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Tuesday, Jun. 04, 2002 - 3:26 p.m.
Racial Profiling

JonasParker:
It appears on the surface that this is a good idea checking out middle easterners living here is a good idea because of the very recent and very real attacks from there. That's fair enough. In the short term, some people will feel safer, some will think that their government is doing something effective and every day that there isn't an attack of some kind, people will be happy. Every time they prevent something from happening and parade it around the media, people will breathe more easily. And these are all very good things.

At the same time, once these policies are made public and are widely known (as they should be if they are to be implemented), it will seep into the everyday. Again, that could be a very good thing. Perhaps if they had listened to James Woods 9/11 may have happened differently. But more likely, people will start to look at middle-easterners more closely. Their M.E. neighbours will be less trusted than they already are. They may be hired less, less likely to get into higher education, and harassed by authorities more and more. All of this distrust seeps into the general populace gradually, systemically. M.E. people will get less chances in life. And Resentment builds.

And why stop with the M.E. peoples, and why stop with the big crimes? Might as well do that already with the small-crime threats. But that's already being done. Black communities in North America for example. Resentment in some of those communities sometimes reaches a fever pitch, and bad things can happen. It made sense for the store-owner to follow John around in the store; it made sense for the cops to stop Miguel in the park. But Resentment builds anyway.

So now we are caught between the threat of another large-scale and VISIBLE evil, or another potentially larger-scale but invisible one. In an extreme case, we would go back to something similar to centuries past in this part of the world, where minorities are formally prohibited from rising above a certain station in life; where their rights are severely curtailed and even where their lives are shortened through inadequate care. I know it sounds bizarre, but it used to be this way. Instead of a system that we have now where minorities, even though they have a tougher time here than non-minorities, can still do very well, we would have a system where only certain members of society can do well. A more twisted version of our current reality.

Yes, I am thinking very long-term. Yes, I am going to extremes. But some of these things happen even in the very short-term. Within days of the WTC attacks, four people were killed (in the US, 1 in Canada, I think) due to a perceived association with terrorists. When one perp in particular was asked why he did it, he just said that he was American. He clearly wasn't in his right mind then; I don't know if he ever was.

It's the choice between two evils that I fear. Status quo means staying more vulnerable. Employing these measures means potentially spreading a social disease of fear and mistrust. Seeing as how I think I will be on the receiving end of that fear and mistrust, I can't say that like my chances to come through better off.

But maybe there's a better solution, something we haven't thought of yet. I don't know.

There are some who obviously don't agree with me, and I understand. I really do. I hope you understand where I am coming from, too. These measures break my heart. An awful choice.

Brasidas: Well, Jonas, I think you've explained it very clearly: you understand the need to take measures, but you're afraid those same measures will contribute to a climate of fear and racism.

Before I say anything about the current situation, I think it's important to point out that this isn't the first time this fear has been raised. Back when the government was going after the Mafia, Italian-Americans claimed this would be a witch-hunt against their group.

The problem, of course, was the obvious one that the Mafia *was* an Italian institution.

But here's where I want to link this to now:

The reason the attack on the Mafia didn't become an attack on Italian-Americans is because Italian-American leaders themselves condemned the Mafia. Now, I grant you, some whined about stereotypes in the Godfather, etc, but many helped *fight* the Mafia, including brave Italian-American law enforcers who went undercover.

That has *not* happened with Islamic Americans. If you want to see Americans rally to defend their own citizens while still engaging in *perfectly reasonable profiling*, all you need to do is to convince some Arab-American leaders to go on television and say "MURDERERS! These are NOT my people...my people are the people who died in the WTC and the Pentagon, not the Satanic madmen who did the attacks in the name of God!"

That's all it would take.

Instead, what do we have? An Arab-American community endless b*tching about stereotypes, whining about profiles, talking about the grievances of Palestinians, blah blah blah.

I am sick to *death* of the Arab-American community, and I'm sorry if people's attitudes toward them are hardening, but if that's happening, it's *not* due to profiling, it's due to the limp response on the part of that community to 9/11.

Profiling is one issue. Racial tension is another. Most Americans understand that to profile is not to condemn an entire group. Arab-Americans don't seem to understand that, and instead of standing with their fellow citizens, have chosen to whine, equivocate, and rationalize.

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