When flying out from Basel airport yesterday I thought that I’d be a little more observant about the way I was being treated. Generally everything was fine until I reached the security scan. I placed my bag on the belt and walked through the scanner knowing that there is nothing that would set the scanner off. The security woman looked me up and down several times and seemed surprised that there was nothing to check. I’m very careful with what I wear so that they have no reason to stop me.

The next was my carry on bag on the security belt. I carefully checked all of the other lanes to see if any of them were stopped for a “random” check. The security guy on the scanner looked me up and down several time, then sure enough my bag was the one moved to one side. Again I knew there was nothing in my bag that could cause it to be checked, so when they swiped the handle and the contents and placed this in their detector, I was certain this was more about racial profiling.

I understand racial profiling is not uncommon at Basel airport. I’ll share more in a post sometime.