Utterly outstanding analysis by Victor Davis Hanson. I have but one quibble. Hanson writes,
Millions of so-called whites are now adults who grew up in the age of affirmative action, and have no memory of systemic discrimination. To the degree some avoid certain schools, neighborhoods, or environments, they do so only on the basis of statistics, not profiling, that suggest a higher incidence of inner-city violence and crime.
My quibble concerns Hanson's use of 'profiling.' He is suggesting a distinction between avoidant behavior based on statistics and such behavior based on profiling. But there is no difference. To profile is to predict the likelihood of a person's behavior based on statistical information. A fiftyish Mormon matron from Salt Lake City does not fit the terrorist profile, but a twenty-something Egyptian Muslim from Cairo does. To screen the two equally at an airport is therefore unreasonable, and to take a more careful look at the Egyptian is entirely reasonable.
Who fits the heart attack profile? Is it the obese and sedentary fiftyish smoker who has bacon and eggs for breakfast every morning, or the nonsmoking, vegetarian, twenty-something marathoner? The former, obviously. Of course, it doesn't follow that the marathoner will not have a heart attack in the near future or that the fat man will. It is a question of likelihood. Similarly with the Mormon matron. She may have a bomb secreted in her 1950's skirt, but I wouldn't bet on it. If the Muslim is stripped-searched this is not because of some irrational hatred of Muslims but because of the FACT that twenty-something Muslim males are more likely to be terrorists than fiftyish Mormon matrons.
What I am objecting to is the use of 'profiling' to refer to blind, unreasonable, hateful characterizing on the basis of skin color or ethnicity. All decent people are opposed to the latter. But that is not what profiling is. Profiling is neither blind, nor unreasonable, nor hateful.
What Mr. Hanson is doing is acquiescing in the liberal misuse of 'profiling.' It is not a pejorative term. Liberals want to make it a pejorative term, but we must resist them.
Language matters.
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