Racial Profiling - How Does Profiling Make One Feel?

Racial Profiling is a controversial issue that has become more prevalent in the United States since the events of September 11, 2001. Inside the issue, there are questions of whether it is justifiable in any case, as well as when it occurs. The definition of racial profiling really is subjunctive; each person asked to define it will more than likely have a different answer. According to dictionary.com, profiling is "the use of specific characteristics, as race or age, to make generalizations about a person, as whether he or she may be engaged in illegal activity". In the two stories "Everything isn't Racial Profiling" and "Close Encounters with U.S. Immigration", the author's share the same experiences of being foreigners traveling to the United States, and being questioned about their intentions. However, each author experience differs, as do their opinions about them.

In her story "Everything isn't Racial Profiling", Chavez says that while she's opposed to racial profiling, she's not in opposition of requiring airlines to pay more attention to passengers who are boarding planes-including paying attention to nationality. What she is opposed to is the unjust profiling that occurs when an African American person is pulled over for no particular reason, while many white citizens are speeding right on by the policemen. The assumption that someone is more likely to commit criminal acts because of the color of their skin is "morally wrong, and ineffective." Chavez also says it wouldn't make sense to check all people that didn't fit the profile of a particular suspect. It would be a complete waste of time and effort to check those who obviously did not apply.

Chavez seemed annoyed by all the extra scrutiny that she had to endure, but she understood why she had to go through it. Due to the fact that she was of Middle Eastern descent, and terrorism has been high, with more and more of the activity coming from females, she knew that by paying more attention to her than say the white passengers boarding the plane, that airport security was doing their job. She feels safer as an American knowing this.

In "Close Encounters with U.S. Immigration", Khan has a completely different attitude about racial profiling. As a Muslim citizen of Canada crossing into the United States, Khan endured a more intense form of profiling. He was taken into an interrogation room for three hours, where he says he was "made to feel like an unwanted outsider, as if I were guilty of some heinous crime and it was now my responsibility to prove my innocence". Khan described the interrogation room as having "the cold sterility of waiting rooms at American border crossings where towering models of the Statue of Liberty singe the ceilings and the depressingly happy faces of missing children stare out from dingy bulletin boards". With this statement, it becomes increasingly more apparent to readers that he is unhappy with his experience, and with the United States as a whole. He only stayed in the United States for a few hours after dealing with such interrogation at the border, and made it a point to note that upon returning to Canada he was only asked how long he had been in the States, and if he was bringing goods back in.

Chavez was asked to step off a plane from Switzerland to be questioned about items in checked luggage because of her appearance. Another instance occurred when she was leaving Israel, when security almost did not let her board after being questioned for an hour. It took another passenger who was boarding the plane who had recognized her from newspapers to vouch for her. She mentions an embarrassment of having to go through the questioning in front of other passengers, despite her innocence.

Khan is utterly annoyed and disgusted by what he endures crossing the Canadian border, and seems to think that the United States is being too cautious. Chavez is annoyed as well, but isn't angry do to what she has to go through to enter the country. Both understand the terrorism concern, and hate that more attention is paid to them in comparison to other people entering the country. Both had very valid, urgent needs to come to the United States, and they reacted differently to the treatment they received and the problems they had trying to do so.

The varying situations and experiences that occurred between these two authors is proof of the fact that each opinion of profiling differs from the next. How these authors feel about what they dealt with as people with a legitimate purpose in the United States is completely understandable. As American citizens, we can sympathize with having somewhere to be and a reason to be there, and being held up for no good reason. It is truly sad to see that because of the bad actions of a few people, the rest have to suffer, just for sharing a common factor with them.

Sources:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/profiling

The Brief Bedford Reader by X.J.Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron., 2006; "Close Encounters with US immigration" by Adnan R. Khan, pgs 464-465

The Brief Bedford Reader by X.J.Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron., 2006; "Everything isn't Racial Profiling" Linda Chavez, pgs 469-471