Racial Profiling

I didn’t want to be sensitive about racial profiling or racial discrimination but I knew that we were discriminated somehow in this trip.

First was when we were at the Dubai airport.
We were going inside the restricted area. I saw two lines, one for economy class passengers, one for business and first class. There was a female Asian officer standing in between those two lines. My guess was she’s of Malaysian/Chinese descent. When I saw the word “business” I walked towards it, she blocked my path using her body. She stepped sideways to her left where the “business” line was supposed to be. She told me “economy there”. I said “business”, she said “business”, then moved back to where she was.

Second was when we were looking for the business class lounge. When Edmund was about to take the elevator to go up to the lounges, there was another Asian guy who tried to prevent him from taking the elevator. That’s for first class only daw.
Third was when I was buying 4 pieces of white spoons from Zara Home at Champs Elysee.

The male French cashier punched 11.99 Euro each. I told him they’re only 3.99 each. I walked to where I picked-up the teaspoons to double check the price, he followed me. He saw for himself that they were indeed 3.99 only. We went back to the payment counter. I had no more small bills, I only had 500 bill left and I didn’t want to spend it because mababaryahan ng coins. And I tried to use it yesterday at Mango and they didn’t want to accept it.

Back at Zara Home, I gave my credit card to the male cashier instead. Mind you the bill was only 15.96 euro. He asked for my passport. I said “it’s only 15 euro and you’re asking for my passport?” He said he had to verify if the signature matched the one in my passport. I wanted to walk away but they could misinterpret and might conclude that I was running away because it’s not my credit card or it’s stolen. I was so pissed. He copied my passport number and wrote it down on the receipt and he signed it pa.
He then asked for me to sign the receipt. I doodled something on the receipt which was not my signature. He didn’t even look at it. @#$%^&*()

Fourth was when I went out of Zara Home, Edmund and I continued walking along Champs Elysee.
We entered a building with several boutiques. There was a shoe display in the middle of the large hallway, which led us to a department store. Edmund was carrying a paper bag with a pair of jeans from Celio. I was carrying an H&M paper bag with a tiny dress for my daughter. I really didn’t want to enter their store because puro pang-winter ang tinda, but my husband encouraged me. “Ba’t hindi ka pumasok? Pasok ka, tumingin ka”.

Pasok kami, in two minutes, their security guard followed Edmund. I looked back and saw the guard took his bag and looked at the contents inside. I gave Edmund my H&M paper bag. They didn’t want us to bring the paper bags, obviously they were thinking we might steal their clothes. I continued looking at some of the dresses. I really liked a two-piece gray dress for myself by Red Valentino and one navy blue cocktail dress for my daughter by some known designer. I knew some people would have bought the dresses just to make a point. I didn’t want to do that. I have nothing to prove to others. I am comfortable with what I am, what I have and where I am.

I found my husband waiting outside. Yun pala, he decided to just leave. He didn’t leave our shopping bags at the cashier. I doubted very much if the’re asking everyone else to leave their shopping bags at their cashier. Wala naman silang lagayan nang mga bags tulad ng mga malls sa atin. Ni racial profile lang nila kami ni Edmund. Mukha siguro kaming walang pera.
Pano kaya nila nahulaan?