From KING5.com -
SHORELINE, Wash. — Laura Adiele wasn’t expecting any trouble when she put her hair up, packed her bags, and headed for SeaTac to catch a flight to Texas. So, she was quite surprised when she was pulled out of the security line after having gone through the Advance Imaging system (that see-through technology) and told she needed a pat-down.
“When I first heard her say, ‘We’re going to have to pat you down,’ I thought she was talking about my body. I was turning around and putting my arms out and she said, ‘no, we’re going to have to examine your hair,’ and I said, ‘no, we’re not going to do that today and you’re going to have to get security or your supervisor,’” said Adiele.
Adiele claims she looked around, saw plenty of other women with “big hair, ponytails” who weren’t being searched, and it made her mad. She felt it was discrimination, that she as a black woman with an afro tucked up into a curly bun, was being selected for hand-screening when women of other races weren’t. She had nothing to hide but just didn’t want strangers feeling her hair. (Read more here)
This beautiful natural believes the “pat down” was racially motivated. What do you think?
10 comments
Chai says:
Jul 7, 2011
it’s a tough one. I understand her frustration though, the same issue happened to me on a flight back to New York 3 weeks ago. My hair was the prime focus of the search & it made me extremely unforgettable. I shrugged it off because I was late for my flight, but do not look forward to getting in a TSA line…it’s easy to feel as if you’ve been singled out. My hair was in twists & pinned up out of the way. Hard to believe it was a style that looked threatening compared to all the other ladies who where in line with me
angel says:
Jul 7, 2011
did the old woman that had to have her full diaper checked by TSA racially motivated? Why do black people always feel that every time something happens to them by someone of another race it has to be because they are black. Remember TSA does random checks. So not everyone that has big hair will be checked, that is what makes it random. Now i am not saying that the checks are not invasive, but it is not racially motivated. But if you see every black woman pulled to the side to have their hair check then you can cry foul.
Vicky says:
Jul 7, 2011
I don’t have any african heritage but my hair has also already been searched…I thought it was kinda funny.
Celebrating Natural Hair says:
Jul 7, 2011
[...] to Tonya of NewNaturalista.com for submitting this interesting video! What are your thoughts ladies? Do you think this lady was [...]
AfroArtemis says:
Jul 7, 2011
Many black people in American are aware of the blatant, covert, and institutional ways used to single us out for discriminatory actions and selectively enforced laws and policies. Note that Laura looked around to see if any other women could have been subjected to a hair search. Note that her body was not searched. Note that tsa includes head scarves in their potential search criteria but not baseball caps, large summer hats or hermes scarves. Also, statistically random means many things. It can mean tsa randomly checks everyone in the line a a particular time or that they randomly search a certain number of people who meet their criteria during the day. We already know these searches are ethnically motivated, and we won’t know how racially motivated these searches are unless people like Laura speak up. More people need to stand up to tsa and their invasive, humiliating, and pointless searches.
Katnap says:
Jul 7, 2011
My hair was patted down by TSA in late May when I was flying from San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany. I believe that it was completely style motivated, not racially motivated. I have long locs, and they were braided and pinned into an elaborate upsweep.
ltrichardson says:
Jul 7, 2011
I too, received the same treatment at SEATAC this week! To put this is perspective, when I travelled, I took my off earrings, necklace, bracelets, jackets, shoes and I wore no belt. My family had about 15 bins between us that were being screened. I had one bag screened four times and another two screened twice!! Each time they would take something else out. Everyone else in the family went through the regular scanner, I had to go in the arrest position and have my body scanned, then as I step away, she asks if she could examine my “ponytail” I have locks so kinda understand that something could be hidden, but you just scanned me! I did not even have a hairpin in my hair! Short of going through naked with my hair down, what else do you want? DNA? I AM NOT A TERRORIST!..stop the aggravation!
JayCee says:
Jul 8, 2011
I experienced a “hair pat-down” at Denver Airport last week. I am an over-50, white female with long, smooth, silky blonde hair. It was styled straight and smooth, no pins or hair ties of any kind. After a full body scan by an Afro-American TSA agent, I was taken aside for a pat-down of my body, which ended with my hair being patted down. This was done in full view of everyone. I have a trim, average build and was wearing pedal pusher and a plain T-shirt, nothing baggy, and not form-fitting, either. I noticed other women in line with bushy, long hair, or hair up in elaborate do’s. They did not get body-hair pat-downs.
Petite5foot1 says:
Jul 8, 2011
My husband is a very dark-skinned, white man and he has a Spanish-Irish bloodline. He too is a target for Police,TSA, etc., I walked right through the scanner and he went through nieither he was stopped and searched…
Petite5foot1 says:
Jul 8, 2011
Sorry I hit the send…
Neither of us set off the busser but he was stopped and was not. He looks Puerto Rican but is not. Racially motivated, could be??