First-class loyalty status does not exempt Muslim flyers from screening

Evidence

Naveed, a thirty-one-year-old Palestinian American, accurately described the feelings of the majority of the Muslim men who encountered racialized surveillance at airports. He is an American Airlines platinum flyer who had a first class ticket when he was stopped and searched right before boarding a flight because of the airline’s use of the Secure Flight Program. … Naveed: The whole gate was watching … And I’m just thinking, Wait, I’m not boarding? I’m like, your best customer. I only fly American Airlines. You are my only carrier. All my money goes to you! So I was like, “Wait, so I’m not boarding?” “No, you have to go through extra screening.” And I’m like, “Why? Why?” [And] then I was just like, Shut up. Just go through the screening, you know … And they went through my bag, and they frisked me again, and then I was just like, what, is this really random? Because it doesn’t feel random to me. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 190

Categorization

• XREF: Pairs with the class-does-not-protect point at 191 — together they form the wage/status asymmetry evidence.