Post #4138457

2026-07-27 12:04 UTC

Then I was asked to pull my shirt up. Then he said that I have to take my pants off - not all the way off (so its fine!?), just to drop them below my knees. He rubbed my legs. He waved something around my genitals. He - more gently, in fairness - patted around my genitals. At no point did anyone tell me why I was selected for this treatment. Perhaps there was some indication that I had a weapon. I wish I could believe that I thought that was the most likely explanation. But the truth is that, while I don't think this is explicitly recognized in the individual minds of the security workers, this - the vast majority of these procedures - is about sending a message: You are a guest here. You are here because we *let* you be here. Don't get comfortable. Don't start fooling yourself into thinking you are one of *us*. You are suspicious because of your identity alone, and short of marrying an Israeli or becoming Jewish, you can't change that. 5/n

Replies (1)

@pjw@social.coop 2026-07-27 12:12

I don't fool myself into thinking that this is the worst experience at an airport that people commonly have. Israel is a country that has apartheid laws and has plausibly committed a genocide. People in the US are being kidnapped off the streets for speaking Spanish or just being brown. A bit of harassment at the airport is nothing. I guess the reasons I want to share this story are twofold (a) Selfishly, I wanted to vent because I am angry. (b) I know on a place like the Fediverse I'm largely preaching to the choir, but...I'm a straight white guy from the United States. I have felt and continue to be one of the most privileged people in the world. And this small taste of what it is like to be treated, time after time, as an inherently suspicious person, is (ironically and self-defeatingly from the hegemony's standpoint) radicalizing in a way that is hard to articulate. 6/6

Open ##4138456