You Know What, I Think White People Just Love Touching Me!

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ed to me. The lady asked to check my twists. Like wtf? I wasn’t impressed.One thing that I have to say though was that she was very polite. So, I’ve now coined this behavior as «polite racism». The people are so nice to you while they micro aggress the hell out of you, so you feel bad about commenting or putting them back in their place. That’s the way I felt, but the racism still bothered me. It still affected me.And so, I come back to a point I’ve made many times. There are many Black women in the world. We have so many different intricate hairstyles, yet X-ray machines that are supposed to detect bombs, guns, knives and what have you, cannot tell if we are carrying a weapon in our hair? Like this has to be a joke really. Because if these elaborate machines can’t detect this, why are we even using them at in the first place? It seems very scary to me.So well, I didn’t let this incident perturb my day, but every time this happens, I am perplexed. Today for example, I saw many white people going through that same security scanner with locks all the way down to their waist, but nope, they weren’t stopped, their hair wasn’t searched, so why me?My usual

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commenters will say that the reason this happens is because some Black women have been caught smuggling drugs in their intricate hairstyles. So, does this mean that because some people do this, we should all be pulled aside and searched? That is really racism 101 if you ask me, and it’s totally ridiculous!A lot of people say they don’t understand what white supremacy is. This is a perfect example. These X-ray machines are made by companies that feature largely white personnel. They don’t see a problem with the fact that their tech can’t scan our hairstyles adequately.When the non-manned electronic passport portals were first in use, their AI could not read Black faces at all. That meant that whenever I tried to use one of them, the machine would beep in error. Of course, that was a big embarrassment for many airports because it was so blatantly racist. They got manufacturers to fix the problem quickly. For the security X-ray scanners, we still have a way to go, but it is imperative that it is fixed. We can’t continue to ignore the problem because it is yet another reminder that Black lives don’t truly matter.Thank you for reading my perspective.</article></body>

I can’t find any other explanation for this obsession

Photo credit: Author’s collection — Photo of me today

So, this is what I look like right now. As you can see, I have twists in my hair, and if you look closely, you can actually see my scalp. So why oh why, did security want to check my hair at Berlin Brandenburg airport just now? Why? I just don’t get it.

So, this time, before I stepped into the security X-ray machine, I took off everything. Like everything, even my watch. I wanted to go through the whole routine without getting stopped, so I took off everything that could possibly set off the scanner.

I got through the machine alright and all of a sudden there was a belated ring. It was odd – and this is what tells me that there is no such thing as an arbitrary security check. I am convinced that those officers have an option to make the damn thing ring if they want to check you. And so, that’s what happened to me. The lady asked to check my twists. Like wtf? I wasn’t impressed.

One thing that I have to say though was that she was very polite. So, I’ve now coined this behavior as «polite racism». The people are so nice to you while they micro aggress the hell out of you, so you feel bad about commenting or putting them back in their place. That’s the way I felt, but the racism still bothered me. It still affected me.

And so, I come back to a point I’ve made many times. There are many Black women in the world. We have so many different intricate hairstyles, yet X-ray machines that are supposed to detect bombs, guns, knives and what have you, cannot tell if we are carrying a weapon in our hair? Like this has to be a joke really. Because if these elaborate machines can’t detect this, why are we even using them at in the first place? It seems very scary to me.

So well, I didn’t let this incident perturb my day, but every time this happens, I am perplexed. Today for example, I saw many white people going through that same security scanner with locks all the way down to their waist, but nope, they weren’t stopped, their hair wasn’t searched, so why me?

My usual commenters will say that the reason this happens is because some Black women have been caught smuggling drugs in their intricate hairstyles. So, does this mean that because some people do this, we should all be pulled aside and searched? That is really racism 101 if you ask me, and it’s totally ridiculous!

A lot of people say they don’t understand what white supremacy is. This is a perfect example. These X-ray machines are made by companies that feature largely white personnel. They don’t see a problem with the fact that their tech can’t scan our hairstyles adequately.

When the non-manned electronic passport portals were first in use, their AI could not read Black faces at all. That meant that whenever I tried to use one of them, the machine would beep in error. Of course, that was a big embarrassment for many airports because it was so blatantly racist. They got manufacturers to fix the problem quickly. For the security X-ray scanners, we still have a way to go, but it is imperative that it is fixed. We can’t continue to ignore the problem because it is yet another reminder that Black lives don’t truly matter.

Thank you for reading my perspective.