more tired and stressful

[derien]

eor drove me to work this morning, and just as we arrived I realized I didn't have my shoes. I had stuck my feet in my sandals and grabbed up my prepacked lunch and uniform... unfortunately I had been intending to wear my shoes and hadn't packed them. We had to turn around and go back home, making me probably late in to work and him probably late to his dentist appointment. This was just indicative of how I was feeling when I went to work. Dustbunnies were tumbling around where my brain should be. It didn't really let up all day, either. C.J. teased me, "That makes me feel safe." But there's a reason for having procedures - people having an off day is one of them. If you have a procedure you aren't as likely to mess up, and if you do there's another procedure for someone else to follow which catches you. In fact, when I'm having an off day my method of compensating is to simply question every tiny little detail which doesn't match up with normalcy. I drive ElvenGirl, and probably most of my other co-workers, right to distraction with this obsessive-compulsive behavior, but I haven't got huge amounts of brain like she has. She could lose half hers and still be swifter than me on my most on days.

Also, yet another woman tried to play the race card on us today. She was escorting her little boy to the gate, but she was made a selectee just like every single other parent escorting a kid to that particular airline today. She went out and re-entered the secure area and was again processed as a selectee because that's the procedure we must go through with every selectee.

She actually stated that she'd never seen it done that way at any other airport. Now, among the lies I've heard from the Public In General (and I've heard a lot), this ranks up there among the top ten least believable. Guess what? Being screened once doesn't mean you don't get screened again! I don't know how many people seem to find this concept completely beyond their comprehension - if you go out to the non-sterile area and come back in, you could potentially pick up something prohibited and bring it back with you.

And she complains to her kid (yes, another parent teaching their kid bad manners, imagine that) - not directly to us, so that we could potentially refute it - that this was because they're Black and this is Maine.

I processed dozens of selectees today, and saw plenty of Black people go through my checkpoint, but she was the only Black selectee I had.

And no, I'm still not going to profile every Black/colored/whatever person as playing the "I'm so abused" game at every opportunity, because I know that's just as false any other generalization. I hate everyone equally. The PIG eats shit.

Comments

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's easier to not care about skin color when yours doesn't affect how the majority sees you because you are the majority (something I sometimes have trouble understanding because I usually fit the majority) -- but some people do have a tendency to take things over-personally and assume everything bad that happens to them is because they're black/female/gay/Goth/whatever.