[Article] “We Attract What We Profile.” What Are You Profiling?….Lies of the BLM Exposed!!!

Definition of profiling:

The act or process of extrapolating information about a person based on known traits or tendencies.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/profiling

Racial profiling has been a hot, controversial topic in past years, coming to a head with the Rodney King beating in 1991 and the 2009 Oscar Grant incident in Oakland, California. The 2013 Ryan Coogler movie Fruitvale Station documented the tragic final hours of Grant, a young man senselessly killed by a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police officer.

Without fail, this subject evokes emotionally charged discussions and debates from my students at the continuation schools and correctional facilities where I provide counsel and facilitate workshops. With some not even saying a word, you can see, and even feel, the deep-seething dislike and hatred for law enforcement.

Negative encounters with law enforcement have left emotional scars and have birthed deep-rooted beliefs that most, or all, police are either racist, corrupt, or both. The current narrative being pushed by the liberal social media platforms is that law enforcement is bloodthirsty predators, searching the “hood” for minority prey, to satisfy their relentless, insatiable appetites for power.

As a youth, I once shared this belief. I obtained this viewpoint through the encounters my friends and I had, getting pulled over and followed by law enforcement or security. We often heard things like “What gang are you from?” “Are you on parole?,” “Are you going to purchase anything?” Offended, my friends and I would rant about these “racists.”

At the age of seventeen, I had a negative encounter with law enforcement which just reinforced my beliefs and dislike for law enforcement at that point in my life.

This negative experience was sparked by an arrest which was prompted by my friend and me being profiled as suspects for multiple armed robberies. A mistaken identity case was eventually resolved; however, my ill feelings at that time for the police weren’t. I felt entitled to receive an apology from law enforcement, but that never happened.

I remember an older family member, a black-male professional, challenged me one day as I vented the story of my arrest. He abruptly pointed out my attire, saying “Look at how you’re dressed. You stop looking like a thug, you might find the police will stop treating you like one.” He was basically telling me that I was attracting what I was profiling. I admit, I did not want to hear that at that time, but the bluntness of his words resonated deep within me, to the point where I was unable to shake it out of my psyche.

As a side note, the following is some factual data to debunk a lot of the untruth, regarding racial profiling and police brutality against minorities. Again racial profiling and abuse does happen, however, not at the level it’s being presented by the mainstream media and the extreme liberals.

Here is the Truth:

999 people were killed by police in 2019. The majority killed by police were White. Here is the official break down of the deaths by police for 2019:

White: 404
Black: 250
Hispanic: 163
Other: 41
Unknown: 141
Source: (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/)

*majority of these killings have been investigated and documented as justifiable lethal force.

It eventually compelled me to start the process of truthfully analyzing my belief system by having an in-depth mental conversation with myself.

When I started reevaluating the situation from a big picture perspective, I began to see clear as day some irrational beliefs and logic trapped within my mind.

When I really honestly thought about it, without saying it, my friends and I were trying to look like thugs and criminals. Why? Because many of the rappers we admired and saw on the videos and in the magazines were. It was very apparent that they had the riches and the pretty girls while profiling themselves to be criminals and thugs.

So naturally, we made it our goal to have the pretty girls see us as criminals and thugs. Through this new progressive movement that was being promoted by the entertainment industry in the late ’80s, many girls were growing an affinity or lust for the thug and type.

Videos like Janet Jackson’s Nasty Boy were conveying to my peer group that pretty girls were bored with the clean-cut schoolboy, and they were now looking for the “roughneck” with an impressive criminal portfolio. I discuss this in detail in my book Thug Mentality Exposed.

Now at the time, none of us would have said out loud that we wanted to look like criminals and thugs, because then we would appear as “wannabes,” right? Nobody wants to be a “wannabe.” But the truth was, we were.

I was brought up with good Christian values. I was no angel now, but I had a healthy fear of God. I was a borderline average student and I had set the goal of becoming a photojournalist at the age of fifteen. However, going through this adolescent phase, sparked by the music industry, my friends and I still wanted to look like thugs and criminals in order to look intimidating, which we believed would also earn us instant respect from our peer group and any rival peer groups.

