MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Have you ever heard the expressions “driving while black” or “walking while black”? Most people of color have firsthand experience of being the recipient of this kind policing discrimination, namely, to be stopped by a police officer not because one has committed a crime but because one is not white. When members of law enforcement discriminate between and target members of particular race and not others, we call this racial profiling. Racial profiling is a particularly unique kind of discrimination because it is often defended by those who would otherwise oppose any form of racial discrimination. At the same time, it is often criticized for relying on allegedly faulty statistics, unequally treating members of society, and undermining one’s right to be valued as an individual (and not simply as a member of racial group). In this paper, I offer several examples involving Blacks, Latinos, and Arabs to help illustrate the use and consequences of racial profiling. Demonstrating how whiteness passes as both normative and hidden, I offer a theory of racial bifurcation in which people of color are both Ellison’s invisible person and Fanon’s hypervisible negro at the same time. In other words, their personhood is rendered invisible while their black body is highlighted as the only salient feature.