Counterpoint: the case against profiling

International Social Science Review, Fall-Winter, 2004 by Christina Fauchon

One of the most important factors to consider in arguing against racial profiling is the policy itself and the various societal impacts associated with it. It is impossible to measure the cost of alienating an entire race of people from society, and in no way can protecting the nation be used as an excuse for doing so. No benefits have been derived by targeting one race thus making the cost of such a policy unbearable. In fact, many terrorists have not been Arab, as in the case of the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, or Richard Reid, the airline passenger who hid explosives in his shoes. While racism may exist in society, it is the duty of the government not to promote it. Yet, profiling in airports does just that! Targeting people returning from Arab countries is one thing, but targeting Arabs in general is quite another. If the doors for profiling are opened, the stage is set for future legislation that could create a police state. It is impossible to know the extent to which profiling can affect the future, but no good result can come from it.

The Western world has often been seen as racist and unfair to minorities. Racial profiling confirms these charges. As Sunera Thobani, an anti-racist scholar, points out:

   While such profiling is being lauded as 'a valuable tool of law
   enforcement,' it brings to the fore the historically problematic
   relationship of color to Western Democracy. Racial profiling
   reveals, once again, the fundamental character of liberal democracy
   as a racialized project. (9)

It is the responsibility of democracy and freedom to refute these accusations. Racial profiling is a system that has not worked and cannot work. It impacts more than how people feel; it compromises their rights. More troublesome, it can fuel genocide and other horrendous crimes that civilized, democratic nations deem repugnant and should never tolerate.

ENDNOTES

(1) Donna K. Nagata and Wendy J.Y. Cheng, "Intergenerational Communication of Race-Related Trauma by Japanese-American Former Internees," American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 73 (July 2003):266. For details on the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and the push for an apology and reparations, see Peter H. Irons, Justice at War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983); Peter H. Irons, Justice Delayed: The Record of Japanese-American Internment (Middleton CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989).

(2) Michael M. Honda, "Japan's War Crimes: Has Justice Been Served?" East Asia: An International Quarterly 18 (Fall 2000):29.

(3) Deborah A. Ramirez, Jennifer Hoopes, and Tara Lai Quinlan, "Defining Racial Profiling in a Post-September 11 World," The American Criminal Law Review 40 (Summer 2003): 1195.

(4) Samuel R. Gross, "Crime, Politics, and Race," Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 21 (Winter 1997):416.

(5) Quoted in Ramirez, Hoopes, and Quinlan, "Defining Racial Profiling in a Post-September 11 World," 1195.

(6) U.S. Constitution, amend. 14, sec. 1.

(7) Randall Kennedy, quoted in Marthias Risse and Richard Zeckauser, "Racial Profiling," Philosophy and Public Affairs 32 (Spring 2004):144.