CoTH, I need your help!

[HazelTheNut]

So I'm working on a School Project which involves a self-led inquiry into a topic of our own choosing that affects the world. In light of the resent events in Ferguson, I've chosen to do my assessment on Racial Profiling by Authoritative bodies (specifically, the Police).
While working on research for this assignment, I stopped for a moment and thought to myself "How can I find personalized recounts of this sort of thing?"
Then CoTH popped into my head! We have a great community of peoples from all over the world! You cant pay for this kind of focus group!

So here is my question to you! How has racial profiling affected you, or someone you know? Do you think racial profiling exists in your community? What is your opinion on it? Post what you think below!

DISCLAIMER: Your responses are for research only! They wont be published or otherwise shared in any way!

Edit: If you want your answer to be anonymous, feel free to PM me. Want it to be even more anonymous? I'll be working on a way to make it as anonymous as possible, so check back soon!

[FlyingSquirrel]

It might be best to introduce a way for people to add their thoughts anonymously, ya know?

[Geoni]

Private Messages or an anonymous google form.

[HazelTheNut]

It might be best to introduce a way for people to add their thoughts anonymously, ya know?

Great idea. I'll edit the post to add that in!

[Dae]

I don't know anyone in my current community who has been subjected to (negative) racial profiling, but I am a young, white woman in the South, and to be quite honest, there are not a lot of non-white people in my...
Well, I was about to say that I don't have a lot of non-white people in my life, but I have four black coworkers, a Venesulaean ex-stepmother, and recently spent the better part of the day helping at my local art center with another, Iranian, volunteer.

I suppose it is a bit racially insensitive of me to categorize people I regularly interact with as "white" in my mind, but I feel that it is more borne out of my simply not having to treat people differently because of race, and the "My People" category is still primarily white.

I know some of the people I know have dealt with racial subjegation; after a certain age, I know everyone from around here had dealt with segregation in public places, along with race-based abuse and even the occasional lynching. Does it "count" as my knowing their being racially profiled if I have to infer its existence, and they have never spoken to me of it?

I suppose I have lived a charmed life in how little race has been a negative factor for me personally. Despite this, though, I am not blind to the fact that it still very much exists. A church I went to as a child was attacked a few years ago by a (n insane? Just stupid?) gunman over it being too liberal, and that somehow was the cause of his unemployment. It was more "liberal" in his mind because of its acceptance of homosexuals and not race, but still.
The hate is still present here.