Background Info: I'm a half-East Indian half english citizen of Canada, and my East Indian side of my family has probably been in North America for longer than most of you guys. I'm 5th generation
Here's a slight rant:
Post 9/11 I've been subjected to some pretty ludicris ******, though given what happened to you guys I can't really blame the precautions, I'll even take the blatant 'random testing' of brown people, hell all except for two of the Islamic people I know are religious crazies.
But I'm getting pretty sick of this ******. I don't wear a turban, I have no Koran, I go to temple maybe once or twice a year for weddings or funerals, my dad is a non-practicing Sikh and I'm nothing (my mom is Anglican).
My first encounter with US Customs was 3 years ago in High School, I was crossing the border with my school for a Model United Nations trip, when I went through customs in Montreal. I gave the guy my customs declaration form, but it was upside down, the customs officer told me to turn it over. I quickly grap it with my hand and flop it over with my palm. The customs officer looks me straight in the eye and says 'Why did you do that?', with a puzzled look on my face I say 'Do what?'.. he says 'Flip over the form like that?'.. followed by more comments by me like 'I have no idea what your talking about..'
In a thick drawl the guy goes 'I don't give a damn who the hell you are, it's my job to keep people like you (by that he meant brown people) out of my country'. At which point I shut up because my teacher told me to just let it go (I have a very explosive temper).
That was my first encounter.
My second encounter (amongst other minor encounters) was today. I was crossing at the pacific border crossing just south of Vancouver to go to Roche Harbour for my grandpa's 70th birthday.
I'm visiting my caucasian side of my family. My passport is currently in a box being shipped back from college because I'm home for the summer, and my birth certificate is with it. As a result I bring my drivers license, federally issued Social Insurance Card, BC Health Card, and my photo student ID (Provincially Issued).. hoping that it will be okay.
My brother was coming with me and we have the same home address' and he brought his passport so I thought we would be okay.
After waiting for 40 minutes to cross we finally get up and some dumb FOB tells me that my 4 pieces of ID aren't good enough and he needs a birth certificate, at which point I tell him to look at my brothers passport, our home address and last names are the same and we look almost identical. We tell him our mom went down yesterday and give him her name (he brings her file up on the computer and sees a white woman)... at which point he looks at us funny because my mom is white.
Yes douchebag, my mom is white, my parents are in a mixed marraige, not all of us are backwards and xenophobic like you, you piece of ******. Of course I didn't say this to his face.
He starts getting all angry at me, and starts asking some personal questions, where I'm from, where I go to school, what I'm studying, what my summer job is, what year of university I'm in. Total bullshit stuff, at which point I tell him to slow down because I'm getting a bit nervous, the guy is trying to light a fire under my ass.
This of course is in front of my little brother.
Finally the prick lets me through. I get to Bellingham Airport and fly for half an hour to meet up with my caucasian family members who brought down their 3 boats.
When I arrive I hear about their terrible experience with US Customs.
The fat white lady wouldn't let my uncle in, because he, like me, couldn't get his passport and only had his DL, and SIN card. She treated him like ****** till he told her he was a pallative physician and to stop giving him ****** because is stressed out from dealing with people that have terminal cancer and that she should shut the ****** up and annoy someone else.
Of course, I've never seen my uncle lose his temper, after dealing with people in pallative care for so long he's become pretty somber.
My other uncle got the same ol bit too.
****** Customs.
Cliffnotes:
Read the ****** post.
P.S. My family has a place in Hawaii and we bring our title of ownership with us every trip ( we go down once or twice a year for the past 15 years and they give us garbage everytime )
Here's a slight rant:
Post 9/11 I've been subjected to some pretty ludicris ******, though given what happened to you guys I can't really blame the precautions, I'll even take the blatant 'random testing' of brown people, hell all except for two of the Islamic people I know are religious crazies.
But I'm getting pretty sick of this ******. I don't wear a turban, I have no Koran, I go to temple maybe once or twice a year for weddings or funerals, my dad is a non-practicing Sikh and I'm nothing (my mom is Anglican).
My first encounter with US Customs was 3 years ago in High School, I was crossing the border with my school for a Model United Nations trip, when I went through customs in Montreal. I gave the guy my customs declaration form, but it was upside down, the customs officer told me to turn it over. I quickly grap it with my hand and flop it over with my palm. The customs officer looks me straight in the eye and says 'Why did you do that?', with a puzzled look on my face I say 'Do what?'.. he says 'Flip over the form like that?'.. followed by more comments by me like 'I have no idea what your talking about..'
In a thick drawl the guy goes 'I don't give a damn who the hell you are, it's my job to keep people like you (by that he meant brown people) out of my country'. At which point I shut up because my teacher told me to just let it go (I have a very explosive temper).
That was my first encounter.
My second encounter (amongst other minor encounters) was today. I was crossing at the pacific border crossing just south of Vancouver to go to Roche Harbour for my grandpa's 70th birthday.
I'm visiting my caucasian side of my family. My passport is currently in a box being shipped back from college because I'm home for the summer, and my birth certificate is with it. As a result I bring my drivers license, federally issued Social Insurance Card, BC Health Card, and my photo student ID (Provincially Issued).. hoping that it will be okay.
My brother was coming with me and we have the same home address' and he brought his passport so I thought we would be okay.
After waiting for 40 minutes to cross we finally get up and some dumb FOB tells me that my 4 pieces of ID aren't good enough and he needs a birth certificate, at which point I tell him to look at my brothers passport, our home address and last names are the same and we look almost identical. We tell him our mom went down yesterday and give him her name (he brings her file up on the computer and sees a white woman)... at which point he looks at us funny because my mom is white.
Yes douchebag, my mom is white, my parents are in a mixed marraige, not all of us are backwards and xenophobic like you, you piece of ******. Of course I didn't say this to his face.
He starts getting all angry at me, and starts asking some personal questions, where I'm from, where I go to school, what I'm studying, what my summer job is, what year of university I'm in. Total bullshit stuff, at which point I tell him to slow down because I'm getting a bit nervous, the guy is trying to light a fire under my ass.
This of course is in front of my little brother.
Finally the prick lets me through. I get to Bellingham Airport and fly for half an hour to meet up with my caucasian family members who brought down their 3 boats.
When I arrive I hear about their terrible experience with US Customs.
The fat white lady wouldn't let my uncle in, because he, like me, couldn't get his passport and only had his DL, and SIN card. She treated him like ****** till he told her he was a pallative physician and to stop giving him ****** because is stressed out from dealing with people that have terminal cancer and that she should shut the ****** up and annoy someone else.
Of course, I've never seen my uncle lose his temper, after dealing with people in pallative care for so long he's become pretty somber.
My other uncle got the same ol bit too.
****** Customs.
Cliffnotes:
Read the ****** post.
P.S. My family has a place in Hawaii and we bring our title of ownership with us every trip ( we go down once or twice a year for the past 15 years and they give us garbage everytime )
