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[bekitty]

I, like Catiecat, have recently had a brush with the US Customs and Border Patrol, and been shown the benefits of privilege. Only my experience was a bit more, well, intenseA bit of background: In August of 2007, I moved with my partner David to Knoxville in Tennessee. He'd been headhunted by the folks at Oak Ridge National Laborotory, and he'd

Comments

Re: A clarification

[alex51324]

"Privileged whining"? Seriously? Throughout the post you mentioned the ways that privilege was at work--you were treated badly, but still treated better than the Latina women. And it's also clear that you didn't think you were less deserving of being detained than the other women.

The other women's stories, combined with yours, make me wonder what happens if someone is detained like that who only had the money to get where she was originally trying to go. It sounds like you didn't have to pay for the flight back (did you?), but they just sent you to whatever spot in your own country was most convenient for them, right? If that's standard procedure, I bet a lot of people get dropped off in some city where they may not know anyone, or may have never even been before. And if they don't have the money to buy a plane ticket, what are they supposed to do then? For example, the woman who was trying to fix her car--if her car broke down when she was on some ordinary errand, going to the store or something, she wouldn't have been prepared for international travel at the drop of a hat--even if she has the money or credit cards to buy a ticket to someplace where she knows someone, she might not have had them actually on her person when she happened to be picked up. (I'm also wondering what happened to the car--how much do you want to bet, at some point, the city or county where she was picked up tries to collect towing and impound fees from her?)

Anyway, thanks for sharing your story.

(I came here from China_shop's LJ, by the way.)