Hey GlowMe -- let me ask you a serious question. Profiling is now the subject du jour. Would you profile? If you worked airport security -- tomorrow -- and five arab males, ages 17-31, wearing Allah is God t-shirts, looking "menacing" - in your subjective opinion, of course, each carrying two large, bulky looking carry-ons approached your security station entrance to the gates, would you be any more wary -- any more likely to question them -- any more cautious -- any more likely to ask to see their bags, than the 70 year old, fit, white women wearing Betty Crocker t-shirts? How about if one of the Arab men had a shirt that said "the only good American is a dead American?" And another had instructions on bomb making?
Be truthful.
I think we all make judgments EVERY DAY. Does race enter into it? Yep. So does age. Gender. Clean shaven. Educated. Choice of clothes. Respectful. Even (gasp) familiarity with the English language and American social norms. Attitude. How we carry ourselves. What we wear. What we listen to. What we openly profess, for crying out loud. So when Glen P said "American", HOW DARE YOU INSINUATE IT MEANT ONLY WHITE AMERICANS?! HMMMM??!!! Who's the one jumping to conclusions here, after all? Maybe he's talking about many, many other things, that a person can see without taking "very much time" to do a background search.
You've put forward the false notion that there are only two alternatives. Make no discriminations between people, or do the equivalent of an FBI background check. Your bolded statement that anyone who makes judgments (on facts with which you are entirely unfamiliar), must believe that only White Anglo Saxon Americans are Americans is exceedingly offensive.
This type of claiming the moral high ground, putting things into your opponents' mouths, and attributing to them clearly awful leanings, is the very definition of PC. It's not about calling janitors sanitation engineers. That's respect. It's about trying to stifle thoughts of others, without trying first to understand them, by demonizing them even if that demonization is based on unfounded assumptions.
But you know what, I don't feel real comfortable having an argument with a fellow American right now (gee -- I don't even know your color). Plus I know you had a legitimate point to be made -- I just think you went overboard. So please take the last word.