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Well I'm perfectly white and I still get randomly treated like a jerk by the various US border agencies, so relax. Also, in this story: Let me tell you the las

by hugh 18y ago

Well I'm perfectly white and I still get randomly treated like a jerk by the various US border agencies, so relax. Also, in this story: Let me tell you the last one. A customs officer started speaking to me in Cartman-Spanish (after a brief exchange in English) making a whole scene in front of about 50 people queuing behind me. After a while my patience was gone and I answered loudly "I'm very sorry but you don't speak Spanish and I cannot understand what you want. You are speaking in infinitive and skipping words, so it isn't clear if you are asking where I've been, where am I going to be, or the reason of my stay. Migrations didn't have a problem, so either check my luggage or let me go." At that point it was 50-50 he would kick me back out, but I guess the dirty looks he got from the people in the queue convinced him to just let me get through. it seems like the only person acting like a jerk is you. All he's trying to do is speak in Spanish, and you went and made fun of him for it.

olefoo 18y ago
The funny thing about racial privilege is how hard it is to see when one is the beneficiary of it.
alecco 18y ago
(Did you need to call me "a jerk"?) OK, I'll bite... Perhaps I didn't put enough emphasis on the "making a scene" part and didn't explicitly put he was asking about things out of his sphere. He was talking in a very aggressive tone in Spanish after he saw I could speak English fluently, after I showed him both my European and US visas, and after I explained it was a trip to my employer's HQ. He wasn't saying "como esta amigo", he was asking random questions that didn't make any sense related to migrations and completely unrelated to customs. I've been many times through different airports in US and never a customs officer asked me those questions. Specially in front of other people. It went on for at least 10 minutes while people were almost walking by in the other queue (including a friend of mine who had to wait and later told me he was thinking in calling the office for help.) I was the only one stopped out of dozens of people, just after he noticed my passport was from south of the border. At that point I decided I rather get rejected from US and perhaps lose my job. And you know, if US rejects your visa, for whatever reason, you never get another one again. Luckily most people present clearly thought the guy was out of line. This random uneducated guy on a power trip surprised me because it happened just a few minutes after maybe the nicest migrations interview I ever had (we even talked about football and his recent holidays in South America while we had to wait for a software reboot of some kind.) This is why I put the "to be fair" disclaimer on migrations vs. Customs and TSA/Homeland Security. Normal in exchange with customs on every other country in the world: * In the most common case you just walk. * Second most common, one question: Something to declare? * Worst possible case, rare: Can you please take your luggage over here?

by hugh 18y ago

olefoo 18y ago

The funny thing about racial privilege is how hard it is to see when one is the beneficiary of it.

alecco 18y ago

(Did you need to call me "a jerk"?) OK, I'll bite... Perhaps I didn't put enough emphasis on the "making a scene" part and didn't explicitly put he was asking about things out of his sphere. He was talking in a very aggressive tone in Spanish after he saw I could speak English fluently, after I showed him both my European and US visas, and after I explained it was a trip to my employer's HQ. He wasn't saying "como esta amigo", he was asking random questions that didn't make any sense related to migrations and completely unrelated to customs. I've been many times through different airports in US and never a customs officer asked me those questions. Specially in front of other people. It went on for at least 10 minutes while people were almost walking by in the other queue (including a friend of mine who had to wait and later told me he was thinking in calling the office for help.) I was the only one stopped out of dozens of people, just after he noticed my passport was from south of the border. At that point I decided I rather get rejected from US and perhaps lose my job. And you know, if US rejects your visa, for whatever reason, you never get another one again. Luckily most people present clearly thought the guy was out of line. This random uneducated guy on a power trip surprised me because it happened just a few minutes after maybe the nicest migrations interview I ever had (we even talked about football and his recent holidays in South America while we had to wait for a software reboot of some kind.) This is why I put the "to be fair" disclaimer on migrations vs. Customs and TSA/Homeland Security. Normal in exchange with customs on every other country in the world: * In the most common case you just walk. * Second most common, one question: Something to declare? * Worst possible case, rare: Can you please take your luggage over here?