Racial Profiling?

ooolalalolo · September 2011

I saw this blog post about flying on 9/11. It's a half Arab, half Jewish gal who got detained along with two Indian men because someone reported something suspicious. http://shebshi.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/some-real-shock-and-awe-racially-profiled-and-cuffed-in-detroit/

I know we've discussed this type of topic before and thought this might be of interest to some of you. Certainly I have my views on this, but what I find the most difficult in the blog post is the ignorance--how the Middle East seems to be thought of as some amorphous, homogeneous breeding ground for terrorists.

Tofumonkey · September 2011

What that woman went through is terrifying.

Tofumonkey · September 2011

Yes, racial profiling is wrong. However, that's not even the part that is sticking with me. It's that she was publicly humiliated, hauled off a plane in handcuffs and held for hours being ignored with zero explanation as to why she was there - was treated like a common criminal for hours on end, strip searched on camera, orfices probed and then still held for a number of hours, questioned, investigated and then everything was supposedly okay because well hey, you took the risk flying on 9/11????

Tofumonkey · September 2011

And honestly, what would have happened if she had had her children with her? Would they have separated her from her children?

I'm having a panic attack just thinking about this.

ooolalalolo · September 2011

Tofu, I absolutely agree with you that what she went through is terrifying. And the response from the authorities according to the AP is that this is 'what the public expects.' I wonder if the public would feel this way if they had to be subjected to what this woman went through--for no reason other than one guy was sick to his stomach, and the other guy from her row happened to have to pee about the same time. (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9PN2D400.htm).

ukyankee · September 2011

What frightens me is that my husband or his family could easily be detained that way and I'd go up in arms about it. What that woman had to go through is frightening and horrible. and I think we've taken things WAY to far in the name of security.

Tofumonkey · September 2011

I remember reading somewhere recently, could be when the TSA was being all mental recently, that this is a pretty good indication that the terrorists won.

azure_azure · September 2011

ukyankee:
What frightens me is that my husband or his family could easily be detained that way and I'd go up in arms about it. What that woman had to go through is frightening and horrible. and I think we've taken things WAY to far in the name of security.

Exactly this!

H and I flew on Sept 10-11th 2002. He was detained and questioned at security and then again detained on the boarding tunnel (I have no idea what it is called) just before entering the plane. ALL the passengers saw him being questioned. Once we were finally on our flight, we overheard other passengers talking about how they were nervous because he was on our flight. I was disgusted and H was really hurt, when we heard some people saying in French when we were getting off that "thank god he is getting off our plane" It was a flight from Vancouver with a stop in Seattle (where we were connecting) and onto Portland.

Unfortunately for my H and his family it's been like this ever since.

myblueangel19 · September 2011

That makes me sick to my stomach.

aMrsin09 · September 2011

Azure, please tell me you guys answered back in French. I hate it when people get all rude and snarky in a foreign language assuming that no one can understand them.

MrsBini10 · September 2011

ukyankee:
What frightens me is that my husband or his family could easily be detained that way and I'd go up in arms about it. What that woman had to go through is frightening and horrible. and I think we've taken things WAY to far in the name of security.

This for me too. My H isn't Muslim but he is "brown" and from a country with a substantial Muslim population. It makes me sick to think he could be subjected to this crap.

azure_azure · September 2011

aMrsin09:
Azure, please tell me you guys answered back in French. I hate it when people get all rude and snarky in a foreign language assuming that no one can understand them.

I wish we had said something. I think we were just so surprised, and really what could we say?

PittPurple · September 2011

This is so, so horrifying. I can't even imagine.

My brother and I have very Jewish names (until I married) and he looks middle eastern - darker skin and hair. We flew to my grandmother's right after 9/11 and he wore my dad's old israeli army jacket - he lived in it then, and we didn't even think about it. We were stopped everywhere and they started dragging him off into one of the small rooms before our second flight for questioning, I panicked and started crying and yelling and they stopped and just asked us a few questions. He took off the jacket and shoved it in his bag and the retun flight was a bit easier although they still questioned us in a separate line. It was really frightening to see who they pulled aside - all the darker skinned people, people with interesting names, people dressed in interesting ways... while everyone else just went about their day.

hamilton.ja · September 2011

The thing in there that I'm not sure if it makes me feel better or worse is that at least it wasn't the authorities doing the profiling - it was the passengers and crew. Idiotic and horrible to assume three dark skinned people in a row are terrorists - of course. But, somehow, it makes me feel just an inkling better that it wasn't the authorities who made that assumption. Still horrible any way you swing it so I'm not sure I'm explaining that right....

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