Stilly River Sage,

If I break into my own house and the police are called to investigate, are the police using sexual profiling? Are they assuming that, as a male, I must be guilty? Wouldn't they investigate if the breaker-in was a woman? Wouldn't they ask her for some evidence that it was indeed her house?

If I yell "sexism" at the investigating policewoman, and she charges me with disturbing the peace, she might be guilty of over-reacting, and she might even be guilty of over-reacting due to sexism. One thing of which she would not be guilty is sexual profiling.

Had she suspected me (on the basis of my gender) of something which she did not observe, she would be profiling. In this case, however, she didn't suspect that I was in the house, but rather she observed that I was in the house. She did not suspect that I yelled "sexism", but rather she observed that I yelled "sexism". Depending on how I had yelled, her response might be considered reasonable, or understandable, or lame, or ludicrous, or insane. But she did not suspect me of anything on the basis of my gender and therefore, however wrong-headed or even sexist she may be, she's not guilty of sexual profiling.   

I am not defending or condemning either Gates or the police officer. I don't know either of them and I wasn't there. My point is this: if everything Dr. Gates said was precisely accurate, and everything the policeman said was wrong, what occurred was not racial profiling. I do not doubt that racial profiling occurs.    This was not an example of it.

Kent