You must be this white to fly unhindered.

This blog may as well be a list of things that I disagree with my father on but I am too afraid to stand up to and say my beliefs. Here is another one: Racial profiling.

There seems to be an epidemic of little old ladies being molested by the airports as every argument for racial profiling goes like this: “Why are we checking little old ladies when Mr. Towelhead goes by without alarm?!”

My father brings up that Israel profiles everyone at airports, asks everybody questions and looks into everything that may be suspicious, “but we can’t do that here! That would be racist!!!” (This is also coming from the same person that thinks the knee-jerk reaction of putting in those body scanners is stupid, but the knee-jerk reaction of assuming all Arab/Muslim men are terrorists is perfectly acceptable).

No, dad, we can’t profile people based on race, religion, and ethnicity. Remember the 1960s? We CAN profile ALL people that are suspicious. Like the person flying halfway around the world, with a one way ticket paid in cash, with no luggage. You know, the shoe bomber and underwear bomber. Yes, look for things suspicious. Being Muslim/Arab isn’t suspicious.

Let’s see how racial profiling against dark-skinned men of non-Christian origins has failed:

The stockpiling of weapons by white Christians at Waco, Texas.

Renting a truck and blowing up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

The assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy and the assassination attempts on Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, a 1960 attempt on Kennedy, an 1861 attempt on Lincoln. (Truman's life was threatened by Puerto Ricans, therefore, dark skin could have prevented the attempt on his life!)

Several militia attempts to kill police officers and political figures.

Most US school shootings.

A Chinese man disguised himself as an elderly Caucasian man to flee from China.

The media whore party crashers.

The list can go on. The point is this, racial profiling is wrong. We should not judge someone on the basis of race, religion, or ethnicity, only suspicious activity.