Am I a profiler?

As much as I don't want to admit it, I am a profiler! I think I have always been a bit this way...but 9/11 brought it to a whole other level in my life. I try and avoid it. I try not to do it. I fail miserably, at times, however.

The first time I taught in a school that was predominantly African American, I had to deal with this. I have NEVER considered myself a prejudice person...but I found out that we DO sometimes have hidden prejudices. We have "beliefs" about a culture or ethnic group that sometimes dictate our response to that group. That year, I used to tell people that the only "white thing in that classroom was me and the copy paper." And it was true. I knew I had a lot to offer them and I was happy to be there. I never dreamed, though, just how much I'd learn FROM my 17 inner city kids and their parents. Slowly, but surely, layer by layer, I had to come face to face with the little prejudices that I had somewhere inside me...you know the ones that make us think there's an "us" and a "them"? I believe I was a much better person for this experience.

As I said, 9/11 made me keenly aware that I had other "uncovered prejudice" though. I suddenly became aware of a culture called "Middle Eastern" and this religion called, "Islam" and this place called "Afghanistan". I confess, when I see women dressed in burqas and the men that are with them, I often wonder, "Could they be a terrorist?" For that, I am sorry...and just like my immersion in the inner city African American culture, I find myself face to face with my own "issues" through school, community, and world events.

It was no accident, in my opinion, that I read the book The Kite Runner this weekend. It had been recommended to me by a friend. I had seen it pop up on many many blogs. So, I picked it up. And, boy am I GLAD I DID!

This book is a poignant reminder that what lies beneath all skin color and religious differences, is humanness. In our humanness we are so much alike. We hurt. We fall. We laugh. We cry. We fear. We mess up. All the human emotions we can name are things that know no racial, economic or ethnic boundaries.

The Kite Runner is a beautifully told story about life in Afghanistan before and after the Taliban. It is a story of the human spirit. Of bitter truths. Of the beautiful possibility that we all have for redemption...and for bringing beauty out of ashes.

If you have not read this book, do. Here is the New York Times' Review. And here is a quote from a site called, Book-Club:

The glimpses that the reader sees of a precious and loved culture, of a city fondly remembered, of proud and strong Afghani traditions are contrasted with the shocking visit back to Afghanistan to find a city and the people brought low by cruel and insane violence. Hosseini convincingly portrays the power of racism to poison even the most innocent of boyhood friendships.

What is so satisfactory about The Kite Runner is that the pain and the hurt is never sentimentalised and brushed away. The damage done in childhood causes irreversible scars that aren't magically made to disappear. There is no Hollywood sunset ending. Reconciliation and redemption is never easy. But there is hope, a hope that is tinged with the sadness of so much destruction - insane political destruction on a grand scale and on a personal scale, the destruction of one unique and precious friendship.

And, may we all profile less and reach across our own "borders" more!