January 4, 2010 – Profiling

What do I know from profiling? Almost every time I go abroad I do something wrong, like forget to sign the customs form in the right place or cough too much or say something stupid and wind up getting more than a once over, while people who look suspicious to me waltz past me to the luggage. One time I waited forever for Ezi to get searched because his back brace set off the alarm. So my idea of profiling is a bit skewed. And when some American asked me – the day I got there – what I thought of profiling about 10 years ago, I said “wonderful!” He turned around and walked away. For years after that I would examine and reexamine my answer. It must be awful to be picked out of a crowd because of your race. What is really needed is careful individual evaluations by trained, intelligent people.