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"Demoralizing, dehumanizing, racist and traumatic." That's how comedian Eric André described being stopped and questioned by police at an Atlanta airport in 2021. Fellow comedian Clayton English experienced the same jet bridge harassment in 2020.
And together, they filed a federal lawsuit against Clayton County police.
André and English's lawsuit reveals that 56% of passengers searched by Clayton police are Black - and the search program has only found drugs 3 out of 402 times.
That doesn't stop them from taking passengers' money, though. The cops seized over $1 million and rarely returned the money, even if passengers weren't caught with drugs.
Nationwide, Black people are disproportionately harassed at airports, from police stops to Customs searches. Being policed for traveling while Black isn't just a current issue though.
White supremacist violence has always followed us wherever we’ve gone. They've threatened us and patrolled our movement through sundown towns. They've arrested us for immigrating to new lives. They've attacked our children walking home at night.
No matter where we are - the streets, in airports, even resting in our own homes - the white supremacist criminal legal system is constantly trying to hunt us down. Its goal is not to keep us safer. It's to villainize, exploit, and brutalize us.
Like André declared, "If Black people don't speak up for each other, who will?"