verte76 said:
I agree, Martha. Why should anyone who's dark-skinned and of Asiatic heritage necessarily get checked? After all, Al-Qaeda has adherents with all sorts of European heritage, and they are getting through without getting checked. The "shoe-bomber" was a Brit, for heaven's sakes.
Well said.
I didn't respond to this yesterday because, after being awake for 2 days on the trot and watching the news all day, I wasn't exactly at my most articulate.
I'm an Englishwoman, born and bred, apart from 3 years spent living in the USA. My family is originally Asian. Although my skintone is quite light for an Indian - not that
that matters at all - it's easy to see that I am of Asian descent.
I flew from London to Amsterdam on September 15th 2001, with my friend Emma. Emma has very pale skin. When we went through the security checks to board the plane, I was wondering whether my skintone would have any effect on the way I was treated. Emma and I went through totally seperately. They didn't give me a second glance - in fact, it was Emma they stopped and searched... they made her take off her bracelet. Why? It had a rubber spike on it. I had no problems anywhere on our travels on that occasion, which, knowing how idiotic people can be, gave me something of a nice surprise.
A year later I travelled by train to my mum's in Switzerland. When we had crossed the border between Belgium and France, 3 security guard customs men (with guns, I might add), came round. They asked for my passport completely at random. So I showed them, and of course they saw I was a British citizen. Didn't stop them interrogating me for 10 minutes
They went through my suitcase. They frisked me. I knew damn well that they had no right to do so, there was no female guard there, but I was so shocked that I didn't argue. They also went through my hand luggage, and read all my personal letters from my fiance. I snatched my bag off them when they were about to leave me alone at long last.
One of the bastards leered at me and said "is there a problem?" My response was "where I come from, we don't treat visitors like dogs". They didn't have anything to say to that and left.
All because of the way I look. Nobody else on those carriages got 'searched'.
I'm quite happy to go through a ton of security checks, but I think this should apply to everyone. Profiling that doesn't account for criminals of various backgrounds, being based purely upon ethnicity, isn't going to stop the crime. That's what's known as common sense. If you're gonna single someone out because of their appearance and your prejudice, then I have a major problem with you.