Hello, Tom--

Did you follow the link far enough to read the statements of the actual people, 4 out of 5 of whom are US citizens, who became pariahs at airports because of their skin color? The links to PDF documents of their legal complaints are at the left. I hope that you weren't put off by the ACLU's connection with the cases.

These people complied with all the security issues but were still treated like dirt. The repercussions reached into their families and those of their same ethnic groups in their communities.

In an earlier example, I pointed out that a policeman looking for a criminal Ku Klux Klan member would be considered an idiot if he insisted that fifteen percent of his lineups be black people. Profiling is not wrong if an actual profile exists.

Profiling is a tool for investigation that has been used as an excuse for harrassment. It's been used in the Driving While Black pattern of traffic checks in New Jersey: black people allegedly are more prone to carry illegal weapons and drugs than white people. It's being used now. If law enforcement agencies use profiling to track people discreetly, that's one thing; when it's used to publicly humiliate individuals because of their physical characteristics or their mode of dress (not including fuses that stick out from shoes), that's another.

Your analogy of the criminal line-up falls short because, in a line-up, there has been an arrest which has had to meet a minimum set of evidentiary standards. In airport screenings, the only crime a person needs to have committed is to have purchased a plane ticket. As the statements of the plaintiffs illustrate -- remembering always that these are only those who felt empowered enough to file complaints -- evidentiary standards have been disregarded because of guilty skin color.

Spreading the burden to include people outside the profile is not only fair, but smart. Suppose, just suppose, a white person is the next terrorist. There are other agendas besides the Islamist agenda out there. Are our memories so short that we have forgotten Bader-Meinhof?

Spreading the burden of security -- I said it before, but I'll say it again -- makes it less possible to whisper, snicker and point at "those darkies over there acting suspicious", because all of us, regardless of complexion or size and shape of nose, will share in the lottery of random security checks. We can all sigh together in sympathy, or we can ostracize one group. We can prove that everyone is equal and that we're all in this together by our behavior.

This isn't just Mineta's issue, even though he did the lab. If our society restricts access to public services to any group of otherwise law-abiding citizens because their skin color is "scary", al-Qaida has succeeded in one of their aims: this will no longer be the land of the free nor the home of the brave.

Regards--
Mary Anne