Originally Posted by PR_Tom

If only the Arab people from a flight where all passengers were NOT Arab were searched, I'd say it's racial profiling and racist by the common use of the word. Thats assuming no specific threat related to the flight.

So all the people, or the nervous looking people, or a certain age group, or something that makes real sense. But not "search all the Arabs on that flight".

Originally Posted by Mike33

It's a sticky question because one has to weigh rational profiling against racial profiling - sometimes they're one and the same, and sometimes not. Of all the high jackings in recent years how many were done by Arabs? But even better, how many of those highjackers led completely normal lives and would go undetected if security was simply searching people who "looked shady"? Maybe another question would be, if you were a passenger on that flight, would you be for or against the search since it is your safety that is in question? To take heat off Arabs for a moment let's ask what if a cross was found burning in front of a black person's house - what would the profile of the possible suspect look like? Remember that in these specific situations people don't necessarily have the opportunity to get to know who they're dealing with on an individual basis so perhaps some type of profiling is acceptable (nobody is having their rights taken away, just a quick search inconvenience and everybody is on their way). I would be curious to ask somebody of Arab decent if they would be for or against not only a brief search of themselves but other Arab passengers. I'm sure that everybody incuding Arab passengers don't want that flight to be their last.


As for the compisition of "races" - that won't change for a long time to come. The distribution might change but we're not all going to be brown people in 50years. In America alone there are 300 million "white people" (50 million which have "black" genes in them) and interracial marriages are relatively few. This is partly due to race/culture issues but also socio-economics, status, and proximity (you won't find many blacks in small all-white towns across the country and you won't find many whites in all black urban areas where the majority of blacks in the US are concentrated, so the chance of intermarriage is nil).

Originally Posted by $5 submissions

Racism = thinking that people who come from a certain place or share certain physical commonalities BEHAVE similarly.

Originally Posted by gregtx

I grew up in West Texas... there was no such thing as an Asian or Oriental.. just sleepy Mexicans...

Cory there is some new book out called "White Guilt"..

Originally Posted by CDSmith

Btw, I have no idea how the term "wop" was first associated with Italians.

Originally Posted by WEG Cory

You should open a rickshaw business in Dallas.

:1orglaugh

Originally Posted by Jace

Hating/disliking someone for the color of their skin is racism to me

I think people are WAY too sensitive these days with that shit though

Originally Posted by scottybuzz

what about hating people for their country? not just skin you know