Ben Eidelson: Liberals are Making the Wrong Case Against Racial Profiling
[Ben Eidelson is a graduate student in philosophy at Oxford University, where his research focuses on the ethics of discrimination.]
Watch one of the many cable news debates about racial profiling, and it will probably go something like this: First a pundit will ask why, if there are patterns in who attempts terrorist attacks, we shouldn't scrutinize some people more than others. Shouldn't we be looking for the next Faisal Shahzad or Mohamed Atta? Then the designated opponent of profiling will point out that Richard Reid — or Timothy McVeigh, or the Unabomber, or whoever else — looked nothing like Shahzad or Atta. From there the conversation will devolve into a contest to see who can name more terrorists, until at some point the segment runs out of time.
This is the debate over racial profiling that most Americans hear, but profiling opponents are foolish to play along with it. It doesn't clarify the moral issues raised by profiling, and it doesn't help to build a consensus against it. When these exchanges go badly for opponents, they simply play into the conservative narrative that liberals are beholden to a dogma of political correctness — ideologically committed to thinking that everyone is equally likely to be a threat, whatever common sense and experience may suggest. That impression is then eagerly exploited by the supporters of profiling, as in a Republican candidate's brazenly pro-profiling TV ad this week.
But even when critics of profiling "win" these debates, they leave behind gnawing questions. What if the frequency of some crime really is higher among one group than another? What if profiling is an effective response?...
This predicament reflects the fundamental mistake that racial profiling opponents have made. By allowing the debate to focus on whether profiling is rational, they've handed its supporters easy rhetorical victories. As another Fox contributor said of the Arizona law: "A lot of the critics are saying this is racial profiling. Duh! They're coming from another country!"
Arguing over the accuracy of racial profiling also obscures the deeper and more menacing moral problems with the practice. Arizona's new law, for instance, will ostracize innocent Latinos, entrench racial suspicions, and lend the government's endorsement to hostile stereotypes about who "looks American." It will serve as a regular and painful reminder to Latino Americans that, in the eyes of many, they don't belong in their own neighborhood. It will poison the interactions between citizens and the police who are supposed to protect them and whose salaries they pay. None of these concerns are undermined by the obvious fact that Latinos are more likely than others to be illegal immigrants....
Read entire article at Salon.com
Watch one of the many cable news debates about racial profiling, and it will probably go something like this: First a pundit will ask why, if there are patterns in who attempts terrorist attacks, we shouldn't scrutinize some people more than others. Shouldn't we be looking for the next Faisal Shahzad or Mohamed Atta? Then the designated opponent of profiling will point out that Richard Reid — or Timothy McVeigh, or the Unabomber, or whoever else — looked nothing like Shahzad or Atta. From there the conversation will devolve into a contest to see who can name more terrorists, until at some point the segment runs out of time.
This is the debate over racial profiling that most Americans hear, but profiling opponents are foolish to play along with it. It doesn't clarify the moral issues raised by profiling, and it doesn't help to build a consensus against it. When these exchanges go badly for opponents, they simply play into the conservative narrative that liberals are beholden to a dogma of political correctness — ideologically committed to thinking that everyone is equally likely to be a threat, whatever common sense and experience may suggest. That impression is then eagerly exploited by the supporters of profiling, as in a Republican candidate's brazenly pro-profiling TV ad this week.
But even when critics of profiling "win" these debates, they leave behind gnawing questions. What if the frequency of some crime really is higher among one group than another? What if profiling is an effective response?...
This predicament reflects the fundamental mistake that racial profiling opponents have made. By allowing the debate to focus on whether profiling is rational, they've handed its supporters easy rhetorical victories. As another Fox contributor said of the Arizona law: "A lot of the critics are saying this is racial profiling. Duh! They're coming from another country!"
Arguing over the accuracy of racial profiling also obscures the deeper and more menacing moral problems with the practice. Arizona's new law, for instance, will ostracize innocent Latinos, entrench racial suspicions, and lend the government's endorsement to hostile stereotypes about who "looks American." It will serve as a regular and painful reminder to Latino Americans that, in the eyes of many, they don't belong in their own neighborhood. It will poison the interactions between citizens and the police who are supposed to protect them and whose salaries they pay. None of these concerns are undermined by the obvious fact that Latinos are more likely than others to be illegal immigrants....