Saenz: A Summary and Response

Saenz: A Summary and Response

In today’s society, racial profiling is not unheard of; actually it is quite common. It is still at debate whether the act of racial profiling in moral or not. In Saenz’s essay, Exile. El Paso, Texas, he describes his personal experience of discrimination due to his ethnic background. Saenz is a Mexican-American and because he lives in El Paso, which is a border town, he is often mistaken for an illegal immigrant. Saenz is stopped on the streets of his neighborhood and questioned by border patrol. On one such occasion, Saenz becomes annoyed and says to himself, “…pretty soon I’ll have to carry a passport in my own neighborhood.” Saenz describes his anger and despair brought by the discrimination he experiences in El Paso. Saenz attempts to show the reader what it is like to be the subject of racial profiling and show the impact of racial profiling on the individual. Saenz effectively does this through his color symbolism, and tonal s...