Congress faces racial profiling in America at briefing today

Racial profiling has a negative impact on communities around the U.S., and Congress will face that reality at a briefing this morning. The Rights Working Group brings their short documentary film (top of post) and a report on the effects of the unconstitutional practice of racial profiling on various U.S. communities to the Reyburn Office House Building to brief Congress. Both the video and report urge Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA),

Racial, ethnic, religious and national origin profiling ("racial profiling") exists across the country and the report finds that the patchwork of laws dealing with racial profiling is too burdensome for victims of profiling to navigate. Faces of Racial Profiling: A Report from Communities Across America gives voice to some of these individuals by featuring testimonies from the Face the Truth hearings, a series of community gatherings held across the nation this year.

Since the current legal framework for combating profiling is piecemeal, the report identifies gaps and needed reforms. It further makes recommendations to federal, state and local government officials to end the use of racial profiling in America, a practice the Rights Working Group calls "pervasive, ineffective and unlawful." Racial profiling affects a variety of diverse groups, including the African American, Latino, Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities.

The short documentary film entitled "Face the Truth: Racial Profiling across America" illustrates the practice of racial profiling with the personal testimony of a variety of persons who suffered its negative effects. For instance, local law enforcement stopped and stripped young Kurdish-American Karwan Abdul Kader simply because he was driving around in what they considered was "the wrong neighborhood."

Racial and religious profiling is a pervasive problem, say experts in the documentary. Not only humiliating and degrading for the people subjected to it, the practice is also unconstitutional, ineffective as a law enforcement, and ultimately damaging to community security.

The panel of experts who will address the Congressional briefing today are a mix of advocates, police chiefs and community organizers:

Karen K. Narasaki, President and Executive Director of the Asian American Justice Center and National Commissioner for the Washington state and Los Angeles hearings

Blanca Santiago, Community Advocate and Organizer in Portland, Maine and Local Commissioner for the Portland hearing

Karwan Abdulkadir, Resident of Nashville, Tennessee and presenter of testimony at the Nashville hearing

Dr. Tracie Keesee, Division Chief of Research, Training and Technology of the Denver Police Department

HilaryHilary O. Shelton, Washington Bureau Director and Senior Vice President for Advocacy, NAACP

Jumana Musa, Deputy Director of the Rights Working Group and moderator

The Congressional briefing today is one part of a week long campaign. Actions around the nation will provide the public with opportunity to participate. The Rights Working Group urges citizens to suggest their Congressional representatives co-sponsor the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA) of 2010.

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VIDEO (top of post) Short documentary "Face the Truth: Racial Profiling in America"