Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Black women have a hard time at airports

It's due primarily to the body scanners. It thinks the woman may have explosives in her hair. Authorities think they turn on the scanner because they have thicker hair; many times they have braids or dreadlocks. The TSA warns on its website that “wearing a hairpiece, extensions or a wig as well as a ponytail, a hair bun or braids” may trigger an alarm. Naturally, most black women and other women of color describe the hair pat-downs as intrusive and disrespectful. They said they felt singled out during the process. The ACLU filed a complaint against the TSA in April 2014 asserting that “When that discretion comes into play, unless there is explicit- and implicit-bias training, that can play out in a way that harms people of color, black people.”

The number of complaints filed with the TSA by passengers alleging racial discrimination in hair pat-downs rose from 73 in 2017 to 105 in 2018.

You should keep in mind that the TSA is one of the most diverse agencies in the federal government. One-quarter of the nation’s 46,000 airport screeners are black and 23% are Hispanic, according to Office of Personnel Management data.

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