Racial and Ethnic Profiling

I was thinking back to a conversation I had with Matt Wade in May and I wanted to prove that racial and ethnic profiling doesn't work. Here's the relevant portion of the conversation:

I'm going to point out some flaws in Matthew's argument. First off, I'm not sure how he can tell Hispanics by sight. I wonder if his Hispanic radar is set off by mestizo Mexicans, black Dominicans, white Spaniards or Argentineans, or Indians from the mountains of Ecuador. But let's say he can smell Hispanics. How justified is he turning into a scared non-Hispanic white man?

It depends. First off, we shouldn't go into a PC frenzy by the fact that some racial and ethnic groups commit crimes at higher rates than others. We can accept those facts. However, there are better things to look at than race or ethnicity when deciding to guard yourself more closely.

Those things are appearance and behavior. For example, a group of Hispanics on a street corner with MS-13 tattoos would be cause for concern. Seeing me in church dressed in my choir robe singing beautiful songs about the Most Blessed Trinity as part of the choir would not be, even though I'm Hispanic.

Dealing with race as opposed to ethnicity, you can still make better informed judgments based on behavior. Take non-Hispanic blacks, who have the highest crime rate in the country. You can make a judgment of increased risk by observing them. A group of loud blacks in the ghetto with their pants hanging off their ankles is one thing, a group of well-dressed blacks at a black Republican conference is another.

Same thing with whites. If a white person looks like a thug you would be justified in guarding yourself and possessions more closely, while an intelligent, compassionate white man like me dressed in business casual clothes stopping at a gas station on my way to my call center job isn't likely to pose an increased risk.