Since September 11, 2001 there has been an ever-growing wave of discrimination against people of Middle Eastern descent in the United States. With politicians like Donald Trump allowed to openly propagandize hate speech on national television, the oppression of this diverse group has done nothing but rise rapidly across the country (internationally also).
The most recent public display of disrespect happened at the San Francisco Airport this past Monday [February 22] when Canadian social media star and comedian Jasmeet Singh (a.k.a. Jus Reign) was forced to remove his turban and denied a mirror when requested to replace it.
Singh is a practicing Sikh and wears a turban the majority of the time. This same type of incident has also happened to Sikh actor Waris Ahluwalia, who was barred from a flight after refusal of removing his sacred headgear.
Singh told the media following the incident this was caused by the rise in paranoia of Middle Eastern civilian air travel and lack of education on his culture. These degrading turban removals have become more frequent in search procedures and can be considered quite oppressive and in their own way, a form of profiling.
Hopefully a form of education will be implicated by the TSA and others who conduct random searches that allow for a more sympathetic search process but based on the current socio-political climate in regards to individuals of Middle Eastern descent, it is highly unlikely.
