A popular Bollywood star was recently detained and questioned for over an hour when he arrived at Newark International Airport. While the law requires Customs and Border Patrol officers to inquire and detain people that they feel may be a threat to national security, most officers are poorly trained for the job. Unfortunately, the guidelines for choosing these individuals do NOT clearly state that you should not treat a celebrity this way, or any high profile figure for that matter. So the poor Customs officer who may not know politics from politico or Brad Pitt from Bruno, unbeknownst to him and those involved, chose a famous Indian celebrity to detain and interrogate.
While it does not reflect well on Homeland Security and airport staff for not keeping up with the latest celebrity hot shot, racial profiling is a divisive and discriminatory practice. It’s shameful that so many innocent people are unnecessarily accosted and treated as criminals purely because of their race, creed, or gender. Saying that though, if we the average Joe Plumber are subject to this then why should celebrities be treated any differently? It seems we tend to pay attention to this issue only when it happens to a high profile celebrity or politician. Are they immune from racial profiling? Should they be?
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