Racial Profiling by Airlines and Passengers

Raed Jaffar was probably not looking to make much of a wave when he wore the t-shirt pictured at left on a recent trip from New York's JFK Airport. Still, when the crew and personnel at JetBlue caught sight of him, they requested that he put another t-shirt on top of the one he was wearing and was requested to sit at the back of the plane. Now I will admit that given the current atmosphere of the nation, it is not surprising that the airlines would take such measures. I mean after all, if you look at this picture you realize that perhaps Jaffar was a raving lunatic with box cutters in his hand luggage so it was best to restrain him in back. After all, the statement on his t-shirt could be taken many different ways and the inclusion of a statement in Arabic only added fuel to the fire.

In this case, I think Jaffar pushed the rules a bit too far and brought trouble on himself in this case. He has brought a case to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claiming that he was racially profiled and discriminated against because of his t-shirt. I feel that both sides have a case in this instance. One could argue that because he's wearing a shirt with Arabic writing which are making English statements like, "we will not be silent," it was possible that he was seeking to make some political statement that could have led to violence. Possible but not necessarily likely. In Jaffar's case he could argue that like Rosa Parks, he was refusing to go to the back of the bus. Symbolically of course. The statement on his t-shirt could have been interpreted to mean that the people of the Muslim faith would not remain silent about being discriminated against.

No one wants to admit to it but there is racial profiling going on all the time. For the sake of showing impartiality the TSA will occasionally pull aside a sweet old lady who will gladly subject herself to a scrutinized search in the name of safety but it all amounts to going through the motions. At the present time, terrorists are assumed to look only one way and that's with olive skin and black hair (facial hair is also likely). They wouldn't look like Timothy McVeigh or Robert Reed. They'd look like a close cousin to Osama bin Laden. I don't think there's anything wrong in admitting it. Why not? I mean it's going on anyways and I doubt the general public would raise a stink about it either because after all, 'they' are the problem right?

Still, I can attest to experiencing this type of behavior as well. Given the fact that I also have a light brown complexion and black hair, I have been mistaken for Muslim, Greek, Italian, and Hispanic (among other racial categories) and at times I wonder, do we all really look the same? I mean there are generic traits that all people share but is it fair to blanket everyone based on a few surface features? To give an example, on a recent flight I happened to be seated by myself when a family of four boarded the plane after me. At that time I was already in my seat listening to my iPod and reading a book. I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary and wasn't dressed in anything other than jeans and t-shirt (which had no writing on it whatsoever). When the family boarded, the woman noticed me and began speaking to her husband in very urgent tones while constantly looking in my direction.

Momentarily I thought that perhaps something was on my face or something so I casually rubbed my face to clean off any objects while turning down the volume on my iPod. I thought that perhaps they wanted to sit together so I was anticipating giving up my seat. Not that it would have mattered to me. Still, I overheard her mention to her husband that I was seated by myself and did he think I was a safe person. She was supposed to be sitting next to me and felt nervous about it. I could tell she was a nervous flier but I could also tell that she was judging me by my physical characteristics. So her husband sat next to me while she sat across the aisle. The entire flight she kept a close eye on me and when I reached to my bag to put my book away she was eyeing me the whole time.

When it came time to land, I swtiched off my iPod (as FAA regulations require) and tightened my seatbelt. My sentinel in the seat across the aisle kept watching me and as soon as I would move she would tense up. I guess I fit the profile and raised her suspicions. At the end of the flight I let them deplane first and then got up to go but I was happy to note that not a single other person even batted an eyebrow at a guy like me because the majority don't think I'm liable to try and take over a plane. Had I come on board the flight wearing a shirt like Jaffar, okay, I can understand the scrutiny then but even when my only similarity to the terrorists is complexion and hair color, should I be viewed with so much suspcion? We all do racial profiling, whether we work for the TSA or not, it's just that we are all ashamed to admit it.