The Racial Profiling of Minorities for Drugs His name is Ronaldo. He is taking a flight from Los Angeles to New York City for to visit his brother Luis. He has severe asthma problems and has to carry an asthma inhaler with him at all times to prevent the possibility of an asthma attack. As he is going through check-in, a big, muscular white man in a security jacket orders him to step aside and show him his belongings, especially the asthma inhaler he is carrying on grounds that Ronaldo’s asthma inhaler contains cocaine. Like Ronaldo, many minorities are stopped more often at airports and other locations for possession of illegal drugs because of America’s war on drugs. Why specifically does American society target minorities for illegal drugs? Minorities are more likely to be accused of smuggling drugs because they tend to come from enemy countries, have on average a lower socio-economic status, and are very associated with crime in the media. Minorities are more likely to be framed for illegal drug smuggling because of their association with America’s political enemies. Edward Said defines the Orient as America’s “contrasting image, idea, personality, experience” (Said 87). Since the Orient is America’s “contrasting image”, America has always attempted to put an “umbrella of Western hegemony” over the Orient. This is because America, according to Edward Said, views the Far East as something is very strange and different, or “a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes” (Said 87). Not only does America view the Far East as a place of “haunting memories and landscapes”, America according to Benedict, “confus [es] hereditary traits with traits which are socially acquired” (Benedict 113). Racial profiling for drugs happens because American police associates certain “hereditary traits” of minorities with behaviors of people in America’s