Racial Profiling – Freedom from Fear or the Beginning of Fear?

Some time back Shah Rukh Khan, a prominent Indian actor had been detained for two hours at a US airport. Then again recently, an Indian couple on its way to meet their software engineer son in Finland (via Paris) was not allowed to complete its journey.

Indian couple deported sans reason

The couple, a farmer KN Ashok Kumar and his wife Meenakshamma, was deported back to India from the Charles de Gaulle airport, for no apparent reason. This, despite the fact that the couple had submitted all the requisite papers to the Finnish embassy in India. Furthermore, husband and wife were only in transit at Paris. They were scheduled to take the next connecting flight to Helsinki. Instead, they found themselves being grilled for 20 hours by the French officials in the most undeserving manner. They were given no explanation for being detained, their mobile was snatched from them and they were made to sign papers written in French – obviously a language alien to them. Most telling was the comment made by a good Samaritan (a Frenchman – mind you) who offered help – “This is how all Indians are treated here.”

This incident came soon after the detaining of Indian actor and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan (popularly known as SRK or King Khan) at the Newark International Airport. The reason was apparently SRK’s name (later it emerged that the issue was also related to the name of his sponsors). A regular process anyone would say, except that in this case the person concerned was a well known and recognized celebrity. Luckily for his fans, the process ended after two hours and a few high placed calls.

Interestingly, the SRK incident had the Indian media in a flurry. It had become “Breaking News” across channels with everyone expressing an opinion on it, ranging from Shah Rukh Khan being called a cry baby to an Indian minister calling for a tit-for-tat response. In all this frenzy, it was actually quite interesting to see how the media handled the SRK incident. Initially, it made a huge hue and cry, seeming to take a great deal of affront at the mishandling of India’s foremost superstar. Then, as divergent opinions started rolling in, the media seemed to backtrack and instead appeared to be gunning for the man himself. He was accused of using the media to promote himself, his upcoming movie and so on. Never mind the fact that that is pretty much a part of his job. I mean, the man is an actor and an international icon to boot. His job entails using the media to promote himself just like it is the media’s job to ensure that it does not allow itself to be used indiscriminately. Then why blame SRK? Wasn’t the media equally to blame? Wasn’t it the media, which in the hopes of raising its TRPs went running to get his interview? And it was not just the media. Suddenly, everyone had an opinion on the callous or reasonable treatment, depending on your perspective, being given to foreign passengers at airports.

Unfortunately, in this whole sorry episode of SRK’s detainment and the media’s supposed sensationalism, the real question got sidelined – that of racial profiling. Shah Rukh was not being conceited when he said that things must have been easier for him because he was a known face and wondered at the plight of the common man. He was, if anything, being honest. As a man who knows his own power and knows that a few calls from him would be enough to ensure that he can continue with his journey, he was simply stating a fact. But what of the common man like the Kumars who have no strings to pull? No one to call but their son, who is a non celebrity, and so finds that by the time he rushes to the embassy and faxes the papers again, his parents have already been deported – their dreams crushed and spirits repulsed. That in essence is the power of racial profiling – the ability to make and pass judgment based on ethnicity, without adequate (if any) proof. A direct contrast to the concept of “innocent until proven guilty”.

But my issue with racial profiling is at a more sub conscious level. To me it seems to encourage us to stereotype, viz. if I am a Black then I am more likely to be a drug pusher/user; or if I am brown, I am more likely to carry germs and be rude; or if I have an Islamic surname, I am more likely to be involved in terrorist activities. While statistically the chances of the above scenarios realizing themselves may be on the higher side, it would be well to remember that the scenarios are more the result of circumstances than choices. A brown growing up in a slum is as likely to be involved in something illegal as a white or a black in a ghetto. And then there are other many other factors - social and personal, that dictate our actions.Human nature essentially remains the same across races and ethnicity. I have yet to come across a person who does not cry or laugh simply because he/she is a specific race or color, or one who is motivated by different desires and feelings because of where he comes from. We may express ourselves differently, but the feelings driving us remain the same, as do the passions and motivation.

In such a scenario racial profiling seems to say that just because once, one of you, caused me harm, I will now believe that all of you will harm me. What then of the kind hearted Frenchman who took it upon himself to help the elderly couple? Where would you peg him – obviously not a callous Frenchman, but then you can’t call him kind either because that no longer fits your profile of the French? Where and how will you create that every man’s land where each individual may be judged on his/her merits alone? Perhaps racial profiling is generic. But is it its use also equally generic? Little of what I have read or heard inclines me to believe so. But then again maybe I am wrong. I sincerely hope so.