Half Of All Black Men Are Victims Of Racial Profiling, Poll Finds

Jet, July 9, 2001

More than half of all Black men report that they have been the victims of racial profiling by police, according to a recently published survey.

Overall, nearly 4 in 10 Blacks--37% --said they had been unfairly stopped by police because they were Black, including 52% of all Black men and 25% of all Black women.

The survey was conducted by The Washington Post, Harvard University and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent philanthropy focusing on major health care issues.

Blacks aren't the only Americans who say they have been targets of racial or ethnic profiling by police. One in five Latino and Asian men reported they had been the victims as well.

But racial profiling is only one of many examples of intolerance that minorities say they continue to confront. More than a third of all Blacks interviewed said they had been rejected for a job or failed to win a promotion because of their race.

Majorities of Blacks, Latinos and Asians also report occasionally experiencing at least one of the following expressions of prejudice: poor service in stores or restaurants, disparaging comments and encounters with people frightened or suspicious of them because of their race or ethnicity.

For the survey, 1,709 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone. The sample included 323 Blacks, 315 Hispanics and 254 Asians.