09/20/01

AP photo of anti-war demonstration on 9/20/01 at University of Michigan.

Race, Race and Race.

If you were looking for a criminal that was described as a white supremacist, would you start by searching the headquarters of the Black Panther Party. The answer is no. The reason being, that detective work relies on the process of elimination. Once you eliminate what is impossible, you deal with whatever is left. If you know the eye color, the skin tone, the hair color, the country of origin, and the native language of the criminal you are looking for, you look within a pool of suspects that dovetail with what you know. The question is, can this be interpreted as racial profiling, and is racial profiling racist by definition. I know the standard profile for a serial killer is a white male between 18 and 60. Should I be offended by that? The real question is, do we want to catch bad guys or not, and what is the best way to go about it.

I hate to even use the word race in an article. The three terms most commonly used to shut down discourse between individuals these days are race, rape, and abuse. The more educated the listener, the easier to use these terms for effect. In the days to come, you will hear Americans described as racists who wish to rape the world of its natural resources while systematically abusing the true owners of the land. You can take that to the bank. What we have seen lately is the fringe on both ends of the spectrum showing how far from the mainstream their ideas can be. Just as Limbaugh slammed the homophobic rantings of Fallwell and Robertson, the left has to get its own politically correct sheep separated from the true pacifists who oppose all war. The vast majority of the country who aren't racists are pretty fed up with being told that they are.

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