Many years ago, I remember going to Borders Books (years prior to its bankruptcy) to buy a book by James Baldwin. I looked in the literature section and surprisingly none of his books were there. This was pretty odd since most bookstores carry at least one of his books. I asked for help from an employee and they told me I was looking in the wrong place, guiding me to the African American section instead. I found the irony of what the bookstore likely thought was a considerate distinction, pretty mind blowing. Here was James Baldwin, who had been a huge proponent for civil rights and a major critic of segregation, having his own books segregated away from what the bookstore categorized as “literature”, into a racially defined category instead.

I'm not much of a social critic so it's difficult to formulate the right words to explain my position, but racial profiling just doesn't seem right, regardless of its intent.