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I'd speculate that they're really just looking for any indication of understanding the question, rather than a complete and correct answer. To the extent that's

I'd speculate that they're really just looking for any indication of understanding the question, rather than a complete and correct answer. To the extent that's true, it's not entirely unreasonable.

alphonsegaston 10y ago
Hey instead of speculating, I dunno, why just not listen to what happened from the person it happened to? He says in the same thread that he was asked 10 questions and only the "wikipedia answers" were acceptable. Americans elected a racist who has empowered racists to act as they see fit. This is the world now.
- oh_sigh 10y ago
  You certainly lend a lot of credulity to something which is essentially a series of tweets right now. I'm not sure how this story could be confirmed, but it seems like you've already made up your mind as to the what, how and why of what happened.
  - colemickens 10y ago
    Do you actually have some other interpretation or take on this event? Or are you just desperately looking for any reason to not admit how incredibly fucked up this is?
  - alphonsegaston 10y ago
    Yeah, I mean it's not like they did the same thing two weeks ago: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stories/aussies-weird-immigration-interview-in-the-us/news-story/8222c65d2f12e6691ef27c9b1753e821 http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stori... Or harassed and intimidated a 70-year old children's book author: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/australian-childrens-author-mem-fox-detained-by-us-border-control-i-sobbed-like-a-baby https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/australian-c... Or almost deported a visiting Holocaust scholar: http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-almost-deports-visiting-Holocaust-scholar-482609#article=6017ODBEQzY5MUVERUNDMjc2NDYxMUMwN0Q5RUQzODNBNjY= http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-almost-deports-visiting-Holoc... Or maybe, just maybe, I come from a family of immigrants who has seen people around him treated this way even before we elected a racist reality tv star as POTUS.
    - pfarnsworth 10y ago
      Stuff like this happens all the time, the press never picked up on it until Trump came into power. I posted a story of a close friend who got denied entry at the border and banned for 10 years. I've heard other stories where friends of friends )I met them and talked with them) were accused of being strippers or hookers flying to Vegas and being banned for 10 years as well. All during Obama's time, so it's not new. Border guards are facists. And all 3 of those stories you provide are non-Muslims, and 2 of them are white Australians, so it's not directly a "racist" event.
      - nikdaheratik 10y ago
        There was also Mohammed Ali, Jr. this past weekend who was a US Citizen but still got detained. A schoolteacher from England who was refused entry, a Canadian Student-Athlete was was refused entry two weeks ago, all three of these are Muslims. Also, at least two US Citizens who were denied global travel cards even though they were businessmen who travel frequently, both Muslims. And it doesn't have to be a "racist" event. The administration literally said they wanted to "ban Muslims", this could be exactly the policy they wanted when they passed the Executive Order. And the only way to tell is to get Congress to do more digging.
        briandear 10y ago
        Global Travel cards? You mean Global Entry? The requirements for that program are rather strict -- lots of people are denied those, but only the Muslim denials make the news? How does Global Entry know someone is a Muslim? It isn't on the application.
        nikdaheratik 10y ago
        Here is the link: http://www.teenvogue.com/story/muslim-travelers-entering-the-us-are-having-their-global-entry-cards-revoked http://www.teenvogue.com/story/muslim-travelers-entering-the..., you can judge for yourself about whether the policy was fairly applied or not. The Administration opened themselves up to the question of whether they are unfairly targeting Muslims when they said they wanted to "ban Muslims" from coming to the U.S. and with all of their heated rhetoric on the campaign trail.
- nilkn 10y ago
  Do you have any evidence that this just started ~30 days ago after Trump's inauguration? It's entirely possible -- likely even -- that this has been going on for quite some time and the media is just more interested in reporting on it right now because they know it'll play into the Trump narrative. That doesn't justify the actions in any way, but it shows you how powerful the media are at forming narratives -- and how easy it is to fall for the trap.
  - alphonsegaston 10y ago
    There's no trap to fall into, I can literally pull up YouTube clips of Trump scapegoating immigrants at a moment's notice. Awful shit that happened under Obama (of which there is no shortage) is on Obama. Now? Trump owns it.
  - nikdaheratik 10y ago
    I don't know, and neither does anyone else because the people who are able to look into this are either running the show (the administration) or don't want to investigate (the Republicans in Congress). The best that the media can do is collect anecdotes and submit FOIA requests to see what they can find out.
  - tomlock 10y ago
    I think Trump may have kickstarted that narrative, because of that whole thing about Mexican immigrants (and some of them I'm sure are nice people), and how he banned the citizens of 7 countries from returning or entering the US. I think its fair to say this kind of treatment of people is nothing new - but to say the media is "forcing" a narrative here is hard to swallow. Trump has made it, at the very least, incredibly easy to create a narrative of racism for his detractors and the richard spencers of his supporters.
    - briandear 10y ago
      Let's back up a second: "Mexican Immigrants != Illegal Immigrants" One is a subset of the other and Trump's rhetoric was directed at illegal aliens and not "Immigrants." Allowing an innacurate narrative to propagate is part of the problem.
- umanwizard 10y ago
  The guy appears to have successfully entered the US (his tweet was sent from Manhattan), so apparently he passed their test. He also explicitly stated that he refused to answer the BST question and they moved on to other questions. Meaning it's not even speculation to claim that they weren't requiring an accurate answer to the BST question for entry: it's demonstrably true fact.

