by Barbara Combs Williams

Created on: July 30, 2009   Last Updated: August 01, 2009

Segregation itself does not exist today as it did fifty years ago. The civil rights movements of the fifties and sixties shattered the practice of the enforced isolation of racial and ethnic groups to or within their own minority group. We marched, protested and put our very lives on the line to prevent this blight on our society from continuing. We who have reasonable and responsible minds saw the evil of this practice. There is no more separate but equal schools for our children. We have civil rights laws that say we can live where we choose as long as we can pay for it. There's legislation passed in every state and territory of the United States that outlaws the separation of the races with minorities being relegated to the rear of the bus.

We abhor anyone who would willingly and single-mindedly advocate this doctrine, but we have not completely killed the spirit of segregation. Instead of the blatant flaunting of guard dogs being used to keep black students out of white schools, we now have the subtle use of racial profiling. Profiling or the police's use of modus operandi is said to add another layer of defense to our arsenal to help maintain order in an unstable society. It is said that shocking crimes have been committed by persons who if we just had some way of early identification, would instead be locked away behind bars. This is what we hear are the reasons to use profiling or a method of criminal identification, but the real reasons are more dubious.

Pick any day of week and you will find some person of an ethnic background who has been profiled. The very use of the word ethnic as it has come to mean black or of the Negro race is in itself profiling. Today, we don't use segregation to keep the lines distinct between the races, we use a more understated and heinous way of keeping the races and various minority groups separate. We look for reasons to draw lines between ourselves and others who we feel are not quite the same. Usually we apply a criminal or illegal slant to the differences.

Profiling as it is used by the law enforcement groups is said to be used for our protection. Unfortunately the groups most drawn into this web are definitely minorities. Every Negro driving down your street is not plotting and planning to break into your home. Likewise, every person who has olive skin, black hair and a beard is not working to overthrow our American way of life. We don't just stop with racial or ethnic profiling. We look to religion and sexual orientation also to generalize and imply that these groups have distinct negative characteristics that are a threat to our well being. We want to keep these groups out of our neighborhoods, our schools, our work places and our lives.

We are endued with a sense of sameness in that we feel more comfortable with others that we consider are of "our kind." We want to walk out of our homes and see ourselves in our neighbor's face. We like to sit down and eat with folks of a like mind. Our homes are open to our family and friends, which means, they are like me in looks, thoughts and deeds. We also generalize and project our negativity's and fears onto that group of people who differ from us in any way.

The segregation of our grandparents, fathers, mothers, aunts and uncles day is virtually out of existence. Unfortunately, being the creative human beings that we are, we have discovered new and improved ways to isolate, draw lines between and around ourselves. We don't segregate others; we congregate into our own like packs.

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