TSA Agents Reportedly Say Body Scanners May Single Out Black Women Because of Their Hair

In a recent feature by ProPublica, the outlet looked into why so many black women have spoken out about “intrusive, degrading searches” by TSA that centered on their hair.

After speaking to two TSA officers, it seems that alarms on the full-body scanners may single out black women and women of color more often because of their hair.

MORE Airlines & Airports

Dorian Wanzer travels for her job often and almost every time she goes through an airport body scanner, she’s pulled aside and made to undergo a “hair pat-down.”

“It happens with my natural Afro, when I have braids or two-strand twists. Regardless,” Wanzer told ProPublica. “At this point in my life I have come to expect it, but that doesn’t make it any less invasive and frustrating.”

She added, “When you find yourself in that kind of situation, it makes you wonder. Is this for security, or am I being airlines/report-shows-airlines-doing-little-to-curb-discrimination-on-flights.html” target=”_self” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>profiled for my race?”

Five years ago, the TSA pledged to improve the training for hair-pat downs and even asked vendors in 2018 for ideas “to improve screening of headwear and hair in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.”

However, some TSA agents claim that they’re not racially-profiling women of color for additional security searches; the TSA full-body machines may be to blame.

An anonymous TSA officer who works at a Texas airport told ProPublica: “With black females, the scanner alarms more because they have thicker hair; many times they have braids or dreadlocks. Maybe, down the line, they will be redesigning the technology, so it can tell apart what’s a real threat and what is not. But, for now, we officers have to do what the machine can’t.”

When you consider that other machines like facial recognition software used at airports reportedly are less accurate in reading African American women’s faces, it’s not hard to believe that the TSA full-body machines may be biased in their programming.

ProPublica spoke with a senior white female TSA official who said that hair pat-downs are not discriminatory, claiming that they occur every time the machine recognizes an object in a passenger’s hair.

“I get a hair pat-down every time I travel. I’m a white woman,” said the official. “Procedures require that if there is an alarm on the technology, the pat-down [must] be conducted.”

Yet, despite her claims that the hair pat-downs are not discriminatory, the number of complaints filed with the TSA surrounding hair pat-downs and racial discrimination increased from 73 in 2017 to 105 in 2018.

The TSA said in a statement that they are “reviewing additional options for the screening of hair,” while the company who makes the scanners, L3 Technologies, declined to comment on if or why their machines seem to target African American women more often.

In March, ProPublica conducted a survey to see how many women of color experience hair searches at airports. Of the 720 responses, 90 percent were women. Most women of color described their hair pat-down experiences as intrusive and disrespectful and often felt singled out during such security checks.

“I get TSA workers have a job to do, which is to keep us safe,” said Wanzer. “But there needs to be a level of sensitivity about how different people perceive these kinds of searches.”

What’s more, the machine doesn’t have to sound an alarm for TSA agents to do a hair pat-down. Such a security check is at their own discretion and occurs when “an individual’s hair looks like it could contain a prohibited item or is styled in a way an officer cannot visually clear it.”

For Abre’ Conner, this a policy that could enable racial profiling. As an ACLU lawyer, she filed a complaint against the TSA in April 2014. Conner said, “When that discretion comes into play, unless there is explicit- and implicit-bias training, that can play out in a way that harms people of color, black people.”

Jazzmen Knoderer recounted how she had to undergo hair pat-downs three times in a row on three different flights in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The first time, her hair was short in two-strand twists, the second time she had an afro and the third hair-pat down, her afro was shorter than three inches long.

Knoderer points out that it isn’t just the body scanner that’s the problem – because, during each of these pat-downs, she never went through a body scanner or metal detector before TSA pulled her aside.

“It doesn’t feel random when it happens three times in a row. It doesn’t feel random when you see that all the people around you, who don’t look like you, aren’t asked to step aside,” Knoderer said. “I don’t want to change the way my hair grows out of my head.”

This post was published by our news partner: TravelPulse.com | Article Source |

TJS News
TJS News
TravelPulse.com, part of the travAlliancemedia network of products, is the leading resource for the latest travel news, offers, and videos. Since 2002, TravelPulse.com has been delivering industry news, dynamic video content and important supplier and destination information that have allowed hundreds of thousands of travel agents to succeed. Now, with dedicated consumer content, TravelPulse is once again revolutionizing the way that travel content is consumed.

HERE'S MORE

© 2023 On It Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The Jet Set is a proud supporter of One Tree Planted.  Our support is made possible by our sponsors, advertisers, and most of all, by our viewers.