Profiling
First of all, let me say that I consider myself to be a fair person when it comes to race and I wouldn't classify myself as a bigot or racist by any stretch of the imagination. I've always tried to show respect and love to any skin color or racial background. I wrote a little about this on my original blog but I haven't transferred it over to this one yet. The reason I bring that up again is because of what I'm about to say about racial profiling.
I don't think it's such a bad thing. While racial profiling might go against everything the ACLU stands for, it coincides quite nicely with common sense. Let me give you a down-home example of profiling from my own life. If I come home from work and my wife is working on the laundry downstairs, my son is playing on the porch, and my daughter is playing with her dolls in her room and I find a bunch of crayon markings on the wall, who do I think would have done it? Based on past experiences with each member of my family I'm fairly certain my two-year-old made the markings on the wall with a crayon.
When I was a youth pastor in Michigan, one evening after a significant snowfall, I descended from my mobile home to find my car was excessively covered in snow. My mind considered the usual suspects...
Was it unfair of me to jump to those conclusions with my daughter and those teens? Should I have interrogated anyone who could have done it, such as my wife and my pastor? It would have been disrespectful if I questioned them, "Pastor, did you cover my car with snow?" or "Steph, did you write on the wall with a crayon?". Past experience taught me maybe not who to accuse but at least who to question.
Let's consider racial profiling. On a practical, everyday level I would imagine everyone would approve of racial profiling. If you don't approve of it, tell me what you think after you're randomly searched in a subway or airline terminal. You'll probably say to the handsy, uniformed official, "Why did you pick me? I'm a white guy. I don't fit the profile." It won't take you long to be an advocate for racial profiling once a couple thugs with badges and cold fingers violate your personal space.
If you're not guilty or you don't look like you did anything wrong you should have nothing to worry about. The Brazilian who got whacked in London should have known better than to flee but shame on the police for what they did. It's an unfortunate situation.
Profiling happens so get over it and get on with life. It doesn't mean that ever two-year-old writes on walls with crayons, every teenager plays immature pranks, every guy who drives a red sports car loves to speed, or every blonde is an airhead. But, if you have some crayon on your wall or a bus blows up you know who to talk to.
I don't think it's such a bad thing. While racial profiling might go against everything the ACLU stands for, it coincides quite nicely with common sense. Let me give you a down-home example of profiling from my own life. If I come home from work and my wife is working on the laundry downstairs, my son is playing on the porch, and my daughter is playing with her dolls in her room and I find a bunch of crayon markings on the wall, who do I think would have done it? Based on past experiences with each member of my family I'm fairly certain my two-year-old made the markings on the wall with a crayon.
When I was a youth pastor in Michigan, one evening after a significant snowfall, I descended from my mobile home to find my car was excessively covered in snow. My mind considered the usual suspects...
- the Good Lord saw fit to relocate the snow from my driveway to my car
- my 75 year-old neighbor, who was in Florida, flew back for this occasion
- the pastor whom I was working with must have been retaliating for something I said or grief I caused him
- a couple of teens from the youth group were playing a prank on me
Was it unfair of me to jump to those conclusions with my daughter and those teens? Should I have interrogated anyone who could have done it, such as my wife and my pastor? It would have been disrespectful if I questioned them, "Pastor, did you cover my car with snow?" or "Steph, did you write on the wall with a crayon?". Past experience taught me maybe not who to accuse but at least who to question.
Let's consider racial profiling. On a practical, everyday level I would imagine everyone would approve of racial profiling. If you don't approve of it, tell me what you think after you're randomly searched in a subway or airline terminal. You'll probably say to the handsy, uniformed official, "Why did you pick me? I'm a white guy. I don't fit the profile." It won't take you long to be an advocate for racial profiling once a couple thugs with badges and cold fingers violate your personal space.
If you're not guilty or you don't look like you did anything wrong you should have nothing to worry about. The Brazilian who got whacked in London should have known better than to flee but shame on the police for what they did. It's an unfortunate situation.
Profiling happens so get over it and get on with life. It doesn't mean that ever two-year-old writes on walls with crayons, every teenager plays immature pranks, every guy who drives a red sports car loves to speed, or every blonde is an airhead. But, if you have some crayon on your wall or a bus blows up you know who to talk to.
posted by Matt Book at
10:09 AM
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