Isms and ists: a slightly personal but not intentionally trivial comment on 'racial profiling'.

• Author: Stenning, Philip
• Position: Response to article by Frances Henry and Carol Tator in this issue, p. 65 - Symposium on Racial Profiling and Police Culture

racism n. 1. belief in the superiority of a particular race; prejudice based on this. 2. antagonism towards other races [] racist n. & adj.

discrimination n. 1. unfavourable treatment based on racial, sexual, etc. prejudice. 2. good taste or judgment.

prejudice n. 1. a preconceived opinion, b (foll. by against, in favour of) bias, partiality. 2. harm that results or may result from some action or judgment (to the prejudice of).

preconceive v. form (an idea or opinion etc.) beforehand.

pedant n. derog. Person who insists on adherence to formal rules or literal meaning.

--The Pocket Oxford Dictionary (1992)

Car driver (to police officer): You only pulled me over because I'm black.

Police officer: You only said that because I'm white.

As a red-haired, male criminologist who has done a bit of research on race and crime and happens to have been born under the astrological sign of Scorpio, I have had a fair bit of exposure to negative stereotyping in my lifetime. I must also confess to having occasionally been accused of pedantry. But it does seem to me that academic and policy debates about race and crime, and "racial profiling," have become unnecessarily and undesirably bedevilled by linguistic chicanery, perhaps fuelled by resentment and political passion.

One might think, indeed, from looking at the dictionary definition of racism above, that one would not have to look far for explanations of why police officers so routinely deny charges of racism--presumably, only those who actually take pride in their bigotry would readily admit to being racists, and it seems unlikely that most police officers are proud bigots.

I venture to think that most people are capable of understanding the difference between racism and discrimination (see above)--specifically, that while racism typically leads to racial discrimination, racial discrimination is not necessarily indicative of racism. Unfortunately, encouraged by "critical race theorists," and with very negative consequences for rational debate about racial profiling, many authors of commission of inquiry reports (in Canada and elsewhere), as well a some judges now (as Henry and Tator (2011) point out in their response to Satzewich and Shaffir's 2009 article), have blurred this distinction by adopting the terminology of "systemic racism."

In its 1995 report, the Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System defined systemic racism as

Systemic racism means the social processes that produce racial inequality in decisions...