I'd speculate that they're really just looking for any indication of understanding the question, rather than a complete and correct answer. To the extent that's true, it's not entirely unreasonable.

alphonsegaston 10y ago

Hey instead of speculating, I dunno, why just not listen to what happened from the person it happened to? He says in the same thread that he was asked 10 questions and only the "wikipedia answers" were acceptable. Americans elected a racist who has empowered racists to act as they see fit. This is the world now.

oh_sigh 10y ago
You certainly lend a lot of credulity to something which is essentially a series of tweets right now. I'm not sure how this story could be confirmed, but it seems like you've already made up your mind as to the what, how and why of what happened.
- colemickens 10y ago
  Do you actually have some other interpretation or take on this event? Or are you just desperately looking for any reason to not admit how incredibly fucked up this is?
- alphonsegaston 10y ago
  Yeah, I mean it's not like they did the same thing two weeks ago: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stories/aussies-weird-immigration-interview-in-the-us/news-story/8222c65d2f12e6691ef27c9b1753e821 http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stori... Or harassed and intimidated a 70-year old children's book author: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/australian-childrens-author-mem-fox-detained-by-us-border-control-i-sobbed-like-a-baby https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/australian-c... Or almost deported a visiting Holocaust scholar: http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-almost-deports-visiting-Holocaust-scholar-482609#article=6017ODBEQzY5MUVERUNDMjc2NDYxMUMwN0Q5RUQzODNBNjY= http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-almost-deports-visiting-Holoc... Or maybe, just maybe, I come from a family of immigrants who has seen people around him treated this way even before we elected a racist reality tv star as POTUS.
  - pfarnsworth 10y ago
    Stuff like this happens all the time, the press never picked up on it until Trump came into power. I posted a story of a close friend who got denied entry at the border and banned for 10 years. I've heard other stories where friends of friends )I met them and talked with them) were accused of being strippers or hookers flying to Vegas and being banned for 10 years as well. All during Obama's time, so it's not new. Border guards are facists. And all 3 of those stories you provide are non-Muslims, and 2 of them are white Australians, so it's not directly a "racist" event.
    - nikdaheratik 10y ago
      There was also Mohammed Ali, Jr. this past weekend who was a US Citizen but still got detained. A schoolteacher from England who was refused entry, a Canadian Student-Athlete was was refused entry two weeks ago, all three of these are Muslims. Also, at least two US Citizens who were denied global travel cards even though they were businessmen who travel frequently, both Muslims. And it doesn't have to be a "racist" event. The administration literally said they wanted to "ban Muslims", this could be exactly the policy they wanted when they passed the Executive Order. And the only way to tell is to get Congress to do more digging.
      - briandear 10y ago
        Global Travel cards? You mean Global Entry? The requirements for that program are rather strict -- lots of people are denied those, but only the Muslim denials make the news? How does Global Entry know someone is a Muslim? It isn't on the application.
        nikdaheratik 10y ago
        Here is the link: http://www.teenvogue.com/story/muslim-travelers-entering-the-us-are-having-their-global-entry-cards-revoked http://www.teenvogue.com/story/muslim-travelers-entering-the..., you can judge for yourself about whether the policy was fairly applied or not. The Administration opened themselves up to the question of whether they are unfairly targeting Muslims when they said they wanted to "ban Muslims" from coming to the U.S. and with all of their heated rhetoric on the campaign trail.
nilkn 10y ago
Do you have any evidence that this just started ~30 days ago after Trump's inauguration? It's entirely possible -- likely even -- that this has been going on for quite some time and the media is just more interested in reporting on it right now because they know it'll play into the Trump narrative. That doesn't justify the actions in any way, but it shows you how powerful the media are at forming narratives -- and how easy it is to fall for the trap.
- alphonsegaston 10y ago
  There's no trap to fall into, I can literally pull up YouTube clips of Trump scapegoating immigrants at a moment's notice. Awful shit that happened under Obama (of which there is no shortage) is on Obama. Now? Trump owns it.
- nikdaheratik 10y ago
  I don't know, and neither does anyone else because the people who are able to look into this are either running the show (the administration) or don't want to investigate (the Republicans in Congress). The best that the media can do is collect anecdotes and submit FOIA requests to see what they can find out.
- tomlock 10y ago
  I think Trump may have kickstarted that narrative, because of that whole thing about Mexican immigrants (and some of them I'm sure are nice people), and how he banned the citizens of 7 countries from returning or entering the US. I think its fair to say this kind of treatment of people is nothing new - but to say the media is "forcing" a narrative here is hard to swallow. Trump has made it, at the very least, incredibly easy to create a narrative of racism for his detractors and the richard spencers of his supporters.
  - briandear 10y ago
    Let's back up a second: "Mexican Immigrants != Illegal Immigrants" One is a subset of the other and Trump's rhetoric was directed at illegal aliens and not "Immigrants." Allowing an innacurate narrative to propagate is part of the problem.
umanwizard 10y ago
The guy appears to have successfully entered the US (his tweet was sent from Manhattan), so apparently he passed their test. He also explicitly stated that he refused to answer the BST question and they moved on to other questions. Meaning it's not even speculation to claim that they weren't requiring an accurate answer to the BST question for entry: it's demonstrably true fact.