Monday, August 15, 2005

Round up the (insert ethnic group here)

If Americans want profiling, I say give them profiling.

Just remember to apply it across the boards. For example:

(1) That nasty list circulating on the Internet says six of the ten worst landlords in NYC are Jewish. Shouldn't the Housing Authority be puting all Jewish landlords under the microscope?

(2) Tax evasion is, primarily, a white man's crime. So let the IRS focus on white people instead of wasting their time and our money reviewing tax returns submitted by other ethnic groups.

(3) Both US presidents who were impeached came from southern states. Logic therfore demands that all presidents from the south be subjected to closer scrutiny.

Are my proposals ridiculous? You bet. And ransacking exclusivlyArab suitcases in airports is every bit as rediculous, and for the same reasons.

You see, here's the little fact profile-lovers can't seem to wrap their sheet-covered heads around: More than 3 million Arab-Americans live in the United States. Even if 500 of them are terrorists-in-training more than 99.99 percent of Arab-Americans are no more connected to terrorism than is the bluehaired Jewish lady from Boro Park who uses a walker to get around.

Like the average NYC landlord, the average white man, and the average US president, the average Arab hassled at an airport is not a criminal, and should not be molested.


[Cartoon courtesy of Mis-Nagid]