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| The Slippery Slope of Racial
Profiling Nicole Davis ColorLines December 13, 2001 For the full article go to the URL given
below. "Before September 11 we had almost
succeeded in eliminating racial profiling, After September 11, it's a
whole new world," says Michel Shehadeh of the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in the western region. "One
thousand Arab Americans have already been detained and we don't know who
they are or what charges have been brought against them." Of those 1,147 Arabs
and Arab Americans who have been detained, exactly zero have been charged
with any formal offense in connection to the events of September 11.
This, however, has not slowed the pace of the detentions. What it has done
is give moral, political, and for the time being, legal sanction to stop,
search, and detain anyone who appears to be Arab. Prior to September 11, 80 percent of
Americans opposed racial profiling. Since that day, "There has been
an immediate reversal of public opinion," says Michelle Alexander of
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California. Polls
now show that 70 percent of Americans believe that some form of racial
profiling is necessary, and acceptable, to ensure public safety. New Terrain of Racial Profiling ------- The war on terrorism is creating a
similar dynamic. "The war rhetoric is giving license to law
enforcement to engage in racial profiling, just as it did in the war on
drugs. Both wars create a 'by any means necessary' attitude that
encourages law enforcement to target people based on race," says
Alexander. ------- Michel Shehadeh was profiled recently on
his way to Washington, D.C. He was pulled out of line at the Orange
County, CA airport, questioned, and searched. "It was done in front
of everyone's staring eyes," he says. "That made it a
humiliating experience. They want to give a message to non-Arab Americans,
that they're doing something about 'it.' This has nothing to do with
security." Although both President Bush and Attorney General John
Ashcroft have publicly condemned hate crimes against those who appear to
be Arab, the simultaneous hyperactivity surrounding national security has
sanctioned racial profiling. Passengers who appear "Arab
looking," which has included those who are South Asian and Latino,
have been asked to leave airplanes because both fellow passengers and crew
members refuse to fly with them. Sikh men have been denied the right to
even board aircraft because they refuse to fly without their turbans,
something Harmeet Dhillon, co-founder of the Sikh Communications Council,
equates with asking a woman to fly without her skirt. "It's
humiliating and degrading," she says. The profile of a
terrorist is a man in his twenties or thirties who comes from Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, or Pakistan. He probably lives in one of six states-Texas,
New Jersey, California, New York, Michigan, or Florida. And he is likely
to have engaged in some sort of suspicious activity, such as taking flying
lessons, traveling, or getting a driver's license. Meeting one of these
profiles is enough to get you questioned.-----------. "Racial profiling hadn't been an issue
for me before September 11," says Dhillon. "Now I'm confident in
saying that racial profiling of Sikhs is happening in every airport across
the country." The Sikh Coalition has documented 173 cases of racial
profiling or incidents against Sikhs since September 11. The Profiling Paradox The debates surrounding both the
effectiveness and the moral sanctioning of racial profiling have created
some dissonance for many communities of color. ------ "Talking
to the mainstream about racial profiling is hard," says Vaj.
"The excuse people give us is extreme times demand extreme measures,
whatever is necessary to catch the terrorists." Organizers at People
United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO) face similar concerns. ------- The debates around racial profiling have
also created tolerance in some unlikely places. Shehadeh does not believe
that racial profiling is an effective way to stop crime, nor that it will
prevent further attacks against the United States. Still, he believes that
some form of racial profiling is understandable in the current political
environment. "What we say is that racial profiling is not the answer.
Security for all is what's needed," says Shehadeh. "As Arab
Americans, we are tolerant of this phenomena because we understand,
because we're sensitive. But just for now." Like many Arab Americans, Shehadeh has felt an increased pressure to prove his patriotism in recent months, and is temporarily willing to put up with policies and actions that in the past have been unacceptable. But Shehadeh is not naïve about the root causes of recent U.S. domestic and foreign policy decisions. "The solutions of war and hate mongering tighten the grip of racism," he says. It remains to be seen how much tighter that grip will become, and what it will take to break it. Nicole Davis is a senior program associate
with the Applied Research Center.
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