Ethnic profiling persists at airports

“AirTran was not being racist, just a realist,” says attorney Larry Klayman, founder and former chairman of the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, and author of “Fatal Neglect: The U.S. Government's Failure to Protect American Citizens from Terrorism.” He believes that ethnic profiling is necessary and that “we cannot be so sensitive that security comes second to reality. The hard fact is that a Muslim family that starts talking about where to sit on an airplane is a potential risk, more than a Caucasian grandmother.”

Jen’nan Read strongly disagrees. Read, an associate professor at Duke University and an expert on Arab and Muslim American integration, says she wasn’t totally surprised that the New Year's Day incident at Reagan National occurred but “was a bit shocked” that it went as far as it did with the passengers not being allowed to re-board after being cleared by the FBI.

Given that just before Christmas a Continental Airlines jet had skidded off the runway in Denver, a lot of travelers were no doubt worried and wondering out loud about the safest seats on an airplane. “But the fact that these people were Muslim made them the targets of stereotyping, regardless of them being American.”

‘Here we go again’
Jarrar, the U.S. citizen who got that $240,000 settlement for being discriminated against at an airport for his T-shirt, was also shocked when he heard about the New Year’s Day AirTran incident. “I said, ‘Oh my god. Here we go again.’” Jarrar currently works for the American Friends Service committee, a Quaker group devoted to peace and social justice, and says he’s been trying to get in touch with the nine Muslim passengers at the center of the AirTran story. Although he received some death threats after speaking out about what happened to him, Jarrar says he also received a lot of support and even some apologies from strangers. “So I want this family to know that what happened to them is not a coincidence and that they are not alone.”

Now what?

Beyond urging the rest of us not to jump to conclusions about fellow passengers based on their skin color, clothing or presumed religious affiliation, Duke University’s Read has this straightforward advice: “As a society we know better than to discriminate against people based on gender, race or age. It’s time for more tolerance for other American citizens who have the misfortune of sharing a religious affiliation with a small group of crazed individuals.”

I wonder what would happen if someone squeezed that advice onto a T-shirt and wore that to the airport.

Harriet Baskas writes msnbc.com's popular weekly column, The Well-Mannered Traveler. She is the author of the “Stuck at the Airport” blog, a contributor to National Public Radio and a columnist for USATODAY.com.

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