¶ … attacks of September 11, 2001 spawned a number of dubious government actions, including the intensification of racial profiling to target Arabs and Muslims. This means that a certain section of American society is under immediate suspicion of terrorism simply for being of a particular race or religion. Tolerance and equality are two of the highest principles treasured by the United States and its inhabitants. The fear and suspicion cultivated by racial profiling, especially after September 11, represents an abomination of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution to all within American borders.
To suspect millions of law-abiding, innocent people of terrorism as a result of the actions of a handful, is like suspecting all white males of perversion as a result of a few perverted serial killers. It is illogical and causes more harm than good.
There are many actions that are helpful in preventing terrorism. Immigration laws for example can be tightened. Airport searching systems can be upgraded. All of these protection systems can be upgraded without having to resort to racial profiling.
Racial profiling furthermore breeds suspicion and distrust within the American nation (Harris). Americans distrust each other on the basis of, as mentioned above, religion and race. This more than any act of terrorism from the outside, is destroying the "way of life" the President is trying so hard to protect.
A further aspect of the issue is that the government is disproportionately increasing its own power while infringing upon the freedoms and rights of the American people. While the shock of the terrorist attacks makes this almost acceptable to many Americans, others suffer unnecessarily because of it. In this way the government also becomes the enemy. One wonders where such hysteria will end. A chilling thought is that the terrorists may have succeeded in their effort to create chaos in the hearts of freedom-loving Americans.
Bibliography
Ambrose, Thomas. "Profiling's place on Sept. 11." Insight on the News, Sept 16, 2002. News World Communications, Inc., 2002.
Derbyshire, John. "At First Glance - Racial profiling, burning hotter." National Review, Oct 15, 2001. National Review, Inc., 2001.
Elvin, John. "Antiterror tactics spark differences of opinion." Insight on the News, Feb 4, 2003. News World Communications, Inc., 2003
Harris, David. "Flying while Arab: lessons from the racial profiling controversy." Civil Rights Journal, Winter, 2002. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2002.
Johnson, Scott. "Better unsafe than (occasionally) sorry?." American Enterprise, Jan-Feb, 2003. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 2003.
