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Racial Profiling By US Customs - Research Paper

Racial Profiling By US Customs

Daria MonDesire's article, "Stripped of more than my clothes," appeared in the April 7th, 1999 edition of USA Today newspaper. This article, which recounted MonDesire's personal experience of being strip searched by U.S. Customs officials in San Juan, Puerto Rico when returning from a trip was one of the things that contributed to the Customs Service adopting reforms reducing the amount of unwarranted searches of minorities reentering the United States, at customs.
In the article, MonDesire notes that she was the only woman of color on the her flight. Her sense of violation was stated strongly when she wrote,

"There have, in my life, been two occasions when underwear was removed ...

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as evidenced from the topics of her many articles in USA Today. It could be argued that she may be more attuned, (or hypersensitive), to actions by government officials that others might chalk up to being inconvenienced. The author's sense of violated dignity is evident in her piece and she has a very good case to be made against the practice. She might have been able to see a little bit of the other side of the argument if she could empathize with those in the Customs Service who are tasked with keeping drugs and other contraband out of our country, a dauntingly huge job at best. Ultimately she was clearly violated emotionally at least and it is good to see this practice has been somewhat curtailed.
Daria MonDesire is a freelance writer who lives in Vermont. She has written many articles for USA Today, many on the subject of racism, civil rights and racial profiling. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony; a writers' and artists' colony founded in 1907 the ...

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Racial Profiling By US Customs. (2016, February 17). Retrieved January 11, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Racial-Profiling-By-US-Customs/105435

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 2/17/2016 07:00:13 AM
Category: Social Issues
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 448
Pages: 2

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