Melanin Matrix
It’s been made clear to me that in a post September 11, 2001 United States, unless the color of your skin is red, white, or blue, you’re a potential terrorist.
Last week I decided to take the El (Chicago’s subway) downtown, if only to sit on a bench in Grant Park. While waiting for a train, I got out my camera and took some pictures of people waiting on the other side of the platform.
The ensuing conversation with a CTA employee went something like this:
CTA: You can’t do that in here!
me: What, take pictures? This is a public place, isn’t it?
CTA: You want me to go get the bulletin? You can’t take pictures of CTA structures.
me: OK, but out of curiosity, why?
CTA: Because we don’t want you blowing shit up!
OK, I understand the paranoia surrounding civic infrastructure, but still…
This kind of thing happens to me a lot. I have the dubious distinction of having been mistaken for Hispanic, South Italian, Iranian, Egyptian, Moroccan, and mulatto. A lot of these mistakes can, of course, be chalked up to mass ignorance, but as a brown man under the iron fists of John Ashcroft, my ethnicity might as well be “Threat”.
Accordingly, I’d like to take this opportunity to revise the Homeland Security Advisory System:
update: Thanks to the many livejournal users who very quickly changed their code to save me bandwidth. Please know that I have no problem with you downloading and hosting images from the etherblog (not from other sections of etherfarm) as long as you give credit and link to etherfarm. Thanks for your understanding. Back to our normal programming.
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17 responses
Comment posted at 10:31 on Monday, July 28, 2003
you are a twisted genius.
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Comment posted at 11:02 on Monday, July 28, 2003
I was accosted by security while trying to photograph from the base of the Aon Center (the AON tower is the second highest building in Chicago). Apparently 3 security guards are needed to handle white dorky looking guys with cameras. I was actually trying to get a shot of the bandshell in Millennium Park, across the street, and was not taking pics of potentially vulnerable tall buildings.
The security guards told me it was ok to shoot from across the street though.
By the way, welcome to Chicago.
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big dipper
Comment posted at 12:22 on Monday, July 28, 2003
I’m the last person to ever say that paranoia is not heightened awareness, but in this case I think that photography and public transit have always had a tough time together. About twenty years ago I witnessed my friend’s near arrest for using a camera in the subway in NYC, and about five years ago my girlfriend was prevented from photographing on the el in Chicago.
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Comment posted at 12:24 on Monday, July 28, 2003
Paul, I’m looking out my window at the AON Center, and it’s kind of creepy how much the building formerly known as the <a href=”<a href=”>Amoco Building</a> resembles the former World Trade Towers.
Ain’t no way they’d let me near the AON center.
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heisenberg
Comment posted at 13:19 on Monday, July 28, 2003
You should have asked the CTA man if he would please get you a copy of the bulletin, as a keepsake, since you would be leaving Chicago soon and wanted a non-tourist rememberance item—and, if he would let you take a photo of him, holding up the bulletin, (against a blank-wall background to be fully secure), and give you his name and mailing address, you would send him a print from Santa Cruz. Then, screw sending him the print, or not, but having that picture would be a hoot. Second, on the alert, under “white” you forgot the remaining language, “… but watch anyway.”
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heisenberg
Comment posted at 13:30 on Monday, July 28, 2003
The story reminds me of the muslim guy in Doonsbury, who aroused all that suspicion because he had gone to a Plam Pilot school.
Anyway, Res, I never have met you but if I would mistake you for anything, it would be an Aruban off-shore banking specialist, and I would ask you if you had any good tips from any of the Soros hedge fund people.
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Comment posted at 16:46 on Monday, July 28, 2003
That’s just plain scary. The level of paranoia here in Australia died down a month or so after 911 and things seem back to normal (what’s normal anyway?).
In saying this, I wonder if the FBI/CIA etc will read this post?
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selenium
Comment posted at 21:41 on Monday, July 28, 2003
Makes me sick. Who’s winning here ? The more I see GW and his ilk professing “freedom” the more ironic it becomes.
As if these pathetic interventions make one bit of difference. Oh yes Mr. INS man, I’m one of them, please take my fingerprints…….
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heisenberg
Comment posted at 12:14 on Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Can you say - Joe McCarthy?
Can you say - HUAC?
Can you say - loyalty oath?
Can you say - Paul Robeson?
Can you say - Ronald Reagan, heading up the Screen Actors Guild, ratting out on cohorts?
Hey, who you gonna have objecting to a loyalty oath anyway, except some [Commie, Pinko, A-rab, Camel-jockey, Ayatollah, Saudi, faggot, other—please pick one] creep who’s intending to be disloyal in the first place?
I saw in this morning’s newspaper - US flags being sewn in a sweatshop in China.
Do you think the ones George II drapes himself in are Made in America? You gotta wonder …
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Comment posted at 10:22 on Wednesday, July 30, 2003
>Because we donÍt want you blowing shit up!
You can blow shit up with a camera? How many mega-pixels?
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11
Trackbacked at 10:23 on Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Go here….
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heisenberg
Comment posted at 17:05 on Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Beerzie - Blowing shit up gets done from a helicopter gunship, a B-52, or by laser guided smart bombs. Otherwise it ain’t legit.
Gotta have one of Res’ bunker buster specials, deftly hidden into one of those little Nikons. Damned clever, that Res. Got his ways and means. Hope the CTA guy had somebody watching his back, when he beefs with Res.
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Comment posted at 18:02 on Wednesday, July 30, 2003
This is just lovely. I go through the same cases of mistaken ethnicity. However, I don’t have any stories related to 9/11 (except for that one redneck that shuffled by, gave me a sidelong glance, and muttered, “Fuckin’ Iraqis!”).
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heisenberg
Comment posted at 10:01 on Thursday, July 31, 2003
April - The proper response to that comment, is, “No, not yet, but it’s a tought.”
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Comment posted at 13:56 on Friday, August 01, 2003
if it makes you feel any better, i’ve been told on several occasions by various CTA employees that i’m not allowed to take photos of CTA property.
i’ve had an argument with one of the train conductors while they made their stop at Damen. bad, bad situation. people don’t like it when their train is held up due to a silly girl complaining about not being able to take photos.
i guess they all paid attention to the meeting regarding CTA photography.
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Nick Feder
Comment posted at 09:00 on Wednesday, August 06, 2003
I was at the Randolph St. Subway and I took my camera out and someone literally dived out of no where to tell me that I “can’t take no pictures down here.”
I put my camera away and when the were gone, I took my picture.
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Comment posted at 11:56 on Wednesday, August 06, 2003
I wasn’t clear in my post.
For the record, let me state that my feelings about the exchange between myself and the CTA employee hinge upon the word “you” in the phrase “…we don’t want you blowing shit up.”
Don’t want me taking pictures? Fine. I’ll put my camera away; rebellion isn’t my modus operandi, and I understand to some degree the need for such security measures. But it’s hard for me to believe the “you” in that statement would apply to everyone.
In other words, I didn’t necessarily feel singled out when I was asked not to take pictures. I do, however, think that the “you” was meant pejoratively, and it’s from that that this post was originated.
Am I being overly sensitive? Perhaps. But there are large numbers of “us” who, not unreasonably, feel threatened by the jingoistic undertones of “homeland security”.
Really, though, my chart was simply intended to make light of the matter, not to vent my frustrations with authorities. Our international policies and, increasingly, our domestic security policies are, in my opinion, jokes which tell themselves. Laughing at them is my way of dealing, I suppose.
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