2008 Woodie Awards
Airport Security: Too quick to profile based on a passenger's race?
Point-Counterpoint
Henry Kaufmann
Issue date: 10/11/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Profiling at airports is a thing of the past
When you walk through the lobby of an airport, the last thing you want to see are three guys dressed in black wearing sunglasses.
They might be waiting anxiously to board the next flight, your flight. You then see a blonde female waiting patiently to board the same flight. As your skepticism takes hold, who do you feel is more threatening?
Safety on airplanes is crucial. I think a little police policy is necessary to ensure safe traveling consistently every time. However, ethnic or racial profiling will always be discriminatory. I think that if there is a certain profile to keep an eye on, it's going to be the one that is a threat regardless of race.
Appearances, accents and behaviors are cultural. If we attach that culture to terrorism, we need to see if this individual from that culture is a terrorist. Even now, electronic tickets bought by individuals are examined for terrorist connections when they are purchased.
So when those three guys with the sunglasses dressed in black are later revealed to be traveling musicians, the issue of ethical fairness comes into play.
Just think, if the athletic woman in the front row holding an envelope with an ounce or so of white powder decides to throw it into the ventilation system, what happens to the idea of racial profiling?
I think that racial profiling has been a problem in the past but in recent years people have grown out of this mindset. These days they are more geared toward finding the criminals and that person's race is becoming less of an issue.
When you walk through the lobby of an airport, the last thing you want to see are three guys dressed in black wearing sunglasses.
They might be waiting anxiously to board the next flight, your flight. You then see a blonde female waiting patiently to board the same flight. As your skepticism takes hold, who do you feel is more threatening?
Safety on airplanes is crucial. I think a little police policy is necessary to ensure safe traveling consistently every time. However, ethnic or racial profiling will always be discriminatory. I think that if there is a certain profile to keep an eye on, it's going to be the one that is a threat regardless of race.
Appearances, accents and behaviors are cultural. If we attach that culture to terrorism, we need to see if this individual from that culture is a terrorist. Even now, electronic tickets bought by individuals are examined for terrorist connections when they are purchased.
So when those three guys with the sunglasses dressed in black are later revealed to be traveling musicians, the issue of ethical fairness comes into play.
Just think, if the athletic woman in the front row holding an envelope with an ounce or so of white powder decides to throw it into the ventilation system, what happens to the idea of racial profiling?
I think that racial profiling has been a problem in the past but in recent years people have grown out of this mindset. These days they are more geared toward finding the criminals and that person's race is becoming less of an issue.
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