Notes: A Scandal over race profiling by law enforcement continued this past week in New Jersey. I have personally watched a "pretext stop" training film at a criminal law seminar. In it, "swarthy male outlanders" were profiled on a highway known as a drug route and pulled over under the pretext of a traffic violation. Problem was, not all "swarthy male outlanders" smuggle drugs.

In a race relations class in the Army during the 1970s, a black sergeant told us (all white) that if we wanted to experience what it was like to be black, we should grow our hair long and hitch-hike around the country in old jeans. In those days, that could cause someone to be a bit rude to you on sight.

There's an insidious negative quality about a society that profiles based on race. Another kind of informal profiling goes on that's directed at African-American males which is the subject of this strip -- i.e., that they're perceived as criminals. 04.08.01