Is There Anything Left to Say About Racial Profiling?

It’s the natural thing to do. ~FR

The George Zimmerman case, in which the special prosecutor signaled the Epitome of All Evil out for having “profiled” an unfamiliar 6’2″ young black male, has, as they say, Reignited the Debate over Racial Profiling. But is there any actual debate in terms of either side grappling with the other side’s arguments, rather than for one side to have the other side’s proponents fired?

For example, here is what I wrote in VDARE way, way back in October 2000 after listening to a Presidential debate in which Bore and Gush Gore and Bush denounced racial profiling. As iSteve readers, but nobody else in the whole world, will recall, Bush was particularly insistent that profiling of Arab and/or Muslim airline passengers as potential terrorists — “flying while Arab” — would be abolished by a new Bush Administration. And so it came to pass …
I went on to say in 2000:

This debate over racial profiling shows how utterly divorced American political discourse has become from personal reality. Every single person who lives in a diverse part of the country racially profiles every other pedestrian as he walks down the street at night. Jesse Jackson notoriously admitted that he does exactly that – and sighs with relief when he finds that the footsteps following him don’t belong to a young black male. 

Continue…

2012-04-22