On Monday, Tara Houska, a Native American woman, claimed a TSA agent grabbed her by her braids while she was walking through Minneapolis airport security, and whipped them like reins as you would do to a horse and said “giddyup.”
The TSA agency has apologized for that employee’s behavior but has not fired that employee. The agency responded with a statement that included, “TSA holds its employees to the highest standards of professional conduct, and any improper behavior is taken seriously” by the agency.
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The fact that she’s Native American is irrelevant. The TSA person should be fired because 1) You don’t grab anyone’s hair, regardless of who they are, and 2) You don’t treat a human being as an animal, even in jest, unless you know the person and know that they’ll see it as a joke.
The question is, what kind of person would think to do this to a stranger was going to be funny in the first place? Not sure what this TSA agent was going for. That the woman was a horse? I like off-color, sarcastic, and often PC-unfriendly humor, but perhaps someone else can explain how what she did is funny.
TSA doesn’t exactly pay top dollar per hour for these security people, and sometimes you get what you pay for.
The Transportation Security Administration was forced to issue an apology on Tuesday after a Native American woman described on Twitter a humiliating experience going through security at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.
Tara Houska, an Ojibwe native and prominent attorney and activist, said her braids set off the scanners, and an agent pulled her aside to do a pat down.
While searching her braids, Houska said the woman grabbed them, pulled them behind her head, and whipped them like reins before laughing and saying “giddyup!”
Houska said she felt “angry” and “humiliated.” She said she told the agent that she was not OK with how she “casually used her authority to dehumanize and disrespect me.” [Business Insider]
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The TSA was “forced” to issue an apology. You’d think they’d be overcome and want to apologize profusely. And while they’re doing that showing the agent the door. Not only is that unprofessional, but it’s also flat out rude. No one should ever think that would be a good idea except in the bedroom.
That’s pretty appalling, and the agent’s cavalier response is the response of every single bully when the victim calls them out on it — “oh, I was just joking, it’s just in fun,” with the implication being the *victim* is the problem.
Does anyone else roll their eyes every time you read the company statement here at (insert any company) we pride ourselves to giving the best service and hold our employee’s to the highest ethical and moral standards in the history of the universe, we at (insert and company ) are committed to helping and bringing awareness to all (whatever happened ) to ensure it never happens again.
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People, in general, look at TSA officers as a pain in their travel plan, not as professionals trained to ensure the safe air travel of Americans.
Very low paid by government standards, yet expected to meet a military level of readiness and attention to “rules of contact.”
Most travelers don’t pay attention nor listen to the TSO’s instructions to get through the checkpoints as efficiently as possible.
I hope the employee was made to take a class on how to respect others. I praise Tara Houska for realizing that people can make stupid mistakes without meaning to do so. Everyone does stupid things with no intention to harm. We must all learn to do a better job of respecting others.
I am guilty myself of sometimes putting my foot into my mouth without thinking first. She is a commendable, honorable person. Thank you for taking the opportunity to teach instead of ruining someone’s life.
Respect all people’s person; a lesson TSA employees need to learn. A fine or pay deduction of several hundred dollars would be a good start.
This piece originally appeared on ThePoliticalInsider.com and is used by permission.
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