Whites: This Line, Please

My flight from Lugano was delayed last night, and so I got in after a couple of flights from, I think, Frankfort and Lisbon... maybe there were a couple others, too, but it was certainly busier than usual.

Generally, I'm through the passport check in under two minutes from joining the line. But yesterday, the lines were moving SLOOOOOOOOWLY. There was a lot of questioning, phoning, and stamping going on. And I noticed something interesting.

Since I have a Canadian passport, I don't go in the "EU/Swiss/Diplomatic" (aka "fast") line. I go in the "All Other Passports" (ake "slow") line. But it seems that I missed something in the signage. As the time passed, I noticed that all of the white people who came and joined the "other passports" line stayed briefly, noticed how slowly it was moving, and then went to the fast line.

There were about 60 people in front of me, and not one of them was Caucasian. Not a single one.

And of all the people who, I can only assume didn't have Swiss, EU, or diplomatic passports (or they wouldn't have started in the slow line), but moved over to that line were white.

Guess how many the passport guys turned away and sent back to the correct line?

None.



Now, it's pure speculation on my part, but I'm guessing that if a Sudanese family in front of me had joined the fast line, they would have earned themselves a quick trip to the special police waiting rooms. Or maybe not, actually, since they were all full already (guess how many white people in there? gold star - you got it!).

Now I've been at the uncomfortable end of reverse discrimination before: every job that I applied for while in university had this at the bottom of the posting:

"XXXXX is an equal opportunity employer, and actively encourages applications from women and visible minorities."

And guess what? When the short lists went up, every name was pretty clearly that of someone who was not a white male.

So you would think maybe I would be ready for a little payback. But I don't want it to work like that. I don't want to be penalized because Shell hired a ton of white guys 20 years ago. That pisses me off. But I don't want special rules for people coming into my country because they are of European descent instead of African or Middle Eastern.

That pisses me off, too.

So what can I do about it? I really don't know. I can't vote. I can't stop flying. But I can stay in the right line, to refuse to take advantage of my racial characteristics and obey the rules that are there. So for now, that's what I'll continue to do.

Any ideas?