I'm leaving today for California and since I'll be flying I'm bound to experience a fair amount of anxiety. I'm not *exactly* afraid of flying, but I also don't like the sensation. And in a post-9/11 world, it becomes more cumbersome to negotiate the airport.
I also feel a certain amount of anxiety about race--a type of racial paranoia not based in anything "real" because I don't even think I get targeted at airports (unlike other friends, who I believe ARE singled out, because they are of Muslim/Middle Eastern descent and/or look like they are of Arab ancestry I really can't say I have been taken out of line too often--of course now that I write that, I'm sure to be on the list of suspicious characters on this trip).
No, I think my anxiety is just due to the reality that you don't see a lot of people of color at airports--perhaps this is in correct proportions to the US racial demographics, but I'm always struck by how few people of color, esp. Asian Americans I see at airports outside of the West Coast.
And really, I just don't like to fly.
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Just as a follow up to this post, I wasn't taken out of line, but after going through security, my laptop bag was taken for "further inspection"--of course, perhaps they "saw" something on the scanner that they didn't like. At any rate, it only took them literally a minute to run the scan so it wasn't a big deal--perhaps it was only about 30 seconds. But I can imagine that if this is happening to you consistently (or worse yet, you keep getting hauled out and subject to the full body scan treatment) it would get old really fast.
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