By Emilia Benton

University students were given the opportunity to voice their opinions and ideas for fighting social injustice at the “Campaign Against Racial Profiling” event held last night in the Monroe Lecture Center Theater.

The presentation was moderated by King Downing, the national coordinator of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The ACLU is a nationwide non-partisan organization of over 300,000 members dedicated to preserving and defending the principles stated in the Bill of Rights. Downing works with the ACLU’s 53 affiliates throughout the U.S. to end racial, ethnic and religious profiling through public education, legislation, litigation and media awareness.

Downing is a graduate of Rutgers University’s School of Law and received his bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University.

The presentation was co-sponsored by various organizations including the Progressive Students Union (PSU), the Professional Organization in Speech Education (POISE), Malik fraternity, the National Association for Black Accountants (NABA), the Hofstra Organization of Latin Americans (HOLA), Nonsense magazine, Hofstra Concerts, the Office of Student Activities, the Muslim Chaplain’s Office and the Muslim Students Association.

Junior Michael Goldman, a management major and president of PSU, kicked off the event with an introduction speech.

“I hope the result of this presentation will be that students will feel more empowered,” said Goldman. “Mr. Downing and I both think that the point is to make changes not only here in the Hofstra community, but as a whole as well.”

Downing kicked off his presentation by questioning audience members on whether or not they had previously heard about being stopped for “driving while black,” “walking while black,” and “flying while black,” among others.

“The heart of our campaign is to prove who they [the police force] stops/pulls over and why,” Downing said.

Senior Sid Nathan, president of POISE, noted that he hoped people would attend the event because it is important for students to express interest and become educated on issues such as racial profiling.

“POISE is Hofstra’s only speech group, so the reason we got involved in sponsoring this event was to promote campus activism,” said Nathan.

Prior to beginning his speech, Downing provided various flyers and pamphlets with racial profiling statistics as well as tips and one’s rights when he or she is held for search and seizure. The flyers showed official statistics in which blacks and Latinos are searched two to three times more than whites, though whites more often actually had drugs or weapons on them. However, there are more blacks and Latinos in jail for these crimes than whites.

Downing continued by making his way throughout the room, offering the microphone to all the students that wished to share their opinions. One student commented that she felt the reason for this was that whites had access to better lawyers. While the majority of audience members expressed opinions that racial profiling is a serious problem, a small number commented that everyone has their own prejudices and that racial profiling is merely “embarrassing.”

“I came to this presentation because this topic sounded interesting to me and I was hoping to become aware of smaller things that I normally wouldn’t consider to be racial profiling,” said freshman Nicole Dyer, a dual Spanish/Linguistics major.

Freshman Lark Morgenstern was in agreement, noting that the subject of racial profiling is something that most students don’t often think about and it is not something to take lightly.

“I think it’s an important issue and a serious problem,” said Morgenstern. “It’s important for students to be conscious about what’s going on around them.”

Downing later showed a DVD of a Dateline documentary from NBC on racial profiling, which provided two scenarios that involved police officers searching two black citizens without sufficient evidence to do so. The audience then debated as to whether or not the officer was right in doing so.

Toward the end of the presentation, two students came forward and shared their experiences related to the subject of racial profiling. Junior Thomas Massey, a sociology major, told the audience about how he was stopped by a police officer in his own Brooklyn neighborhood without giving the officer a probable cause. He then went to the police station to complain about the incident, but was unable to file a report.

“I was very angry at the time that this happened. I grew up in that neighborhood, but before this incident, I had never personally felt like a victim of racism,” said Massey.

Downing then stressed the importance of going to a station to complain should you be searched unlawfully.

Nathan also commented on a personal experience that occurred the day after 9/11, in which he walked into a Stop and Shop store where someone called out to him, “Hey Osama, go back home.”

The flyers provided at the presentation included information for reporting complaints about racial profiling. The ACLU’s complaint hotline is 1-877-6-PROFILE and their Web site is www.aclu.org/profiling.

Downing asks students about their stance racism in the United States.