An unfair frisking
On September 14, when travel vlogger Mountain Trekker uploaded his video about a recent and extremely unpleasant experience with TSA at a United States airport, his viewers were enraged at the very frank bias and racial profiling he went through.
It all started in June in Boston, in the queue for security, when it was Varun’s turn to be patted down. Naturally, a light pat is what most of us have experienced, but Varun was interrogated publicly and even had his underwear examined, and was taken to another room.
“I don’t generalise based on one experience. America is said to be the most developed nation in the world. It doesn’t mean you stop behaving well with others,” he says in the video.
Being a frequent traveller, Varun is rattled but not discouraged from travel altogether. But not everyone is so optimistic.
We also recently saw a young Muslim woman Zainab Merchant, who was allegedly asked by TSA to remove her menstrual pad. Having been put on a TSA watchlist because of her religion, she endures an ‘intrusive and humiliating’ frisking every time she travels.
It’s gone to a point where she says she wouldn’t be surprised even if she got arrested one day.
Special Arrangement
Emojis for the win
I’m not the kind of texter who’d be down for a total emoji-esque conversation. But when I perused Instagram profile @yungjake’s emoji-filled masterpieces, I was seriously reconsidering my texting repertoire.
The LA-based artist, whose real name is Jake Patterson, creates hyper-realistic works using the various shade and shape diversity we are using. From Gigi Hadid to Rihanna to Leo DiCaprio, YungJake has regaled us all.
