Wanded for being nonwhite

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | 10/10/02 | Terry Hong

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Wanded for being nonwhite By Terry Hong WASHINGTON – "Call it as you see it," one of my editors says to me as we exchange stories of travel hassles. So let me do so in national print: Racial profiling is rampant in airports.

"Random computer-determined searches," I'm told. "Your ticket has been randomly flagged," they insist. "We're searching every eighth person," I hear. E-mail this story

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Call it what you will. But I literally can't remember the last time I made it on to an airplane without being quietly pulled aside and asked to open all my bags.

Last time, a little old lady who so sweetly approached me with, "Ma'am, may I randomly search you, please?" actually lifted up my shirt high enough to expose quite a bit of midriff to make sure it was just the button holding my pants closed that was causing her wand to beep.

Only the reminder of the loaded rifles all around me kept me from smacking her hand away.

Post-Sept. 11, I realize we're living in an era of heightened airport security. And I do my best to cooperate without fuss, without grumbling, without confrontation. I take off my shoes – I keep them loosely tied so they just slip right back on – I open up my bags and any zippered compartments without being asked, I sit quietly on the designated plastic chair while everything is swabbed and wanded, including me.

I've made 17 trips since Memorial Day. I've passed through many cities by air, including Washington, San Francisco, Atlanta, Tallahassee, New York, Dallas, San Diego, Los Angeles, and London. And I have not left a single airport without being chosen "at random."

I'm Asian-American. While I might not necessarily resemble the post-Sept. 11 enemy, I do look different.

Being an ethnic minority in a country where a "real" American connotes white European descent has always been a problematic liability, made even more so since Sept. 11.

Never mind that people who look like me have been in this country since the 1700s, helped build the transcontinental railroads in the 1800s, and created the country's agricultural infrastructure system in the early 1900s. Never mind that people who looked like me comprised the most decorated unit during World War II even while their families were being held in concentration camps throughout the Western states.

And never mind that people who looked like me helped to save and care for victims of Sept. 11 alongside all the other heroes on that tragic day.

Regardless of our long history in this country, people who look like me are still considered the "other."

According to a report – aptly titled "Backlash: When America Turned on Its Own" – released this March by the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC), racial violence against Asian-Americans, particularly darker-skinned South Asians, has spiked significantly nationwide since the events of Sept. 11.

The "You're either with us or with the terrorists" mentality spouted by President Bush has resulted in a misplaced, overly zealous patriotism, where people who might vaguely resemble the enemy are being locked away without evidence, and deported en masse. In some communities, Asian-Americans are being harassed, bullied, injured, and even killed.

So here's the obvious: I stand out. I know without a doubt that I am an easy "random" choice. Unfortunately, the more often my two very young children travel with me, the more "randomly" they are chosen, as well.

My 4-year-old son is quickly becoming a favorite. On our last family trip, in both directions to and from London, my son was again wanded for hidden metal, his small sneakers removed and checked, his backpack filled with travel toys emptied and examined in great detail and finally his blunt, plastic, kid-safe scissors confiscated.

Small price for security, I know. But as the guard commented, laughing to another guard, "Look, the little boy already knows what do to," as my son stood before her, arms outstretched in a "T." My frustrated comments of "For heaven's sake, he's only 4 years old!" were met with, "Ma'am, it's all random, it's just the computer."

Yeah, sure. Random. Right.

NAPALC at least has no illusions: On its informative website (www.napalc.org) is a report called "Airport Profiling" with clear directions on how to file a formal complaint against the overzealous. "The U.S. Department of Transportation's Air Consumer Protection Division is receiving and documenting complaints of profiling and discrimination at airports," the site reveals.

At least I know I'm not alone.

• Terry Hong is a freelance writer.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Too bad, so sad.

[July 4th]

Note to Asian woman: I am a white male in my early 20's. I am searched all of the time. I make jokes with the security people, yes I think it sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it if I want to fly. I don't need a support group to tell me I'll be ok.

Sidenote to airport personnel: Asians, most likely, are not Muslim terrorists. Please search the swarthy-looking twenty-something men with wires protruding from their shoes.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Awwww. Poor baby. Wanded for being non-white.

Meanwhile, in Wichita, there several families mourning their dead who were all murdered because they were white.

But that's OK. They are just white people, it's not like anyone cares about them or anything like that. It is much more important to be sensitive to the feeling of non-whites that it is to care about the white people who are robbed and raped and murdered every day for no other reason but that they are considered "easy prey" by the criminal classes of America.

But no, we must instead worry about the feelings of someone because they were "wanded".

Here's a suggestion. Move somewhere else!

