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McNaughton: Profiling never acceptable

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By Angelique McNaughton

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Land of the free, home of the brave. All men are created equal. These are just a few phrases that are often used to describe the freedom that is experienced here and that is desired by so many. But has this and does this always hold true? And if it doesn’t, why is that? We all know that immigration and the presence and status of non-white Americans has always been an issue. Within the past six years since Sept. 11, people and politicians alike have continued to express their concern regarding the presence of immigrants and minorities in the United States, or rather the presence of illegal immigrants.

The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and then the war in Iraq has further heightened Americans’ awareness of those around them, mainly minorities and immigrants. As a society, we tend to focus on certain aspects pertaining to who commits these heinous acts and other various crimes. Those aspects include race, gender, religion and place of birth. As logical as that sounds, I remember reading about the tragic events that happened at Virginia Tech. As the identity of the gunman was made public, I kept thinking to myself, “They need to quit identifying him as a South Korean immigrant.” As important as that is to the police and maybe even the families, the public does not need to know that. People focus on nationality and race enough without the media’s help. All that does is to further cloud the already-mixed thoughts and feelings that Americans harbor toward immigrants and minorities.

More recently, the deaths of three Newark college students has brightened the light that has always been focusing on another group of immigrants, Hispanics. Two of the suspects are illegal Hispanic immigrants. What is inconceivable to me is that amidst all these tragic events and loss of young life, cold-hearted politicians have used those events as leverage in their political campaigns to promote support for anti-immigration and stricter border policies. If they are going to fight for stricter border control and policies, use something other than those deaths to do so.

By labeling the suspects as illegal Hispanic immigrants, it again focuses on nationality. You often hear about violent crimes in which people are mutilated and murdered by a loved one. A man in Kansas City dropped his sick and elderly wife off of a balcony, but the media didn’t identify the man as being the white suspect from Kansas City.

Although I’m not the biggest advocate of deportation and strict immigration policies, that to me is not the issue at hand. The issue is how the media’s labeling further perpetuates these anti-immigration feelings that are harbored by so many. Last year in my ethics class, I discovered that many of my fellow classmates here at KU felt negatively towards Hispanic immigrants. As a Mexican-American student on a Minority Scholarship, I remember being particularly offended when a student expressed that they were not fond of the idea of scholarships being ‘handed’ to students just because they are minorities.

All these feelings of malcontent that are used in political campaigns are being passed on to the younger generations. If you do agree with stricter border policies, do so for a logical reason, not because you’re afraid of everyone from the Middle East or because you don’t like the fact that Jose can’t speak English muy bien.

McNaughton is a Topeka junior in journalism.

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Comments

McNaughton: Profiling never acceptable

I won't profile by race, nationality or gender as long as you don't profile when selecting a sexual partner.

McNaughton: Profiling never acceptable

Hey... Is the town still blurry?

"Land of the free, home of the brave. All men are created equal. These are just a few phrases that are often used to describe the freedom that is experienced here and that is desired by so many. But has this and does this always hold true? And if it doesn’t, why is that?"

Why are you asking me questions? You're the columnist.

Overall, I agree with the point you are making, but the article is just pointless. You basically just are saying "profiling is bad." Profiling IS bad. It's necessary to say (as you always notice) that a person is a white male, etc., when they are being looked for as a criminal. I realize what you are trying to say, but at times, it is necessary to maybe try and write it a little better...

McNaughton: Profiling never acceptable

while the first column by the author was atrociously pointless, i was pleasantly surprised by this one. it had a thought-provoking message and evidenced a much clearer writing style. i too often wonder why a person's race is brought up so many times in connection with crime - especially when the suspect is already found and a description is not necessary. the examples she mentioned were excellent. and she was dead-on by noting the animosity towards immigrants. the irony is of course that everyone except Native Americans are immigrants, so if anyone has a right to be anti-immigration, it is definitely the Native Americans.
but i digress...the point of the matter is this article was very good, especially considering the fact that the op-ed pieces this year have been mostly unremarkable so far.

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