Ivy League economist ethnically profiled, interrogated for doing math on American Airlines flight

I think that woman belongs in some kind of care facility for the intellectually challenged.

Math is bad.


Trust me.

a reply to: Liquesence

Muslims don't wear turbans. Its normally Sikhs. They often have this problem in America with people thinking they are Muslims.

In the same way this woman thought mathematical equations look like arabic.

If she was sitting next to me, a few years ago, she would have really freaked. On a trip to Minnesota, a co-worker and I were figuring out how much ANFO was needed for a blast at a strip mine that we were going to.

I'm a little surprised at some of the early responses to the OP. Calling you a race baiter & putting words in your mouth. My first thought is that the American education system is so shot to hell & has been for so long that advanced math & languages other than English are really beyond the average Americans grasp. This woman being white & blonde wasnt stereotyping white blonde women, it was merely details & pointing out differences (& her being Christian like one poster said wasn't even mentioned at all).
TPTB plan to dumb down the populace & then have us all at each other's throats because of it has worked better than they ever imagined.

originally posted by: Phage
Math is bad.


Trust me.

I know, math has made me feel ill on more than one occasion.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
If she was sitting next to me, a few years ago, she would have really freaked. On a trip to Minnesota, a co-worker and I were figuring out how much ANFO was needed for a blast at a strip mine that we were going to.

If you both happen to be "darker complected" or "Middle Eastern" looking or sounding, that would be hilarious, especially if she didn't know or understand the context.

a reply to: SmurfRider

Thanks, that's another thing I was getting at: while people do have different political perspectives, and those perspectives do shape their viewpoints of the world, there is a point at which education and common sense *should* take over so that crap like this can be avoided.

But no, when we're ignorant, dumbed down, afraid of our own shadows, and swallow everything fed to us without question, unfortunately everything becomes suspiciously.

Why do we cut education but invest in, and build more and bigger, jails & prisons? (rhetorical question)

This reminds me of a story I once read- probably Readers Digest, approximately 1966.
A music professor was travelling on a Russian plane, amusing himself during the journey by reading over a music score.
A couple of secret agents were observing him suspiciously, and coming to the conclusion that the mysterious symbols must be some sort of code.
So he ended the journey being dragged off the plane protesting vigorously "It's only a fugue by Beethoven".
When the interrogator entered his cell, he announced sternly "You may as well tell us everything, comrade. Beethoven has already confessed".

P.S. I believe this story may have been intended as a joke. Nobody thought that real policemen would be as foolish as that.