Comments on: Flying While Brown? – Part I

By: ekta

ekta — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:40:59 +0000

while i agree that face is the mirror of the mind, i dont think airport officials should totally depend on these alone for questionning someone…….i say this because even though i dont mean any harm, i get scared everytime these security officers stop me or ask any questions to me……

By: Johnny Valker

Johnny Valker — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:34:04 +0000

I’ve flown El Al twice and I didn’t feel discriminated against. The standard array of questions “why are you coming to Israel?” “who packed your bags?” “do you have any weapons?”, etc. were asked to both Jews and non-Jews. I was a young brown male traveling alone, and the whole questioning process took all of five minutes. the only extra procedure i had to go through was the anthrax swab, but all the other Gentiles faced this too, including a blonde haired blue eyed woman and her child.

it doesn’t hurt either that the girls asking the questions are all good looking

By: saurabh

saurabh — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:34:40 +0000

Let me be the first, apparently, to complain about Vinod’s egregious abuse of apostrophes. For shame, man!

By: Kurma

Kurma — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:21:29 +0000

Just returned from my first post 9/11/2001 trip with the lowest number of special security checks (only one). Yaay! I think this has nothing to do with my appearance though, although it might have something to do with my age and country of birth.

This micro-expression stuff sounds good if executed properly, but as others noted earlier, it might simply devolve into racial profiling.

By: Girish

Girish — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:21:27 +0000

10 Â· Manju said

http://www.break.com/index/indian-guy-has-panic-attack-on-plane.html

OMG..Thats the funniest comment..i broke out laughing like a maniac in my office…i guess ill be shouting “you mu%%^%^F’in people shoot me” if they gave me red label instead of black..

By: tamasha

tamasha — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:15:05 +0000

What about the fact that many of us are already completely freaked out/annoyed/angry about the way we're treated at TSA checkpoints in the first place?!

That's what I was going to say. I get so nervous now around people in uniform. I'm sure I'm emitting some sort of fear-amones (ha ha, get it?).

When I flew into Tel Aviv when I was 17, I was asked all kinds of questions (What languages does your father speak? Uhm Marathi?) - this was before 9/11 (duh). I had never, and have never, felt that unwelcome anywhere.

By: Desi Fury

Desi Fury — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:59:54 +0000

I had just landed in Atlanta from Heathrow, where I had a miserable time, standing in long lines to get searched. I was sitting down at my gate, waiting to catch a flight to LAX. I covered my face with my hands trying to take a short nap, hoping and praying that it would take care of throbbing headache. Then this annoying middle-aged white ‘lady’ suddenly wakes me up and asks me, “Are you praying?” in a very serious manner. She then proceeds to ask me a bunch of questions. I am thinking to myself, “Lady! Get Lost!”, but being the sensible, diplomatic desi that I am, I decided to play along. She explains that she is an air hostess catching a flight back home. In the guise of making polite conversation, she was obviously trying to find out if I was a terrorist. After she was satisfied and left me alone, my headache disappeared.

By: HarlemSun

HarlemSun — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 18:59:26 +0000

Patrick Smith recently wrote an excellent summary of the Orwellian comedy that is U.S. airport security.

http://tinyurl.com/2qjyb2

“Americans can now pay to have their personal information put on file just to avoid the hassle of airport security. As cynical as George Orwell ever was, I doubt he imagined the idea of citizens offering up money for their own subjugation…How we got to this point is an interesting study in reactionary politics, fear-mongering and a disconcerting willingness of the American public to accept almost anything in the name of Ã¢â‚¬Å“security.Ã¢â‚¬Â Conned and frightened, our nation demands not actual security, but security spectacle.”

-SG

By: desidove

desidove — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:18:59 +0000

I’m glad I don’t live in Israel. They don’t much believe in privacy.

By: Shaad

Shaad — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 16:28:07 +0000

Personally, I think much of what TSA does is essentially "make-work" designed to assuage panicked Americans after 9/11 that the government is actually doing something. And yes, screening the baggage for guns and explosives is a reasonable precaution. But does anyone seriously think that things like plastic knives and box cutters constitute a threat now? Before 9/11, we were operating under a paradigm that hijackers of a plane simply wanted some form of ransom (money or released prisoners) or wanted to flee to some other nation; passengers were more willing to simply wait it out. But now that paradigm has changed; given that the passengers now believe that they will simply die if they don't do anything, any hijacker on board a plane is likely to be swarmed and beaten to a pulp by a mob of passengers.

The question, of course, is with a 99% false positive rate, with only minor criminals (and not terrorists) being caught, and with the possible creation of thoughtcrimes, is behavioral targetting worth it?