African-American Arrests

"Why do all black people run fast? Because all the slow ones are in jail" (racist-jokes.info). The joke, which I have heard several times, illustrates the stereotypical racial profiling of African-Americans as criminals. Some people feel this is true because they are from an older society in which that was the common view. Others would say they do not agree with the stereotype, yet act as though they do when initial judgements are made. The FBI reported that in 2012 only 28.1% of arrests made were of African-Americans. On the other hand, whites were responsible for  69.3% of arrests. Despite the statistics, racist jokes continue to be told. The fact that these jokes are found funny may be responsible for the racial profiling when generalizations must be made. The racially insensitive humor ingrains the stereotypes into culture; culture is often drawn on when situations call for snap judgements of people. In essence the jokes are partly responsible for the racism that is discreetly around in society. Sadly, it does not stop there. There is racist material in music and television as well. It is hard to prevent these racist ideas from affecting how people profile each other at first glance. Though racism has been addressed officially, it has not been addressed to the same degree socially.