Headline: PROFILING GIVES US A FIRST IMPRESSION, BUT NOT A LASTING ONE
Reporter: By Greg Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Thur., Nov. 1, 2001
Section: METRO, Page: B1, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

I'm guilty of racial profiling.

If you're honest with yourself, you're guilty of it, too. In fact, it's just about impossible for anyone to look at someone else without doing it to some extent. I'm suspicious of those who say that they don't. They're like the people who say they never notice a person's color. Huh? Could you have a conversation with someone for 10 minutes, walk away and never realize that the person you were talking with was black or white? That's doubtful.
   
All of us profile to an extent. If I see a white man downtown in a suit and tie carrying a briefcase, my first impression is that he's a businessman. If I see a white man with his head shaved wearing a leather jacket, blue jeans and black combat boots, my first impression is that he's a skinhead.
   
I could be way off base with both assumptions. The first guy could be a dealer with drugs in his briefcase, for all I know. The second guy could simply be a rocker.

Of course, it really doesn't matter what my first impression is of these folks. What matters is what I do with that information.

Racial profiling is in the news again because of the attacks Sept. 11 on the United States. Not only are Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent being profiled, some wags -- like syndicated columnist Mona Charen -- are even suggesting that Arabs in this country be forced to leave, and that citizens of Middle Eastern origin be given "some scrutiny."
   
That is going way too far.

Profiling offers a simple, first impression under which assumptions are made. But you can't make wise decisions based on assumptions.

A month ago, I wrote about a Sikh woman -- an American citizen -- who went to the Creve Coeur post office to mail a letter. The woman wore a head covering, as is traditional in the Sikh religion. When she got out of her car, a woman who was standing nearby started screaming at her. The Sikh woman was so frightened she got back in her car and drove away.
   
First, Sikhs are not Muslims. Theirs is an entirely different religion. But even if she had been a Muslim, what happened made no real sense. The Sikh woman was as American as the woman screaming at her. And the fact that Osama bin Laden was Muslim should have made no difference. Had Timothy McVeigh been Catholic, would that have given anyone the right to scream at any and all Catholics?

For most African-Americans, being profiled is a way of life. About a month ago, an African-American friend who's a businessman recounted his days growing up in St. Louis in the 1960s. He and a few friends would walk to school and home each day. Every few days or so, as they were walking, the police would detain them. The officers would ask them where they were going and, on occasion, search them. They were good kids and never had anything illegal on them, and the cops would then let them go. "We thought that was normal, " he said. "We just assumed it happened to all kids."
    
Since Sept. 11, more than one African-American has expressed some relief at not being in the suspect group, at least for now.

But just as simple profiling by police is a lazy form of police work, being rude or violent toward people who outwardly appear to be Islamic or Middle Eastern can be a lazy way of sizing up people, especially if we make decisions entirely because of someone's appearance.
    
Our skin color isn't a matter of our choosing.
     And more often than not, we tend to choose the religion that our parents chose for themselves. Neither is a predictor of how we think or how we behave.

We can't help but profile people. We notice things about people, and some features stand out more than others to us.
    
The key is teaching ourselves to take a closer look, a deeper look. What we find beneath the surface is often quite different from what we assumed at first blush.

COPYRIGHT © 2001, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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