(Racial) Profiles in Courage, or Can We Be Heroes, Too?
2003; Albany Law School; Volume: 66; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0002-4678
Autores Tópico(s)Gun Ownership and Violence Research
ResumoINTRODUCTION Racial profiling usually conjures up images of police officers acting on negative stereotypes concerning the criminality of people of color and subjecting them to greater surveillance and state. (1) This type of negative affirmative action is practiced by police, prosecutors, judges, and juries alike. (2) Before 9/11, an emerging bipartisan consensus denounced this practice. (3) As the arguments condemning racial profiling were gaining strength, the events of 9/11 diluted such support as terror became racially embodied in the faces of the nineteen who were accused of hijacking the planes on that fateful day. (4) Many who were hostile towards the practice before 9/11--including those from communities most often subject to racial profiling by the criminal justice system--began to say that some degree of racial profiling was perhaps necessary. (5) While this type of negative racial profiling is problematic, it is also important to focus on positive racial profiling. (6) Following 9/11, several newspapers published photographs of firefighters who died when the World Trade Center Towers came crashing down. (7) Notably, newspapers recounted stories of their heroism. (8) As profiles in courage, these heroes also had a race and gender--they were almost exclusively white men. (9) The race and gender profile of the heroes was not an accident; rather, it was produced by the hiring practices of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY). (10) The criticism of the hiring practices of the FDNY should not be taken as a criticism of the bravery and integrity of the firefighters with regard to their service as firefighters. It is important, though, to ask--with regard to negative and positive racial profiling--why are our criminals people of color and why are our heroes white? This essay explores how negative and positive racial profiling is part of the larger project of constituting this nation. (11) Part I examines a project referred to as differential Americanization as it operates during times of war or crisis. Part II analyzes the controversy over racial profiles with regard to a proposed monument to honor the fallen firefighters. I. DIFFERENTIAL AMERICANIZATION DURING WARTIME War, perhaps more than anything else, forces a nation's subjects to renegotiate their relationship with the nation. When the United States engages in war, it also engages in a process of deepening the Americanization of its citizens. It does this by calling upon its citizens to collectively band together to do their patriotic duty against a common enemy. By performing patriotic gestures, its citizens feel a comradeship that consolidates this imagined community that is America. It is this feeling of comradeship that has made millions of people willingly die for their nation. (12) When the United States engages in war, its marginal citizens often find themselves in an awkward position. As a victim of state-sponsored neglect, discrimination, and terror, how do you respond when that very state calls upon you to do your duty? In African American communities, serving in the armed forces has been debated in every war. During the Civil War, Frederick Douglass urged Blacks to enlist in the army, saying, [H]e who fights the battles of America may claim America as his country--and have that claim respected. (13) This theme has been echoed in many other writings and speeches. During World War I, W. E. B. Du Bois said: We of the colored race have no ordinary interest in the outcome. That which the German power represents today spells death to the aspirations of Negroes and all darker races for equality, freedom and democracy. Let us not hesitate. Let us, while this war lasts, forget our special grievances and close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with our own white fellow citizens ... that are fighting for democracy. We make no ordinary sacrifice, but we make it gladly and willingly with our eyes lifted to the hills. …
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