My Dad's Not A Terrorist!

[Kpt._Rob]

Yeah, both my dad and I are on the TSA terrorist watchlist, not because of anything we've ever actually done, but because our last name, Johnson, happens to be shared by a known terrorist. That means that every time I try to fly anywhere, the airport runs extra checks on me because of my name. Some would take offense to this name based profiling. Not me though, I think it's fucking hilarious.

So, if I may offer some advice, just laugh about how stupid and racist the people who continue to suspect your father are, because the unfortunate truth is that there's not too much else you can do. Not until we as a people learn to look past race and fear at least, and one might be forgiven for thinking that time could be a little ways off.

 

[Yoshemo]

People never believe Im gay when I tell them because I like to hit on girls XD Its fun

 

[Toasty]

Im white and British......similar thing happened to my Dad when we lived in america.......my guess is because he had a beard and a non-american accent

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

As wrong as it is, you can't really blame them. No one wants what happened on 9/11 or various other terrorist attacks to happen again. Even though I can't really say this since I'm not muslim, you guys should just get over it.

 

[mip0]

I was in London with my dad and godfather. There we got stopped because my godfather was carrying one of these:
http://lestyle.blogg.se/images/2008/img_6683_01_1201031105_28553537.jpg
(They searched it and asked us why we had come to London and stuff.)
It happened again on the way home at the airport.

 

[Avatar Roku]

My dad thinks my best friend is a internet pedofile.

Funny story, I'm in a somewhat close-knit group on XBL (many of them are also Escapists). At one point, one of the people in the group was going to lend another person in the group a game. Since most of us live far away, he was going to mail it, but the person who would have been receiving it was unable to because his parents are convinced that the sender is an internet pedophile. It doesn't help that his real name is made-up sounding, but still.

 

[silentsentinel]

I set off a bomb threat at an airport. I suppose I could say it was because I am Indian, but the truth was I had nitroglycerin traces on my backpack (I had been working in a laboratory.)

 

[Poomanchu745]

Maybe the next time the cops come your dad can file a racial discrimination complaint or something. I don't know if that is possible but its pretty ridiculous that you live somewhere that skin color gets the cops called. If I were your dad I would sit in the garage with the door open and mess with some electronic equipment. Make sure you have a soldering gun so it looks like he is making bombs or something. Then when the cops are assuredly called you can show the cop he is just fixing a microwave or something.

thats almost as bad as making a bomb joke at customs. They'll arrest you for it anyway.

Maybe if there is a law against dark skinned people fixing electronic devices. And if that's the case then well the legal system is really fucked up. Its not like he is making big canisters and filling them with fertilizer. There is nothing illegal about working with electronics. And if there is thats profiling, and profiling is wrong.

 

[reg42]

It sucks how bigoted people are nowadays. I thought the situation was meant to be getting better, but it really isn't

 

[Pwnytail]

I went on a school trip this summer to Europe and there was one Indian kid named Farhan. At every airport on the way out of the U.S. and the way into the U.S. he got stopped and searched.

 

[MurderousToaster]

I always found it quite easy to distinguish between Italian and Middle Eastern. Even if the skin tone can be similar, the accents are so massively different.

 

[Kajt]

Never happened to me or anyone I know. Probably because I live in such a small village.

[sub]Also, people are really stupid.[/sub]

 

[Ph33nix]

I think some neighbor just hates your dad.

agreed

 

[Eggsnham]

Fuckin' we Americans are so damn paranoid. God damn.

 

[opportunemoment]

It does happen, a LOT... I can think of two ridiculous examples off the top of my head. This is someone I know vaguely: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/87052-page.html and this is a film by Shah Rukh Khan, bollywood megastar, which is partly based on a real experience he had: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_Is_Khan

 

[letsnoobtehpwns]

My dad tells me that my great-grandpa was considered to be a terrorist. I guess that's a little different then your situation because, my great-grandpa killed LOTS of people in the Ottoman Empire. He did live in Armenia right before the genocide and he did kill lots of the guys doing the horrible shit to the Armenians but, he still did kill some innocent people.

 

[Rigs83]

Spoiler: SARCASM!

Welcome to post racial America.