Personally I feel ...we should obey the rules while in an airliner ...because its not our home ....there are some manners to keep in our mind before going for a trip.if we keep ourself problem free then nothing will be there...no question of under suspicion.
I travel pretty frequently throughout the US and Canada. I havent experienced any racial profiling. For the most part, I find the TSA authorities extremely civil. One has to realize they are just doing their job and making it safer for all passengers.
What can we do, when so many of these terror suspects are from Pakistan, who have the same feature as the middle class Indians? We cannot do anything beyond praying to avoid over-exposure to humiliation when trying to board a flight in USA to be specific and even in UK and rest of Europe. I used to travel ever week when doing consulting inside USA; now I switched to local Wall Street jobs, so that I can take a bus/train instead of a flight. Even then, we can see the distinct attention we draw when in any public transportation or even walking in the street. If our office bag is big [maybe with tiffin box or laptops inside], it might look like a suspicious load. Its painful when being permanent employees you see, other newer employees or temporary consultants go by without much attention. But thats the normal now in West. Whether for good or bad, difference between black and white has almost disappeared at least openly after 9/11. Hopefully someday Middle East will change with all the pressure and then Pakistan will change; those are the time we are all looking forward to.
True. There definitly exists racial profilling among asians, and more among people with brown or darker skin, and now it is extended to the language they speak. When I was going in to the airport to send off my father who was coming home to chennai from Australia, the security stopped me at the gate and told me to read a borad. The board said someting like this; "The security personnel has the right to stop any person at random and checked, and if you have any problem being checked, please let us know...." and it goes like that. Why me. I dont see why I was selected instead of the white caucaisan male walking in before me, or infact a dozen white people before me. This has happned for a long time, and racial discrimination is still alive and everywhere; yesterday it was at the work place, today its in cricket and the planes, and tomorrow, I dont know.
Its a precautionary step, which sometimes goes beyond control. In this particular case of the Bombay bound aircraft being grounded, it makes sense because the passengers did not listen to the instructions and were arrogant. It does make the atmosphere a bit suspicious and the background for the last two weeks is such that, the air crew had to make a prompt decision, which they did.
A person belonging to certain "racial community" or because they speak in a alien language are not valid reasons, by any means to arrest/interrogate them.
RE:reply
by Raj on Aug 28, 2006 09:38 AM Permalink
Hi Easwar,
I was judicious in using words, because to me thats exactly how a sensible Indian would feel by stupid act of a fellow Indian!
I am pretty sure people of America have demonstrated enough on their streets about how ashamed they are for invasion of Iraq.
Anyway, I sincerely hope my fellow Indians learn things fast when they travel to other countries. Good thing is that we are far better compared to people from many other countries, except for few exeptions (idiots).
What do we expect the crew and fellow passegers to do with such idiots? They were supposedely asked number of times to sit down, not do things whicha re not to be done on board. They were fools it seems, and the crew did what ought to be done.
I have travelled in US, and there is not an iota of racism here. We may infact be more racist than them. If we dont act against terrorism in the name of our so called secularism, pls dont expect that no one else should.
I support the action what was done. If some one acts suspiciously, the authorities should act, and there is bound to be some incoveneince, thats OK. If we Indians dont act, rather than finding faults, we should learn.
By the way, with all the bombings and almost all linked to either Gulf or South Asia, what do we expect the world to behave? Love us?
RE:Are passengers racially profiled
by Easwar on Aug 25, 2006 08:46 PM Permalink
Hey Raj,
You dont have to feel ashamed of anything. There are rotten people in every nationality. In this airline harrasment case, it might be plain ignorance or indifference, thus both the crew & the "mis-behaving" passegers have contributed to the confusion.
Indians are travelling a lot more now than any of the previous generations, & there is a learning curve when it come to foreign cultures etc. So dont go over board saying that these guys made you feel ashamed to be an Indian.. did Iraq invasion by the American president make all the self-respecting Americans feel the same way?
Think about it & be judicious in shooting words, just for the effect!
I am of Indian origin, now an Aussie citizen. I have never been treated racially but some of the acts of my fellow Indians has made me feel so sick, and probably this bad image created by some idiots is carried forward in the minds of people from other country.
Some people who travel overseas forget that they represent India and they MUST learn things quickly so that their behaviour does not creat bad impression about all of us or make others suffer as it happened in Amsterdam. Just for 12 idiots on board an international carrier, hunders suffered.
Following incident made me so shameful because a fellow Indians behaved so stupidly:
Onboard a Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to Mumbai, one Indian chap smoked in the lavatory thinking no one can catch him, knowing well that smoking is completely banned. He was later detained.
Another Indian in the same flight shifted himself from front to the rear while lunch was surved so that he could get two boxes of lunch. Stewardess literally shouted at him and shifted him back to his original place.
What impression these incidents about we Indians in same flight would have created on people from other nations or the crew?
Yes, of course air passengers are racially profiled. What do you expect, when they blow up building and cause death? This is a known fact.
There is a big cultural difference between US/Europe and Asia. Understanding and communication forms a big layer of difference. The west is not as tolerant as Asian countries in dealing with and understanding the Asian foreigners. Asian is very liberal in letting the Americans and Europeans do what they want to do according to their culture. They can move around in Asian courtiers with out any problems like the ones faced by Asians when they have to pass through the security gates of the Americans and Europeans.
If American carry a cell phone in a flight in Asian countries Asians will tell polite and all probability they will listen.
If Asian does the same and American first suspect and the communication some times does not reach the Asian. Probably put more Asians in Asian bound flights so that they can communicate better and avoid this unnecessary cancellation.
Before 911, one survey report in US showed that Muslims population is growing beyond 2million and that was more than than Jews populations. Next thing you hear is 911. Just like pearl harbor (military installation) was the reason to Nuke Japanese civilian (another asian nation), similarly 911 was used to bomb and saughter muslim in IRAQ ofcourse death of millions of iragi Kids because of embargo didn't satisfy the thirst of few Pseudo-Secularist nation where every citizen is tracked through numbers. Further, US, UK and few European nations have already understood that their real face has already been exposed because of globalization. So, tricks like terrorism, illegal immigration etc will be used to harass every non white. These "Safeda"(color less folks) can't compete with God chosen brown folks (including moses, jesus, Bhudha etc and thus you will see prosecution and injustice. Indian government must learn from BJP when they took malasia to task for insulting Indian. It is time to arrest few Europeans as terrrorists who funds NGOs who are against Indian cultures.
