5 ms·

Decidedly anecdotal: Not the OP but I am brown like Indian with a non-Muslim name and have never had any extra scrutiny at security, except for one "random" scr

Decidedly anecdotal: Not the OP but I am brown like Indian with a non-Muslim name and have never had any extra scrutiny at security, except for one "random" screening on my boarding pass that involved some TSA swab check. I am a citizen, but I haven't heard of any non-citizen family friends or relatives that have expressed anything out of the ordinary.

refurb 10y ago
and have never had any extra scrutiny at security, except for one "random" screening on my boarding pass that involved some TSA swab check. Interesting. I'm a white guy and I've gone through secondary screening (swabs, detailed questions, etc) probably half a dozen times over the past 2-3 years. And I have a US passport!
- rosser 10y ago
  I've also been subject to secondary screening a lot more often than the GP, and am a white, native-born US citizen with a germanic surname.
- sdenton4 10y ago
  Discretionary secondary screenings can have a lot to do with appearing nonthreatening. If the guard has a quota to hit (even an unstated one) and wants to minimize effort spent on dumb secondary screenings, it pays to choose people who won't put up a struggle.
- DanAndersen 10y ago
  White American here. In the past 3-4 years (probably a couple dozen flights) I have gotten some level of patdowns and hand-swabs literally every single time I go through one of those millimeter-wave machines. Every time, without fail. My belief is that it's because I had gone through some pretty substantial weight loss in the past, and so my body skin/muscle/fat density is all screwy around the midsection, and thus it sets the machine off.
  - exclusiv 10y ago
    My white buddy got stopped and frisked traveling around Europe with me every time. He has a legit beard. They even asked if they could put their hands inside his pants (inside the waist band). Beards are suspect these days no matter what your background.
- zem 10y ago
  perhaps they profiled too many brown people and had to make their numbers look 'random' again (:
arjie 10y ago
I'm possibly the most incompetent traveler ever, and I haven't yet been pulled aside for extra scrutiny. But my mum has, and she's far more careful than I am with all her documents. If there's one thing I've learned from attempting to replicate bugs, it's that if something affects even as much as one in four people, it'll look hunky dory to thrice as many people as it looks awful to.
sandworm101 10y ago
> ...anything out of the ordinary. I'm Canadian. White. Blonde. I'm often mistaken for a soldier. After possibly hundreds of trips in and out of the US spanning four decades, last month the guy at YVR asked me "what religion are you?" That was strange. I didn't have a ready answer and I'm someone who always has a ready answer for boarder guards. I actually said "Well, when my grandfather died we had a ceremony at a church. Is that enough?" Have you ever been arrested? No. Have you ever been finger printed? Yes. Have you ever been to the middle east? Yes. Are you carrying food? No. What religion are you? .... wtf did that become a thing?
- nojvek 10y ago
  Officer watched too much homeland?
  - sandworm101 10y ago
    That's only slightly funny. In the dark days of GWB (2002-2007) I saw many interviews where interrogators, from boarder guards to military people, said they took guidance from popular TV shows. The breakdown in mid-level management, a lack of clear standards and procedures, meant that otherwise rational people felt it appropriate to take ideas from TV. The writers of 24 were visibly upset when confronted with evidence that intel people took "interrogation" ideas from their show.

refurb 10y ago

and have never had any extra scrutiny at security, except for one "random" screening on my boarding pass that involved some TSA swab check. Interesting. I'm a white guy and I've gone through secondary screening (swabs, detailed questions, etc) probably half a dozen times over the past 2-3 years. And I have a US passport!

rosser 10y ago
I've also been subject to secondary screening a lot more often than the GP, and am a white, native-born US citizen with a germanic surname.
sdenton4 10y ago
Discretionary secondary screenings can have a lot to do with appearing nonthreatening. If the guard has a quota to hit (even an unstated one) and wants to minimize effort spent on dumb secondary screenings, it pays to choose people who won't put up a struggle.
DanAndersen 10y ago
White American here. In the past 3-4 years (probably a couple dozen flights) I have gotten some level of patdowns and hand-swabs literally every single time I go through one of those millimeter-wave machines. Every time, without fail. My belief is that it's because I had gone through some pretty substantial weight loss in the past, and so my body skin/muscle/fat density is all screwy around the midsection, and thus it sets the machine off.
- exclusiv 10y ago
  My white buddy got stopped and frisked traveling around Europe with me every time. He has a legit beard. They even asked if they could put their hands inside his pants (inside the waist band). Beards are suspect these days no matter what your background.
zem 10y ago
perhaps they profiled too many brown people and had to make their numbers look 'random' again (:

arjie 10y ago

I'm possibly the most incompetent traveler ever, and I haven't yet been pulled aside for extra scrutiny. But my mum has, and she's far more careful than I am with all her documents. If there's one thing I've learned from attempting to replicate bugs, it's that if something affects even as much as one in four people, it'll look hunky dory to thrice as many people as it looks awful to.

sandworm101 10y ago

> ...anything out of the ordinary. I'm Canadian. White. Blonde. I'm often mistaken for a soldier. After possibly hundreds of trips in and out of the US spanning four decades, last month the guy at YVR asked me "what religion are you?" That was strange. I didn't have a ready answer and I'm someone who always has a ready answer for boarder guards. I actually said "Well, when my grandfather died we had a ceremony at a church. Is that enough?" Have you ever been arrested? No. Have you ever been finger printed? Yes. Have you ever been to the middle east? Yes. Are you carrying food? No. What religion are you? .... wtf did that become a thing?

nojvek 10y ago
Officer watched too much homeland?
- sandworm101 10y ago
  That's only slightly funny. In the dark days of GWB (2002-2007) I saw many interviews where interrogators, from boarder guards to military people, said they took guidance from popular TV shows. The breakdown in mid-level management, a lack of clear standards and procedures, meant that otherwise rational people felt it appropriate to take ideas from TV. The writers of 24 were visibly upset when confronted with evidence that intel people took "interrogation" ideas from their show.