Adnan R. Khan's Close Encounters With US Immigrants

Racial profiling can be defined as targeting specific individuals because of their appearances instead of behavior. Usually, individuals in the United States are being targeted because of their race and skin color. Adnan R. Khan's essay, Close Encounters with US Immigrants, from Maclean's in 2002, argues that racial profiling is and should always be unacceptable because it leads to misunderstandings and misidentification. Racial profiling can be seen as racist and unethical. Khan speaks of an encounter he had with immigration officials at the American border and described the unsatisfied experience as being "made to feel like an unwanted outsider, as if I were guilty to some heinous crime and now it was my responsibility to prove my

Those who are most likely to be racially profiled against will not cooperate with law enforcement when necessary, even if they have not committed any crimes. In Khan’s essay, he discusses how he was interrogated. His notebook and personal organizer were confiscated, so when two gentlemen who introduced themselves as members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force started to question him, he remained silent. Khan knew that he had done nothing wrong, but still he was being treated like a criminal. Khan recalled, “The border patrol agent casually asked if I spoke Pakistani, and I was tempted to respond that while my Pakistani was a bit rough, I could speak Canadian flawlessly,” (Khan 572). After having personal belongings taken away and being discriminated against, Khan did not feel the need to cooperate with the officials. He then continued, “But I refrained. Why tempt fate, especially when fate’s accomplices had me cornered in a back office of a foreign country” (Khan 572). The officials put Khan under a stereotype and assumed he was up to no good which made Khan upset because in reality, he had done nothing

For instance, in Neil Foley’s article, Becoming Hispanic: Mexican Americans and Whiteness, the author emphasizes on the fact that white skinned people receive all of the privileges and opportunities. A group named LULAC, which stands for the League of United Latin American Citizens, tried really hard to prove how “Americanized” (Foley 55) Mexican Americans really were. They argued, “They spoke English, voted, used the court systems, got elected to office, actively opposed Mexican immigration, and excluded Mexican citizens from membership in LULAC. They organized baseball teams and ate quantities of hot dogs” (Foley 55). This was stated and expressed to portray the fact that Mexican Americans are capable of doing the exact same things as what white people are capable of doing. No one racial group is better than another. We all accomplish the same tasks day by