Anne just forwarded an article from the Toronto Star about the experiences of a Canadian Indian woman traveling through U.S. customs. The U.S. Immigrations official at the immigration checkpoint in Chicago decided her passport looked “funky” and essentially offered her jail plus a several day wait to contact Canadian officials or a return trip to India. The suspicion is that the officer looked at her skin color, and looked at her last name, Cruz, and decided they didn’t match. If he had even the smallest clue, he might have known that there are many Christian Indians who take Christian last names. Many of those Christian Indians were influenced by the Portuguese presence in India, and therefore have Portuguese last names (this woman’s maiden name was Fernandez).

I hate this type of ignorance, and this experience and the fear of having this type of experience is why I’m against most types of simple profiling. Race was very likely a key factor in arousing the officer’s suspicions, and his ignorance resulted in the situation deteriorating to the point that it did. If we want to profile, if we believe all the terrorists fit certain profiles, then we should profile in depth. Airlines have to turn over ticket purchase information, they have to turn over passenger lists, and modern technology allows that to happen at the start of the often 6+ hour flight times of most international flights. There isn’t any need for this to happen.