Now back to that conversation I was having with myself:

I asked myself, “Is it wise to look intimidating to other peer groups?” My new answer after analyzing it was “no,” realizing intimidation can put others on the defense immediately, through fear, which can instigate a violent and even deadly situation. I’ve had numerous individuals from my peer group as a youth get seriously injured, incarcerated, and even killed from using intimidation tactics, which got way out of control.

Then I asked myself, “Do I really want a girlfriend who wants a boyfriend that’s a thug?” Why would I want to be with an individual who admires and is attracted to a thug or gangster who prides and boasts of themselves being a bully and predator of society?

I came to the conclusion that it would be illogical to want to be with a girlfriend who admired and embraced a guy with corrupt and immoral values. If I married her, would these be the type of values I would want to be taught to our children? Of course not.

And lastly, I would ask myself, “What would I have to gain emulating the diabolical traits of gangster entertainers? In my heart, I knew I would never permit my daughter to date individuals with this character, so why would I want to emulate such behavior? My answer to the question, nothing, but negative consequences and a contaminated and guilty conscience.

Again, here I was trying to portray myself as a thug and a criminal; however, I was deeply angered and offended by law enforcement and security for profiling me as a thug and criminal. As a retired peace officer for the California Department of Corrections, I know that peace officers are trained in the academy, the skill set of identifying trait profiles of the criminal and gang nature, for the purpose of preventing a criminal and violent incident for the purpose of keeping the community safe.

My final analysis– I was attracting what I was profiling. I was profiling exactly what law enforcement were trained to be on the look out for. I made the decision to start the transformation of my personal profile, starting with my clothing, then gradually distancing myself from negative members in my peer group.

33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

1 Corinthians 15:33

The impact of my transformation was fast and effective. My view and encounters with law enforcement did almost a 180-degree change from negative to positive. Now, this does not negate my belief that there are some officers who profile others with immoral motives and preconceived beliefs, thus responding to those they have profiled with unprofessional and immoral behavior. Regardless of the laws and our constitution, this is often an uncontrollable factor, meaning that when an injustice like this happens, one can only seek justice afterward.

The fact is immoral people manipulate their way into all forms of employment, including law enforcement. Should we report it? Absolutely, but how can individuals attempt to safeguard themselves from negative profiling by law enforcement? In my personal life, I discovered the most effective way, was to remove myself as far as I could from any equation or situation which appeared negative. Again, that meant if I’m being profiled as a thug–stop dressing, walking, and wearing hairstyles like a thug.

I have since gained a mature understanding that just like everyday civilians, you have good law enforcement officers and you have bad ones. I don’t believe it’s fair to paint with a big brush the immoral and or illegal actions of those operating unethically outside the system on the entire system.

I hear my old words and thoughts being reverberated through the youth and young adults I work with today. As the thug and gangster culture continues to become more popular and embedded in fashion, such as sagging pants, prison culture tattoos, hairstyles, etc., it’s often getting more and more difficult to get them to see the big picture. Many are clueless that their participation in this culture is profiling them out of the job market. Thus, bringing discouragement, which often eventually leads them into unhealthy, unproductive, and criminal behavior.

My mission is to convey to the youth that “we attract what we profile,” for example, if I want a job in a professional workplace, with professional pay, then I’m going to the interview dressing, speaking and presenting myself professionally. Companies are profiling for prospects who are professional to hire.

We all profile for relationships, whether for friendships or marriage. We desire to fit the profile of the one we are attracted to, in a hopeful attempt that they might be attracted to us. One might use attire, a hairstyle, and fragrance/cologne to attempt to cultivate that attraction, in order to fit within the profile that the other individual is desiring.

Keep in mind that criminals are always profiling for victims, such as a pimp is profiling for traits that will make a submissive prostitute. Gang members are profiling for rivals to victimize or youth to recruit into their gang.

Having knowledge and an understanding of what others are profiling for can make the difference in being the victim or the victor. Sadly, many innocent non-gang-related individuals have been killed by wearing the wrong color in a rival gang’s neighborhood, due to the fact that they were profiled as being from a rival gang. Bottom line, we must pray to God for wisdom, so we can be mindful of what we profile in every area of life, because “we will attract what we profile.”