Profiling and Bigotry Know No Borders

Profiling is wrong. It is wrong no matter where you are and no matter how much you might not like the person being profiled. In Washington, DC, having come from the naivety and innocence of small town life, I didn't really understand what "driving while black" meant at first. When I would pass a car pulled over by several police officers and see that the inhabitants of that car were all black, I found it interesting and curious but never really thought that it was intentional. For a while I would even guess before I saw the color of the skin of the people in the car whether they were black or white. I quickly saw that it was a stupid game to play because 9 times out of 10 the people were all black. It disgusted me more and more as I lived more and more years in DC. When we moved out to Silver Spring we saw the same thing happening -- profiling -- to Mexican and Central American people. Too many police present for a routine traffic stop and people of color sitting in the cars or on the curbs looking like deer caught in headlights, scared for what this would mean for their lives, their futures, their families, their livelihoods. The one thing people of color cannot do is ask questions about why they were pulled over, why they are being interrogated, why their car is being searched. why there are so many officers present. Why no questions? We remember Rodney King.

Rachel and I were out at the grocery store late one night in Silver Spring. We were stopped next to a Montgomery County Police cruiser with a white female officer inside. We sat and watched as she typed in the license plate numbers of the cars around us into her computer, obviously hoping to find a reason to make a traffic stop. As we turned at the light she turned with us and we watched as she, with great ease, continued typing in number after number. Did I fail to mention that license plate numbers entered belonged to cars driven by people of color? So what might one say in reaction to all of this? Leave America! Go abroad to another country where things are better. Go to where 'isms are not institutionalized nor internalized or have not had time to do so.

Well, that's kind of what we did when we came to Israel. Except I quickly saw one of my favorite sayings "same shit different day" alive and well here in Israel, except it makes more sense here to say "same shit different country." Our first week here we were walking down Emek Refaim in the German Colony one evening, and we came upon a young Arab woman dressed trendy-traditional who had been stopped by several female Israeli military police. They were looking at all of her IDS, radioing information to someone else. The woman looked scared and mortified, and I couldn't tell if the police were trying to provoke those feelings in her or whether they were simply doing their jobs. I wanted so badly to go up to the young woman and tell her how sorry I was that she was having to go through that public embarrassment. But the last thing I would do is come between an Israeli officer and an Arab engaged in a dispute. Today I was out walking near the Old City. There was a random group of police officers, and who had been stopped by them? Yes, a young Arab woman dressed trendy-traditional, looking scared and mortified. Again, my initial reaction was to go up to her and apologize for all the wrongs in the world that affect so many different people. But all I could do was keep walking, not wanting to attract any extra attention to my harmless self.

I know that in a lot of ways, it's not the white male MPD officer's fault that he feels compelled to randomly stop black people. He's been taught to do that since he was a baby. Sadly, though, most police officers like him will never try and break out of the institutionalized and internalized racism that has been present in every day of their lives. Who really wants to give up privilege without gaining something more than self respect back? I believe that not all Israeli's are anti-Arab and want all Arabs to die. But there are some who do, and those beliefs seem to have been internalized by, for example, the IDF. I have heard friends here say that soldiers have to make themselves hate Arabs, otherwise how would they be able to do their jobs. When you are taught to feel a certain way, far more people will adopt that way of thinking than not. It is difficult and scary to stand up for others and as a result stand up for yourself. I don't believe that all Nazis truly detested Jews. Some had to do so to save their own lives and be able to fulfill their horrid job descriptions. Rachel is back in the states for a week. She just told me that when she and her classmate were waiting for a taxi Friday morning, one finally stopped, but when the driver saw that they were going to the airport he told them to go with someone else who is not Arab like he was because there are 3 roadblocks Arab taxi drivers have to go through before being able to drop off folks at the terminal. He said it would take too long.

So this kind of brings me to my final thoughts. Many Israeli's would say that the security wall is horrible and that they want to be able to live in peace with Arabs. But they will also say that since the wall was put up and new security measures were put in place, Israel has been safe and quiet for about 3 years in regards to terrorist attacks, excluding the war with Hezballah of course. I value freedom and civil liberties, but I also value safety and security -- I value my life and the lives of others. Why do we have to choose? It's a guilt ridden choice for me to make. Can we have both? In America, Israel, Europe, etc.? It seems to me like the Bush administration argues that in order to preserve freedom and liberty, we must brutalize the rest of the world for no good reason, never really stopping to look for better tactics or solutions. This seems like something thought up by a neanderthal. Okay, it was. Israeli's like Americans because of our modern and hip culture and because they think we don't like Arabs and Palestinians, ultimately, I think, because they are Muslim, and of course all Muslims are terrorists. This is not why I want to be liked. Coming from the states with my own internalized dislike of Arabs and Muslims, thanks to American media, I had high hopes that my thoughts and feeling on the Arab-Israeli conflict would be altered in such a way that I would be much more in the grey than in the black and white. I think that is happening, and that makes me very happy. I hope to be able to write about this subject many more times this next year, each time being different from the last, but each time evolving and keeping me in the middle. In this part of the world, 10 months is a very long time, and I hope that the events which shape my views on this issue during the next 10 months come out of progress and not tragedy.