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Recent news about New-York cabbies wanting to profile their passengers, so they don’t get shot instead of paid, had very much highlighted the hypocrisy of the society regarding the subject of profiling. Of course no-one would’ve paid any attention to another cabbie shot in a big city, were it not happening during a much larger national debate about what we as a society should do to our own people: profile their behavior or sexually molest them without their consent.
I am not going into details explaining the difference between behavioral and racial profiling. I am not going to explain that islam infects 1.6 billion people of all races, genders, and continents, so there is no way we can “profile” them based on their faith. Terrorists on the other hand tend to behave the same way all over the world, including muslims, Christians and I suspect Buddhists too, if one could ever find a Buddhist terrorist.
What I will talk about is the fact that many aspects of our lives we are being profiled, and we accept that profiling without so much as a blink of eye.
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Ever visited Amazon.com? Chances are – you did. Ever seen the words people who purchased this book also bought … ? Some of you probably even bought one of those recommendations. Do you know how Amazon does it? Simple – behavioral profiling. They see what other people do and try to help you, by making suggestions. Has anyone complained about that? Did you ever see ACLU protesting book sales, because they profile?
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Law enforcement. They profile the criminals all the time. They find things that criminals do, and use these profiles to help solve other crimes. Moreover FBI has the whole profiling unit, dealing with serious criminals. You know what they do? Racial and gender profiles. Does middle –aged white man with traveling jobs and unremarkable exterior sounds familiar? Do any of you object to it being used every time a serial killer or a mass murderer comes up? If you don’t, than please explain how it is different from 16-35 loner man of Middle Eastern descent? It is not? Then why does everyone object? It is the same type of profile to be used for the same purpose. But moving on.
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Do you know who else profiles you for a living? TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. These are not the names of the secret CIA prison camps, these are not the evil Republican think tanks, these are not even Internet aliases for the three stooges. These are credit agencies, that report on you to the credit card companies, mortgage companies, banks, private loan organizations, any employer, landlord, power or phone company – anyone who does credit check as a part of their business. You credit score is your financial profile, it is a number that is attached to your name for the rest of your life. And guess what – no one is objecting, but try to attach a number to a potential terrorist – and the whole hell breaks loose. Did you know that since 2005 it is illegal to attach a score to a person when evaluating their likelihood of being a terrorist? If anyone sees logic here – please explain it to me.
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Employers do behavioral profiling every time they hire a person. Ever been to an interview? I have, from both sides of the table. What is the interview process if not a profile? How do you dress? How do you shake hands? How do you look people in the eye? How do you sit? How confident are you? How fast can you learn? What would you do if this? What would you do if that? Someone looks for dumb but obedient, someone for creative but unruly, and we all know that in both cases it is a behavioral profile. Who is going to believe in obedient and creative type? Who needs a dumb rebel? Or a disorganized manager? Shy sales rep? (Not that we all did not have one of those at one time or the other). Guys won a gender discrimination lawsuit against Hooters, so? Seen any male waters at Hooters, lately?
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Marketing and Advertisement industry and by extension any industry that delivers the message, and any industry that pays for the message. Marketing is all about segmenting the marketing by various profiles, and targeting them with laser-point accuracy. Would Hallmark advertise on the Spike channel? I do not think so. Would Phillip Morris ever target retired female audience? Why bother, when you can find some high-schoolers and show them the Marlboro man? The whole art of selling is built around the concept of a profile, and is working fine, without too much objection to the concept as a whole.
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Businesses directly profile their clientele all the time. Some more, some less, some are simply built around one profile. I mean doesn’t BET is guilty of some racial profiling of its audiences? No one seems to object. I would venture to say that LMN and QVC are themselves guilty of gender profiling, without any objection from anyone out there. The entire city of Las-Vegas is nothing more than a very large behavioral profiling center, for the naughty with disposable income. Do you think that “what happens in Vegas – stays in Vegas” type slogan would work for Des Moines or Pittsburgh? The issue does not cover just Walt Disney Co, or the porn industry, it concerns your friendly neighborhood groceries and Wall-Marts. For instance there are two fairly large Korean stores in my neighborhood – one a little closer, and one a little further out. Since both are Korean, the majority of the store is roughly the same, but when one that is closer to home has a very-very prominent section with Mexican goods, and the one further out, sports a huge Indian section. None have a Kosher section, which is somewhat present in the major-chain supermarket. Religious discrimination? What do you think restaurants that display large “HALAL” signs are doing? I am guessing here – the religious profiling. A business in Philadelphia requested that orders are placed in English – after a big uproar, the court upheld their right to discriminate on that basis.
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Let’s not forget the beloved insurance industry. Do you smoke? Do you drink? Did great-great-great great grandmother ever cheated on her husband? Where in any accidents? Had DUI? What are your grades at school? Are you a white man between 42 and 55? Pregnant much lately? Filed any recent claims? Do you have insurance with us?
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Closely followed by the medical profession. We have noticed that Eastern European women over the age of 50 with blue eyes are at higher risk of glaucoma? Or is it diabetes? Jewish much? Then Tay-Sachs and Asperberger’s is for you. Ashkenazi on top of that? We’ll put your down for Gaucher’s and Von Gerke. If not, it’s ok too – we’ve got nice little Creutzfeldt-Jakob for our Sephardic patients. Don’t like it? Fine don’t go to the doctors, and don’t watch House, there is a guy who tends not to profile people, while saving their lives.
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Us, as in we the people. We profile each other left and right. The survey shows that the country is more and more being divided by the politics. As of today your party affiliation – liberal or conservative, pretty much defines you lifestyle and your circle of friends. For any person most of their circle of friends will have an awful lot in common with them. Education, income level, political views, race and ethnicity are huge factors in forming these circles. Anyone who would take an honest look around, would notice that the vast majority of people tend to gravitate towards those with similar profiles, beliefs and causes.
Someone please explain to me – if profiling is an ingrained part of our daily lives, what is wrong with using a little profiling in order to preserve our daily lives just the way we like them?
