Racial Profiling
Racial Profiling
Chapter 11 considers the controversial issue of racial profiling. Suppose that being a member of a certain racial group is a useful proxy for, say, an above-average probability that one engages in drug smuggling on transatlantic flights. Is it permissible for customs officers to discriminate against members of this racial group, i.e. by being more inclined to stop and search travellers with this particular racial identity? Obviously, most find racial profiling morally objectionable and perhaps even noninstrumentally wrong. The chapter argues that racial profiling is a form of statistical discrimination; that, like other forms of statistical discrimination, racial discrimination is not moral wrong per se; but that it is often wrong, and for interesting reasons.
Keywords: Racial profiling, statistical discrimination, G. A. Cohen, interpersonal test, unfairness, unequal treatment, social facts, noncomprehensive justification, Mathias Risse, Richard Zeckhauser
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