Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

An editorial in today’s New York Times cites a report by a special advisory committee to Governor Jon Corzine, which found that the New Jersey State Police have “improved training, revised their procedures and tightened supervision of troopers” since they fell under federal oversight in response to the racial profiling they practiced on that state’s highways. The profiling, which went on for years, came to light in 1998, when state troopers fired 11 shots at several black and Latino men who were traveling on the NJ Turnpike. 

According to the Times, the report found “persuasively” that “the state police have changed their ways,” which “demonstrates that vigilance and resources can root out systemic racism in law enforcement.” Thus, Governor Corzine has called for an end to federal monitoring.

This is all well and good, as far as it goes, but I (and I hope others) am deeply skeptical that “vigilance and resources” are the reason the state police have changed their ways. Doesn’t anyone at the Times remember the startling and stellar “Driving While Black (DWB)” ads of the NAACP? Or the outstanding work of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, which recently filed a lawsuit against Maryland troopers for similar profiling? Or the outcry from influential African-American leaders in communities throughout the nation?  Their involvement is what put the issue of racial profiling on the public radar screen, and it is what I believe is primarily responsible for keeping the topic, and the New Jersey State Police, under sustained scrutiny. 

If not for nonprofit and social sector groups, the denials of Christine Todd Whitman, New Jersey’s governor at the time of the 1998 incident, quite likely would have managed to smooth over the problem. Denial of the sort used by Whitman is something that has been happening since at least 1959, according to a book by Kenneth Meeks called Driving While Black: What To Do If You Are A Victim of Racial Profiling. 

Because of books like this and other educational initiatives, the DWB scandals have finally found recognition outside of the black community among a wider audience of Americans. Indeed, other racial and ethnic minorities have begun to assert that DWB actually stands for “Driving While Brown,” and Arab-Americans have coined another adaptation to cover their recent predicament, “Flying While Arab.”

The “Driving While Black” campaign is a great example of how media advocacy by nonprofit groups can motivate a complacent government to take action and ultimately create real social change.  So if the New Jersey states have truly reformed, thank the NAACP and the ACLU. 

--BONNIE