Racial profiling is part of the American character: Activist

Ethnic, racial and religious profiling is part of the American character since the beginning, an American political analyst and activist says.

Myles Hoenig, a Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Monday, after presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called for racial profiling of Muslims inside the country to combat terrorism.

"Other countries do it. You look at Israel and you look at others, and they do it and they do it successfully," Trump said on CBS News on Sunday.

"I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to start using common sense and we have to use, you know, we have to use our heads. ... We really have to look at profiling. We have to look at it seriously,” he stated.

“Ethnic, racial and religious profiling has been part of our history since the beginning, so what Trump is endorsing, racial profiling of Muslims, is not new. Only our ‘sensibilities’ are new for it,” Hoenig said.

“Most police departments have been profiling urban blacks for the longest time, harassing youths on the street just for being black. Even those who appear well dressed and ‘respectable’ have been targeted by store clerks and managers, followed around as if they expect them to be shoplifters. Driving While Black has long been a cause for the police to targeted such individuals,” he stated.

“Our history is replete with signs saying, ‘Whites only’, ‘No Jews Allowed’, anti-Japanese cartoons characterizing them as ‘bug-eyed’ and foreign, and so many other profiling of minorities,” he added.

“The focus of attention on Muslims, however, dates back to 9/11. Before then, Muslims were a small minority, not really standing out from the general population. They may have appeared to be a curiosity, but always small in number to have any real impact on a community’s sense of well-being,” the analyst said.  

“Since 9/11, simply being Muslim or appearing to be Muslim, has been cause to publicly profile and discriminate. Speaking Arabic on an airplane today can still have one removed due to the ‘safety’ (racist) concerns of passengers. Engaging in public prayers during the day especially brings on increased scrutiny,” he pointed out.

“Trump is a new breed of politician. He’s not afraid to make racist comments that his constituents say in private or support policies that they would definitely get behind. It’s not unusual to have had a large swath of politicians of both parties making racist comments, as well as misogynistic ones, as Trump so easily does, but often taken to task for them,” he observed.

“The irony is that in this case, by getting ahead of his Republican colleagues, he’s putting them in a position to decry his bigotry, even if they’re supportive. They know that their re-elections can hinge on the very bad publicity their party’s standard-bearer holds,” the activist said.

“It’s notable that Trump is using Israel as a model for his own bigotry. The apartheid state of Israel treats its Palestinian citizens and those it occupies with contempt. They are treated as second class citizens, at best, and a perfect model for someone like Trump to emulate,” Hoenig concluded.

Trump previously called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the United States.

The New York business tycoon has also called for a database to track Muslims across the United States, and he has also said that the US would have "absolutely no choice" but to close down mosques.

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www.presstv.co.uk