American Civil Liberties Union

In the 1993 film Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character finds himself repeating the same miserable day over and over again. For Indian film star Shahrukh Khan, last week was Groundhog Day for racial and religious profiling. In 2009, Khan — a huge global celebrity whose likeness is immortalized in wax at Madame Tussaud's — was traveling to the United States to celebrate Indian independence day and to promote a movie about a Muslim man who is the victim of profiling called My Name is Khan. In a case of life imitating art, Khan who is also Muslim, was detained and questioned at Newark airport.

My fellow students describe censoring themselves in classes to avoid saying anything that might be taken as controversial or out of the mainstream.

Racial profiling is based on crass stereotypes and assumptions, instead of facts, evidence and good solid police work.