Yes, it's been a while...long story, many excuses...but suffice it to say, I am not always great at multi-tasking: I get on a task and obsess about it sometimes.
This post started as a response to a personal email expounding on the 'irony' of Bollywood superstar, Shah Rukh Khan (of Slumdog Millionaire) being detained upon entry into the U.S. (while they tried to identify him) -- in light of his coming here to do a film on racial profiling. I think it bears repeating in a more open forum, however, since it seems to be a common gripe about what little border security efforts we DO employ...
While you might want to jump on the 'racial profiling' bandwagon here, it might bear closer scrutiny from a cultural standpoint. While I am not very conversant in the culture of Mr. Khan (Heck, the president can say HE'S not familiar with the facts and still expound on things), I'll use some examples from other cultures to make my point:
1) Unlike Western culture (let go of that ethnocentrism for a moment here, folks), many cultures in the world still adhere to clan or tribal systems (witness the Somali or Hmong cultures, both of which are fairly populous in MN). In the Hmong culture in particular, there are a very limited number of last names (clans). This has the practical effect of making virtually everyone a "John Smith" or "Mike Jones".
2) Let's draw further from the current news ...August 12, 2009 an NIS News Bulletin:
Mohamed Most Popular Baby Name in Dutch Cities "THE HAGUE, 13/08/09 - Mohamed is by far the most popular name for babies in the Netherlands' four major cities. Additionally, many more boys are called Mohamed than the statistics suggest, Elsevier magazine reported yesterday..."The SVB data shows that in the four major cities - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht - Mohamed (and the variations thereon like Mohammed and Muhammed) is by far the most frequently given name among boys. In The Hague, the various variants of the name of the Islamic Prophet even take first, second and fifth place in the Top 5. "http://www.nisnews.nl/public/130809_1.htm
3) This kind of statistic can be further complicated when you note that some cultures (Somali, for instance) give as many as 5 names to children. This 5-name custom doesn't fit well into the Western pattern of First, Middle, Last names. Therefore, even if someone is being HONEST, they may mix/match their names trying to answer an official who asks for only 3 of their names (most databases are set up in this pattern). If they are TRYING to obscure their identity, all they need to do is scramble up the order of those 5 names and pick them in no particular order. (For you non-math majors, that's 125 possible combinations.)
Given these facts and the enormous task of law enforcement/security forces to make snap identifications at checkpoints and airports, it can be no surprise when persons are detained to allow officials more time to make a better determination of who the person is that stands before them. Is it regrettable? Yes. Is it inconvenient? Yes. Is it unavoidable? Given the realities of the world in which we live, I believe it IS unavoidable.Is it racial profiling? Probably not, given the facts listed above. After all, if someone were travelling under the legally given name of, say, "Usama Bin Laden", wouldn't you prefer that officials err on the side of caution before giving him free passage?
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