In an interview Friday on MSNBC, Laura Adiele said that TSA agents notified her after she went through a full-body scanner at Seattle’s Sea-Tec Airport that her hair needed to be inspected. Adiele said she had no problem with being patted down, but she said the agents made the request to check her hair after she was scanned because she is black.
“It’s already uncomfortable to be going through a naked body imaging,” she said on MSNBC’s “Jansing and Co.” show. “For me, my hair is my breaking point.”
“I played the race card in this just because I looked around and didn’t see anyone else being searched in that way,” Adiele continued. “And at the end of it, I had an African-American flight attendant come up to me and say that she’s had this experience and that she’s seeing it more frequently and that she thought I should complain about it.”
Adiele said the TSA agents told her it was the agency’s policy to check anything that “poofs” from the body.
Laura Adiele was surprised when she was pulled out of the security line after already going through the Advanced Imaging system and was told she needed a pat-down.
"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,'" Adiele said.
Adiele claimed she looked around and 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 as a black woman with an afro tucked up into a curly bun, she was being selected for hand-screening when women of other races were not.
She felt it was discrimination. That as a black woman with an afro tucked up into a curly bun, she was being selected for hand-screening when women of other races were not.
"It's just totally a violation of my personal space, and my biggest question is, if I'm going through a full body X-ray, what more do you need to find, after that?" Adiele said. She has filed a complaint about the incident but hasn't heard back from the agency yet.
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