a woman i know visited the states recently from the arab world. she
wound up at three different airports, catching different planes and
such, and at each one her luggage was marked for special treatment,
searching, last on the plane and first off, she wasn't allowed to check
it ahead of time. at each airport she was told that she was chosen at
random. right. have i mentioned she's arab? darker than me, with an
identifiably arab name.
when i was a kid one of my cousins once spent a couple hours locked
up in a little room being questioned by airport security. i think he
missed his plane because of it, but it was a long time ago and i'm not
sure.
my sister used to get off on making terrorist cracks in airports,
joking about the bombs and such. i was never terribly comfortable with
that but i didn't much think about it either. it was like joking that
my dad was a terrorist when the kids in my school asked what he did--arab=terrorist,
right? i knew enough to make that joke when i was still too young to
understand what an economist was.
i'm light, and american, and my name isn't recognizably arab to most
of the idiots who don't like us. i don't get hassled in airports. i
was never directly physically threatened during the gulf war, although
certainly i got nervous when people made violent comments about sandniggers
in front of me.
some dykes on a listserve i'm subscribed to are talking about carrying
sex toys through customs. i did it myself, recently, taking a couple
dicks and a flogger and a vibrator with me when i visited minneapolis.
even when my lover referred to me as he in front of an airport official
holding my female id, i wasn't stopped, questioned, searched. none of
my toys were spread out to be examined, laughed over, confiscated. so
why am i so damn angry?
i hate travelling. i never expect to make it back home.
and i really hate airports.