We Will Not Be Silent: Movement Grows to Challenge Racial Profiling at Airports

There is a growing movement in this country to challenge what appears to be an increase in racial profiling at airports. More and more travelers are wearing T-Shirts that say "We Will Not Be in Silent" in English and in Arabic. Why? Well about two weeks ago, Iraqi activist and blogger Raed Jarrar did the same thing as he was boarding a JetBlue airways flight at Kennedy airport in New York. Airport officials forced him to change his T-Shirt before getting on the plane. Democracy Now spoke with Raed Jarrar ten days ago about the incident.

* Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi blogger and architect. Raed is Iraq Project Director for Global Exchange.

We called JetBlue, the company responded with a statement saying that according to the airline"s preliminary findings the request to remove Raed"s T-shirt was not made by a JetBlue crewmember.

We also called the Transportation Security Administration, they confirmed that a TSA employee was involved, along with two JetBlue employees, in talking with Raed. But they said it was not a TSA employee who bought him the T-Shirt to change into.

Since our interview with Raed, major newspapers and corporate TV networks in the United States and around the world have picked up the story. Now, more and more people are putting on We Will Not Be Silent T-shirts in solidarity when they travel.

Laurie Arbeiter joins us in our firehouse studio. She is a member of The Critical Voice, an affinity group of Artists Against the War who organized the We Will Not Be Silent T-shirt campaign.

* Laurie Arbeiter, member of The Critical Voice, an affinity group of Artists Against the War who organized the We Will Not Be Silent T-shirt campaign. Send an Email.

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