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Old May 11, 2013 | 7:46 pm
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Boggie Dog
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Originally Posted by exbayern
I am very careful with CBP as they have a very real ability to influence my career and my life. I interact with them as I do with similar agencies around the world, although they are the only ones I fear.

With TSA, they do treat me poorly quite often, as well as other 'furriners'. The name game is one instance; they tell me that I say my name 'wrong'. When I am tired, or stressed, or in pain, I'm not certain which language will come out of my mouth. Sometimes I am too tired to play their games. So then my answer may come out in German, or in French, just as thousands of travellers a day at US airports may respond in a different language.

The typical result is to shout at me more and more loudly until I respond in English, which often makes it more difficult as shouted regional American accents are difficult to understand. (The very common way to make furriners understand, don't you know, is just to shout louder and louder in English?) When I face stupidity such as the TDCs at IAD who don't know if they accept German passports as valid ID, and demand my US driver's license, , I try and bite my tongue.

When I am stressed I tend to become very, very quiet, and very, very polite. It may be in English, or it may be in a different language, but I try and have as little interaction as possible to get through TSA as quickly as possible. Being a woman, being a furriner, being someone with physical limitations, and being someone who travels in a skirt, I am a very easy target for TSA, unfortunately, so my interaction is usually far more than I would like.

Sometimes it's very easy, sometimes it's very awful.
Given the ability I would never speak a word of english to a TSA clerk.

Last edited by Boggie Dog; May 11, 2013 at 7:55 pm
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