With prejudice here to stay, what is wrong with using racial profiling as a tool?

Question

Maybe I'm wrong, but I fail to see where racial profiling is showing prejudice. It is a tool to make our scanning for terrorists at airports and other places quicker and efficiently. an arabian person is MUCH MORE likely to be a terrorist. All arabs are not terrorists but MOST terrorists, at this point in time, have been arabs.

Answer 1

I agree that racial profiling should be used for security screening and crime. Cultural groups tend to share similar morals and mannerisms. As you stated, it's not that every member sharing some traits will have a particular trait, but the chances are better.

Racial profiling is already used in areas where it benefits the individual. For example, a study in Canada on AIDs identified gays men and people of Carribean decent as two groups were HIV infection is on the rise. So they are targeting these groups for prevention. It doesn't mean that all the people in that group are high risk.

My car insurance rates were higher when I was younger. That seems to be profiling. I may have been a better driver when I was younger, but because I was profiled in a group, insurance rates were higher.

So in the example that you identified, I would support a policy of say, people of Arab decent under the age of 50 will require a more scrutinous search at the airport. Please come 30 minutes earlier. Kind like my car insurance, a bit of a personal inconvenience, it doesn't imply any wrongdoing on the part of the indivudual and in the big sceme, makes sense.

Answer 2

Prejudice is by definition making an assumption about an entire group and then assuming that it applies to every member of the group.

Assuming that all terrorists are Arabic, and that all Arabs are therefore a greater terrorist threat, is prejudice by definition. They are being pre-judged as a threat, before they ever arrive.

But ignore the fact that racial profiling is illegal and a massive constitutional violation. Ignore the fact that it makes us no better than the people we claim to oppose.

The simple fact is that racial profiling takes resources away from general security and focuses them in one obvious place. And that creates weaknesses in the system that can be exploited.

If you want to implement racial profiling, or any other type of easily predictable security protocols, go ahead. But you're only guaranteeing that the next terrorist attack succeeds. Because wherever you choose to obviously focus your attention, the next real threat will come hidden from some other direction.

Answer 3

As a Caucasian, who are we to profile anybody. Remember the Nazi's did that against their Jewish population during the Third Reich.
You can train people who can look at others and detect suspicious behavior through their actions.
To suspect all Arabs as terrorists is like saying all Italians are in the mafia, which I'm not.

Answer 4

nothing wrong with it, but you'll hear about McVeigh - the WHITE GUY who blew stuff up- as the answer to why racial profiling won't work. What people don't know about McVeigh is that he was tricked by an Arab into thinking his domestic terrorism would trigger a race war.

Other than the white McVeigh , there no black/white/hispanic/asian terrorists.

Racial profiling is an effective tool which should be implemented as it is in MANY other countries. If you don't like it, don't fly.

Answer 5

The best answer I have heard to this issue is; profile people who are acting nervously/suspiciously.

People of color are going to have more reason to act nervous, since they know they tend to be targets of discrimination, so there will no doubt be more brown-skinned people pulled out of line than otherwise. But, if we train people to watch for types of behavior and body language, or for those being very carefully neutral, regardless of skin color, we'll probably have more success in finding people who have something to hide.

That essentially removes the issue of racial profiling, and has the additional merit of making good sense.

Your supposition that most 'terrorists' have been Arabic is incorrect. I apparently look Irish, and flying in/out of the UK used to get me pulled out of line and my luggage searched frequently. Even missed my plane once.

You are looking at a very short span of US history, ignoring non-Middle East related political issues, and ignoring the obvious fact that modern-day techniques to falsify documents and appearance can render profiling based on appearance useless.

Answer 6

that's confusing.. I agree, if there is that huge a way, that's purely straight forward sense to pursue those who ensue to be black extra. that's no longer racist, that's an similar as if for instance those with brown hair handed off to devote extra crime... similar component. yet for sure it would are available the time of as racist. although on the end of the day you'd be extra effectual in case you watch blacks for taking stuff than whites; yet you in basic terms can not attempt this. Watch everybody both, one among those minority white thief's would sometime take the most helpful component ever taken so that you cant in basic terms ignore white human beings... confusing as i reported ;P