Business environment assignment#3

The Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. represents a multinational hospitality company that was founded by Conrad Hilton in 1919 and has developed to be one of the largest franchises in the world. Headquartered at Tysons Corner in Virginia, the entire property portfolio is estimated to include in excess of 5,500 properties. As of 2017, the entire Hilton Empire accumulated revenue of up to $ 9.140 billion.

The DoubleTree Hotel in Portland is part and parcel of this empire. It is made up of two towers namely the Hilton Portland Downtown and the Duniway Hotel. When the original tower was completed in August 1962 after a number of objections from the Carpenters’ Union, it became the tallest building in the city standing at 70 meters tall with another 6 meters expected with the addition of the penthouse. The second Executive Tower was completed in 2002 making the hotel the largest in Portland with 782 rooms in total. Hotel competition in Portland Oregon is very stiff. There are a number of hotels within the area that are trying to outdo one another in pursuit of the limited number of customers either from within or tourists.

Currently, the DoubleTree Hotel if faced with a racial profiling issue. According to Conrad Wilson of the Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), a man accused the hotel of racially profiling him before calling the police. The man who was confirmed to be a guest at the premise highlights how he was racially profiled for talking on his phone in the lobby. Jermaine Massey, 34, explains how a security officer, Earl Meyers, 71, requested that he provide evidence that he was a guest at the hotel or leave the area. The two sides of the story indicate that the men disagreed leading to the arrival of the police. Investigations continue to try and determine the extent of this potential racial profiling incident.

The purpose of this research project is to investigate issues surround racial profiling in general. Racial profiling represents the act of specifically targeting or suspecting individuals of certain races on the basis of predetermined observed or assumed characteristics and behaviors of their racial or ethnic grouping instead of looking at the person individually (Horrace, & Rohlin, 2016). It is, therefore, paramount that business institutions and other relevant agencies find ways to ascertain the exact details before making such allegations. A proper framework of dealing with such occurrences needs to be put in place to avoid impending legal implications.

IDENTIFY TRIGGERING EVENT :

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), racial profiling is the practice by law enforcement officials of looking at people for suspicion of crime on the basis on where that person comes from in terms of nation of origin, their race, ethnicity and even religious affiliation (Donohue, 2017). Therefore, when this incident took place at the DoubleTree Hotel in Portland, the affected individual by the name Jermaine Massey felt that he had been discriminated against simply because he was a Black-American man.

The security officers’ actions couple with how Mr. Massey reacted to the situation by specifically posting a series of videos on social media, brought the whole issue to the attention of the public. The two figures struggled to prove who among them was right and they both claimed to have done nothing wrong. As a result, the hotels’ general manager had to put out a statement in which he blamed the whole issue on mere misunderstanding between the hotel and the guest. The statement further echoed the general culture of the DoubleTree Hotel in Portland, emphasizing that they do not discriminate against any individual or group. Another stakeholder that was affected by the issue is the Portland Police Bureau. According to its spokesman, they had reached out to Mr. Massey who acknowledged the situation was embarrassing to every party involved.

The series of events that led to the escalation of the issue cannot be ignored. A simple misunderstanding and lack of appropriate communication between the affected individual and the hotel security led to a number of responses in order to control the expected damage. The hotel management was quick to inform the public that this was an isolated event which did not reflect the culture of the company. The police were also able to give a statement in which they highlighted the notions of the parties involved and deemed the whole issue a misunderstanding.

The role of the hotel regulation agencies and other relevant institutions is to ensure these facilities offer hospitality on neutral grounds without any form of discrimination. There should be no requirement needed in order to access any premise. The only important thing is to ensure customer safety and guarantee customer satisfaction.

SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE:

The significance of racial profiling as both a form of discrimination and prejudice against an individual or a group of people based on their race or ethnicity cannot be underestimated. It is consequently important to note that its general impact does not stop at the individual level. It extends and casts its net hence a wider effect on the community as a whole. Specifically, its consequences damage the personal identity of the person or the community with a feeling of alienation and exclusion causing further instability (Horrace, & Rohlin, 2016).

Poor physical and mental well-being represents other significant effects associated with racial profiling. It directly affects their productivity negatively and reduces their life expectancy considerably. Therefore, the responsible agencies have a difficult task ahead. They have to ensure efficient and effective measures and guidelines are in place to ascertain total accommodation of all races. Encouraging racial diversity in every institution coupled with adequate education can help alleviate the problem.

ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE :

The economic significance associated with racial profiling illustrates that people have been sidelined from participating in economic and social development based on their race or ethnicity. Social exclusion and other economic disadvantages as a result of racial profiling have dominated the livelihoods of these communities for generations consequently denying them a chance to develop. As a result, mistrust between people leads to inciting hatred which in turn stops any kind of development in its tracks. It is therefore obvious that racial profiling has extremely negative impacts on the physiological and psychological welfare of a person and the community in which they dwell (Ward, & Menifield, 2017). Solutions to this menace should involve sensitizing the community on the importance of not judging others on basis of color and further having policies and strict legislations that will have severe sanctions on offenders.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE :

The impact of racial profiling on culture can be traced back as far as slavery. During this time, racial profiling was apparent in not only the criminal justice system, but also in the overall application of the law within the United States. At the time, racial profiling involved assuming the worst of people or an individual based on the biased perception of reality. The fact that skin color attracted discrimination meant that the perceived dominant cultures relegated the other “lower” placed ranks to a life of poverty, crime, poor health conditions, and drug addiction (West, 2017).

MORAL SIGNIFICANCE :

For a long time, both the community and the criminal justice system have ignored the issues surrounding cultural diversity and moral educating, therefore, the code of conduct that spells out the ethical issues that prevent racial profiling also ignored. As a result, prejudice dominates and produces distorted cognitions of the social reality further causing generalizations and the formation of negative social attitudes (Dhingra, 2018). Going forward, the principles used to distinguish between what is right and wrong depend on objective evidence and the evaluation and explanation of social entities.

SAFETY SIGNIFICANCE :

When it comes to ensuring the safety of both the individual and community, racial profiling assumes the role of an ineffective, distracting and generally detrimental figure. Instead of actual law enforcement to ensure safety, the security agencies become sloppy and lazy by substituting tangible policing with the use of suspect classification methods in law enforcement (Zhao, Lai, Ren, & Lawton, 2015). Given the situation caused by the role of racial profiling in ensuring the safety of both the person and the group, it is crucial that future proceedings be anchored objective signs of suspicious behavior rather than how people look.

LEGAL SIGNIFICANCE :

The use of race as a criterion in not only official engagements but also government decision-making has had a significant impact on the law. Targeting people or communities based primarily on their race instead of depending on more appropriate features or behaviors has hindered the justice system from fostering equality as mandated by the constitution. A number of lives have been ruined simply because they did not belong nor did something out of the norm (Vito, Grossi, & Higgins, 2017). Therefore, understanding that legal proceedings should abide by the ethical recommendations and ensure justice is free and fair should represent the future of law enforcement.

References

Donohue, W. A. (2017). The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union. Routledge.

Horrace, W. C., & Rohlin, S. M. (2016). How dark is dark? Bright lights, big city, racial profiling. Review of Economics and Statistics, 98(2), 226-232.

Vito, A. G., Grossi, E. L., & Higgins, G. E. (2017). The Issue of Racial Profiling in Traffic Stop Citations. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 33(4), 431-450.

Ward, J. D., & Menifield, C. E. (2017). Policing and Race. Public Administration Review, 77(2), 159-161.

West, C. (2017). Race Matters, 25th Anniversary. Beacon Press.