I flew once with my step children without either legal guardian. No one challenged anything.
I always think about this. My husband and his ex always gave each other letters saying they grant permission to move about the country in an airplane with the two youths. But if they were with us, they easily could be our children and no one would ask. My husband would volunteer this information and present the letter but how did these desk agents know who really wrote and signed the letter?
I went to Puerto Rico ten years ago with my husband, who is Asian, and my two step children whose mother is white, as am I. When we landed in Philadelphia on our return, I presented my passport and was asked for other ID. My husband was not. The kids were 9 and 11 and were not asked for additional ID.
I was annoyed but Philly TSA have had some highly problematic interactions, including arresting people for no damn reason, so I remained silent. It honestly never occurred to any of us that it was a racial thing. Maybe it wasn’t but now I wonder.
It definitely was NOT to prevent human trafficking because my ID didn’t prove or disprove that I could walk out of the airport with my husband and my stepchildren. Back then they didn’t record what documents you presented, just inspect and move along unless detained so if someone later alleged that an Asian man and two children were trafficked into Philly by a white woman from PR, the airline has a record of passengers and seat assignments that would have been more useful than the TSA agent who challenged my passport.
The thing with white privilege is not whether someone DID discriminate against you, it’s that you aren’t likely to ever think that your experience may have happened to you due to your privilege. If you are not white, male, hetero, upper class, life presents an awful lot of opportunities that make you wonder if what happened took place because of your race, gender, orientation, class…