[xjcsa]

I'm a young white male, *and* an airline employee (Ground Security Coordinator, no less), and I get wanded almost every time I travel. Columns like this always make me want to straighten people out on how the whole thing actually works, since I'm one of the people who implements the whole security thing. Unfortunately, anything I said would risk breaking the law, as all of our procedures are considered "law enforcement sensitive." Of course that doesn't stop it from being published in USA Today a day after it comes out.... Anyway I basically figure the less everyone understands how airline security works, the better. When you tell people how security works you risk giving them ideas of how to get around it.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

I've just googled up this Terry Hong.

Here's the goods on her!

She's married to a wealthy non-Asian WHITE guy who was supposed to be president of NASDAQ but he turned it down.

She's freelance, but it appears that he's footing all her bills, and everything she writes is how the WHITE MAN oppresses her because she's Asian!

She's a piece of work this one.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Never mind that people who look like me have been in this country since the 1700s, helped build the transcontinental railroads in the 1800s, and created the country's agricultural infrastructure system in the early 1900s. Never mind that people who looked like me comprised the most decorated unit during World War II even while their families were being held in concentration camps throughout the Western states.

People who look like you are beheading tourists and bombing anything you can in the southern Philippines. I hope you get wanded until you're nads fall off.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

I forgot that Terry is a woman.

I hope they wand you until.........never mind

[Betty Jane]

I'm a late thirties white female and I am also searched on each and every leg of every trip I have taken since last September, except my last leg of my last trip on September 6 2002. On that leg, my husband and his laptop were searched and my eight year old's back pack was ransacked. The only time I have seen any minority searched was a 40'ish black male, wearing a suit, with a pronounced limp and a deformed hand. It took that man several minutes to get his shoes back on and to gather his things again.

My sister in law also had the same wonderful experience as I. also if you want to park at Denver Airport, your car will be searched. Most people get a quick glance in the window. I on the other hand have had every door opened and security looking under each seat. Then again I do drive a white van.

[Political Junkie Too]

Having just finished a round of travel, I noticed something peculiar at the Atlanta Hartsfield airport. I was early to my gate and the flight wasn't scheduled to depart for another hour. As I was walking to the gate, I noticed two things: 1) the area was practically empty, and 2) following me was a woman in her thirties, large chested, tight waisted, and blond. I wandered around the shops a bit and grabbed a sandwich before heading back to the gate. Guess who was the first person to be gate-searched? That's right, the blond woman.

-PJ

[USNBandit]

Maybe she gets the treatment because she travels on one way tickets. That is what gets me wanded. I'm a naval officer and often travel on one way tickets. Despite being on orders and carrying a military ID I am always checked a security and 80% of the time at the gate.

[Slyfox]

My brother-in-law just took a job as an airport security agent. I asked him how the people are determined that he will search and he said, "My boss doesn't want to see me idle, so whoever is standing there and I'm not busy, they get picked."

[mrustow]

This has to get some kind of booby prize for dishonest title. ("Most Dishonest Title of the Day ... Hour ... Minute"?)

[BikerTrash]

Never mind that people who looked like me comprised the most decorated unit during World War II even while their families were being held in concentration camps throughout the Western states.

And they endured hardships to the trillionth power over what you're talking about and probably bitched a lot less about it. They should smack you in the friggin' head with the wand.

[spodefly]

I am a 43 year old white male who travels wearing business clothes. I have short hair, blue green eyes, and look pretty much like a standard issue business dood that has to travel. Since 9/11 I have flown maybe 25 times. I have been searched (pulled aside, wanded, shoes off, etc.) probably 85% of those times, sometimes even twice per trip to the gate (once at xray, and again at the gate.)

Ms. Whiney "they searched me because I'm non white" Asian (hyphen)American can kiss my a$$.

[ImaGraftedBranch]

I have found the key to NOT getting searched. I take about 100 flights a year.

After 9/11, I was picked for inspection on every single flight. 23 times straight, I was picked out.

On a whim, I decided to check my luggage (which I had ALWAYS carried-on in the past). The result? Not picked. Not once, on the next three trips, was I selected, after 23 straight selections.

I can't STAND to wait for my luggage -- I like to get the rental car immediately and get to the hotel.

So, I decided I would fulfill the remainder of the experiment, and carry on again.

BINGO!

If you don't check your bags, it is noted. It is something that I will deal with.

After flying 700,000+ miles on the same airline the past several years, you'd think they could make a case for an exemption every now and then. Common sense is not in play, however.

[libertarian_au]

Last time i flew into SF airport i got searched,questioned twice,my info put into a computer and all the contents of my suitcase taken out.It took almost an hour to get from customs to a taxi.All because i accidentally called the African American customs officer 'mate'.

Yeah,sure.Random.Right.

[DWSUWF]

"...In some communities, Asian-Americans are being harassed, bullied, injured, and even killed..."

LOL!

Name ONE Oriental who's been 'killed' in an American community in reprisal for the 911 attack Terry.

Just one.