Is African Hair a Sin?

If the TSA’s ‘natural hair patdown’ practice is not racial profiling, what is? | Imara Jones | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk – In the case of people of color v the TSA, it’s man v the machine, apparently. “I have to do what the machine says,” declared one of the TSA agents as he pointed wanly to the full-body scanner behind me. “When the machine can’t read through your hair, we have to search it.” The machine to which he was referring is the $170,000 per unit x-rays devices that can penetrate clothes and certain types of body tissue in order to highlight hidden weapons and objects. The scanners were so effective, in fact, that they raised privacy concerns in the US regarding nudity, which the TSA was forced to address. Citing health concerns, the European Commission effectively banned their use in the European Union just months ago. Still, these machines, which have cost the US government almost $150m, reveal almost everything – except what might be hidden in black hair. By the results of the TSA scanners, kinky black hair barely registers as human tissue. The unknowing nature of our heads gives the TSA license to violate our bodies.