Aman ji
There is a lot in this article, and I almost missed it entirely. The key idea for me is this one:
By alienating entire communities racial profiling has actually prevented the development of a potentially invaluable partnership in the fight against terrorism.
That, and the idea of dehumanization. Profiling makes the depersonalization of the other an official act --taking the person-hood or humanity of individuals and groups out of the equation.
No matter whom -- members of religious or ethnic minorities, immigrants, the disabled, the poor and homeless -- that person no longer has a face of his own. He/she has a face that is repainted in legal abstractions.
And of course it is easier to deal harshly when a person is no longer a person and has no face. Cruelty is no longer cruelty. Conversation is no longer necessary. Acknowledgment is no longer even possible.
In the end, the one who dehumanizes also loses his/her person-hood and has become a legal machine. And becomes a kind of Darth Vadar -- wearing a mask, but there is no face, no humanity, no moral accountability, no soul.
So when both are lost, what is left?
ibKu TgaurI Kwie mUTo iciq n isrjnhwr ]
bikh t(h)agouree khaae moot(h)o chith n sirajanehaar ||
He takes the intoxicating drugs of cruelty and corruption, and is plundered. He is not conscious of the Creator Lord God. SGGS, Ang 1229
