Activist kicked off American Airlines flight, alleges 'white male aggression (Tamika Mallory)

[liberalhistorian]

48. I completely agree, as long as they're not

being an asshole about it. The problem is, no matter what happens to me while at an airport and while flying, I am really hesitant nowadays to say anything at all. I simply don't trust TSA or airport/airline personnel not to abuse the incredible powers they have at their discretion, no matter how much I may be in the right. You have what could be considered the "wrong" look on your face and you could get flagged or in trouble. So I just grit my teeth all through the whole process and the whole thing. It's why I usually try to drive instead of fly, but sometimes I have to fly.

Just this past weekend I had to fly to an old friend's wedding, and the flight left at 5:30 a.m., which means I was going through the security rigmarole at 4 a.m., and it was already very crowded. My purse was flagged while going through x-ray, so they pulled it out for further scrutiny. No problem, I thought, there's nothing at all in there that could be a problem, so it won't take long. WRONG. The TSA person looked all through it, throwing everything out on the counter and then going through those in more detail. She then threw everything back in the purse and put it through again, and it beeped again. She then repeated the search and put it through again, and it beeped again. By this time, there was a real back-up and people were getting frustrated as were her fellow agents. She asked me if I had any batteries in there. I forced myself to be calm while saying that she could already see that I had several packages of my hearing aid batteries in the purse, since she'd tossed them out on the counter three times now. She then said you'll have to throw those away. Say what? Those fuckers are EXPENSIVE and I have to have them in order to function, since my hearing aids obviously don't work without the damned batteries and I really can't understand much at all without my hearing aids. I've had them in every purse I've ever taken on a flight and there's never been any fucking problem. I calmly and pleasantly explained that, even though I wanted to scream in frustration, but she insisted on it. I had to dig my nails into my palm to keep calm, because I knew there'd only be major trouble for me if I kicked up any fuss.

I know this has nothing to do with the OP, but I'm trying to point out that maybe Mallory was trying to calmly complain about mistreatment, which is far more common than we'd ever like to think at airports and on the part of airlines, and because of who she is, and how that's perceived as a "threat" to the PTB. they decided to "teach her a lesson."