges. This death sparked not only riots, but allegations and investigations on the methods the Cincinnati police have used for the past 30 years.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups alleged that Cincinnati police used racial profiling to unfairly target black youths and brought a suit about accordingly. I am thankful, as of Tuesday, all parties concerned settled the suit in a manner that will hopefully put these sort of tactics to rest, and bring about a more egalitarian form of justice in Cincinnati. Unfortunately, that city is far from alone in alleged cases of authority using racial profiling on a regular basis.

In Dallas, the sheetrock scandal has surfaced. It is alleged that police have been profiling and targeting poor Hispanics for drug busts. Worse, a great deal of the evidence that was collected and used to convict these people has turned out to be a substance called sheetrock, not cocaine, meaning many people were sentenced using at least in part, faulty evidence.

In New Jersey, on I-80 the main stretch of road into New York city, racial profiling is allegedly used to target black and Hispanic drivers. The percentage of blacks and Hispanics pulled over for all violations far exceeds the national average.

This is just the beginning of a long list that will undoubtedly only grow, especially as we are now on constant alert, waiting and searching for the next terrorist attack. Though official policy has been not to target anyone for their ethnicity, already around the country we have heard many stories of people of middle-eastern descent being unreasonably detained.

The biggest problem is that some people seem to accept this as OK. Clearly my co-worker considered it an acceptable way to root out criminals. They probably use a logic something like this. Analyze who is committing crime in an area. If, for example, black men commit 42 percent more violent crime than white men in a certain area, shouldn’t we be more suspicious of black men. The answer is no. Assuming the statistics aren’t already skewed by bias and profiling, no amount of black men committing a crime in the past guarantees that the next black man you see is a criminal. Innocent until proven guilty is a pretty simple concept, it doesn’t read “sort of already guilty if your black, otherwise, follow normal rules.”

Whether we need to follow Cincinnati’s example and establish independent counsels, or create new watchdogs, methods like profiling must not be used if we are to preserve the basic civil liberties of all Americans.

The customer bought the item after all, though I’m sure his credit card was closely scrutinized, it might have been stolen after all.

Vincent Venturella is a junior in philosophy. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].