Was I racially profiled?

Today I stopped by a university office to pick up a form, I was about 2 minutes late but I had been looking forward to getting this document all day. The woman inside refused to help me, or even answer my questions. She was very cold and I left the office with an insincere thanks anyway and walked to the exit. I was listening to a song about "green fields" or something like that and I muttered "green fields my ass" bitterly and mumbled an explictive as I opened the door. I sorta forgot that there were 2 people standing nearby in the hallway.

I didn't think much of it, and I went and sat under a tree for 5 minutes and then went for a walk on the sidewalk adjeacent the highway. Once I turn into a side road I see a patrol van following me...he stops in the middle of nowhere on the road about 15 feet ahead of me and I see three people inside staring at me, expecting me to do something violent or attack the van or something.

Do you think this was a racial issue? I am arabic, after all, and I can look intimidating when I'm angry....or do you think it was my unkempt hair or merely the fact that I let an explictive slip in the presense of others? I'm about 100% sure they called the police to follow me.

I just wonder if they would have done this to a white southern yes'm boy.

 

How deep into the south are you?...

 

very deep. Let's say we were the first to secede from the union.

I get a lot of queer looks around here. There are many open-minded people, but every time I say or do anything remotely offensive there's always one person who's like, hey, we're letting you LIVE here, so stuff it.

I know what I did was wrong, but my god, to call the police?

 

Don't let the paranoids get you down. I sometimes get that kind of response and most of my ancestors (Scotland, Ireland, England, France) came to the Americas over 300 years ago. There's always someone to dumb to appreciate diversity, either in ethniticity or opinions.

JMHO,

Roger

 

Some people watch too much news and are overly paranoid! The poor gal probably went home and cried all day and won't go back to work tomorrow now, because of you. You have the nerve of showing your face....

Just kidding of course, except the part about the paranoid people. I am sorry if you have to put up with this kind of stuff, but just remember to keep positive in any circumstance, you don't want to get angry if the FBI or someone did surround you, you may get some trigger happy newbie showing his stuff. - (that would really suck), and then to cover up their mistake they would still make it look like they caught a terrorist - (suck even more) and plant a bomb on you.

If someone is scared of you, you probably shouldn't give them more reason to be. Just be polite and smile....

 

It's the backpack you carry...... that'll do it every time.

 

The fact that you're in the deep South would lead me to believe you are probably often profiled!

I don't usually shower on Saturdays. And then when I go somewhere with puffy eyes, my hair all crazy and a scruffy beard people usually look at me like I'm going to mug them or start taking hostages and stuff.

 

On second thought, it could be my B.O.!

 

i miss showers sometimes too...sometimes you just have so much to do.

Reminds me of the Southpark Waco parody.

I'm sure the gov't could kill me or anyone else it wants, and once Patriot Act 2.0 is passed, i think it'll be nice and legal.

bleh.

life experience number 67 to learn from...

 

Do we really need the circumstance details? You are arabic, living in the deep south. Um, yes... you were racially profiled. If you haven't noticed, it happens to you all the time.

It's a sad world and it's wrong, but that's the way it is.

Frankly, if it wasn't for 9-11 it probably wouldn't be happening to you, at least not nearly as much. But now hating/fearing/being paranoid around anybody of middle eastern descent is the latest craze. There are a lot of black people out there that are thankful that the attention has shifted away from them.

Don't worry though. With the whole gay marriage thing becoming part of the political landscape for the next election, hating gays will be the next up and coming trend.

I lived with a lot of minorities in college (myself being part of the Minority Engineering Program), and I got sick of people claiming racism all the time. Every day I heard something and I just told everyone they were being way too sensitive. Then my sophomore year I awoke to a cross burning at my fraternity house. (I went to the most segregated school in the country - it was in California so I imagine it's a lot worse in the south)

I thought that our generation was better than our parents'. We're not. Our generation is just a little more discreet about the racism than our parents were.

 

very, very true. I know some of the more candid ones who have said this to me in private.

 

Wow. We're engineering minorities now? I'd like them to come up with something in a nice shade of blue, maybe, or green.

 

dont think this is the place to get political, but the Walmart Red State special has a lot to offer.

I am sorry you had a crap experience....Its a nice place to golf...the flesh market in Charlestown speaks for itself...for Southern "gentility"...those houses are beauts though

Folly is a decent beach town from what 24 hrs had to offer

 

LMAO!!!

Yeah, uh, it was a program that basically gave scholarships and had tutor programs and such for minorities studying engineering or other technical fields. At the time, pretty much all engineering industries were very dominated by white guys. Now it's still dominated by guys, but they are available in a rainbow of colors.

 

Question?

Did anyone actually stop you? I mean did the cops pull you over? Were you confronted in any way other than someone following you, or looking at you? Just curious. Is it not possible that you are assuming the worst? If that is the case would this not be racially profiling, or worse yet, stereotyping the "south?"

Just throwing a different twist. Think nothing of it man. You have as much right to be here as the next person. Keep your head up. Odd that this would occur at a university. I know when I went to college people were overtly charged with an overwhelming need to let the world know how much they loved diversity. It was hard to find a biggot on a UW campus.

We all have something like this happen to us. Hell I used to have hair down to my ass (am a dude FYI). I used to get followed around Wal-Mart by a team of club weilding wanna be cop flunkies. That or everyone assumed I smoked dope. Of course I could easily change my appearance. A person of color or different ethnic background cannot, unless they are a popular pop star.. "ABC, it's easy as 123."

Peace

 

It was pretty damn deliberate, the parked so that the window would be facing me as soon as the car stopped. It was really freaky and then they stared at me, started the engine, followed me and finally drove away. Why did they stop?

folly is nice. You can climb on fountains buy candy in bulk for cheap and check out a really nice SC shoreline.

 

You must not read "General Chat" much

 

Sometimes people see what they want to see.

Also, I'm pretty sure "Racial Profiling" is the incorrect term. Unless of course, the police pulled him over.

 

how can you pull over a man on the sidewalk...

explain why they stopped - the police had to be called. The profiling wasn't on the part of the cops, but rather on the part of two people who saw an angry arab and assumed he was going to blow something up.