Immigrant profiling

My interpretation of a post-racial society is a society in which individuals are dealt with based on their own right and not as representatives of a racial category.

This is a theory we still appear unable to transition into practice.

It was only 42 years ago, in 1969 (the same year the United States put a man on the moon), that the FBI, assisted by the Chicago police, assassinated a Black Panther leader named Fred Hampton.

Racial discrimination toward African-Americans continues to occur, although not in such extreme circumstances, in the form of what should be clearly recognized in the media and public forums as a mercantile form of class warfare.

Urban and inner-city schools constantly face struggles with budget cuts and threats of closure if they are unable to perform at state standards. The notion that a school should lose government funding simply because of low test scores is equivalent to healing a sprained ankle by stabbing the injured person with a small knife.

As more and more inner-city schools are shut down, African-Americans are forced to find alternative ways to provide a living for themselves and their families, mainly by enrolling in the military or getting involved in criminal activities.

Either way, the community suffers as more and more people are forced out of the classrooms and into prisons or military uniforms.

Perhaps the primary reason why America is unable to become a post-racial society today is the extremely popular anti-immigration rhetoric that occurs among politicians and television pundits.

Dangerous nationalist ideology combined with considering a certain group of people to be a threat simply based on their being of a particular racial category has left this country resembling a society more like Nazi Germany than a beacon of freedom and equality.

It seems that some Americans are quick to forget our nation’s history. Borders are artificial creations for political entities, not natural boundaries. What is now considered to be New Mexico and California was a part of Mexico until the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846.

A majority of anti-immigration rhetoric hides behind economic concerns. Of course, an open border would no doubt benefit both the United States and Mexico.

With multinational corporations, capital is able to move throughout the entire world in mere seconds.

The only chance for acquiring workers’ rights in countries that have not yet been able to formulate any kind of serious labor movement is for countries to allow open borders so that labor is able to mobilize itself and move away from countries with unfair and criminally dehumanizing working conditions.

An open border between the United States and Mexico will force U.S. corporations to stop exploiting the people of Mexico for cheap labor and will force the Mexican government to improve its labor policies so it won’t lose its work force to the United States.

Arabs, although not spared from racial discrimination in the past, have been under an enormous amount of criticism since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. This is true even though religious leaders in the Middle East were quick to condemn the attacks after they occurred, leaving the United States with a rare opportunity to create national ties that had been previously considered practically impossible.

Events like “National Burn a Quran Day,” “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” and demonstrations protesting the building of a Muslim community center located a few blocks away from the World Trade Center site have alienated many Arab-Americans who might be under the impression that their society is unwilling to accept their culture.

However, not all Arabs are Muslim of course, and not all Muslims are terrorists.

Culturally, the transition to a post-racial society does not have to be extraordinarily difficult.

Judging other human beings by their ethnic category instead of looking at them in their own right is an inappropriate and costly way to spend one’s short time here on Earth.

Institutionally, however, the transition might not be easy.

Corporations and governments benefit from populations of people turning against each other, and the more they are able to instill this fear and resentment of people who are not exactly like us, the more control they are going to be able to get their hands on.  


E-mail: mardunba@indiana.edu