racial profiling
racial profiling. The law-enforcement practice of using race, national origin, or ethnicity as a salient basis for suspicion of criminal activity. • Originally, the term referred to the practice of stopping a disproportionate number of male African-American drivers on the assumption that they had a heightened likelihood of being involved in criminal activity. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the term was frequently used in reference to searching and interrogating Middle Eastern men at airports. — Also termed ethnic profiling; profiling.