Answer

The post below was a photo of Fayez Banihammad, one of the 9/11 hijackers. He is from the United Arab Emirates and was in the U.S. on a tourist visa.

I posted this because I find the discrimination against Arab Americans after 9/11 to be very curious. Most people can't correctly identify a person of Middle Eastern descent, so what sense does it make to discriminate? Hate crimes in retaliation for the terrorist attacks have been committed against South Asians and Hispanics, simply because they are mistaken for Middle Eastern (not that it's excusable to harm people of any descent, but when it's a case of mistaken identity it gets even more ridiculous).

Racial profiling becomes equally ridiculous when TSA officials attempt to identify people's race. It's one thing to profile based on the country of someone's passport, or the way they behave in the airport, but men with beards are more and more likely to be pulled aside for extra screening, regardless of nationality. Any physical aspect that is reminiscent of an Arab-American is a liability nowadays, even though it's usually not possible to tell who is "Arab" and who isn't. The term is like "Hispanic" - it describes a diverse group of people who come from the same region of the world, but have vastly different cultures and ethnic divisions.

Just some food for thought! No one correctly identified the man's nation of origin, and no one did in my college research project either. Maybe it's not so easy to label people by ethnicity : )

I'll do another tomorrow.