Blog #15: Interrogation Addiction

I definitely found myself agreeing with Ms. Silko even before I began reading her essay. I have heard so many horror stories about Border Patrol and I have experienced and seen them in action. I do agree that Border Patrol puts people into stereotypes and immediately jumps on those who match it or even those who don’t. It’s this “dehumanizing” and “demonizing” that is striking fear into people. I know that the Border Patrol officers probably are more prone to asking colored people to “step out” or strip down for the officers or to have dogs search their trunks. When Silko talked about the patrol’s dog and the dog’s expressions and how “it was if she were embarrassed to be associated with them” made me feel like this dog was a way of dehumanizing Silko. She feels so violated of her human rights by the officers that the only thing she can connect and find sympathy with is an animal, not a human. The part about the patrollers allowing white people to just be waved through the checkpoint is true from my understanding. Last Spring, I went to a dance convention called ACDFA in Las Cruses, New Mexico with some dancers in the TCU Dance department. We were in a huge charter bus that TCU paid for and the bus driver was a middle aged, clean cut, white man. As the bus neared the Border Patrol station my heart sank as I feared a patrol man would come onto the bus and inspect all that was inside. Luckily, the driver just rolled down the window he told the men where we from, where we were going and we went right through without any problem. On the other hand, as we sitting there, I noticed a green, old, beat up, van with the trunk open and patrol men gathered around. We departed before anything interesting happened, but I could only imagine what the people inside the car were thinking and what happened to them. When thinking about this image I instantly clicked with Silko’s story about her and Gus and the old man who were pulled over and had his car searched. I’ve always found this issue so dehumanizing and a violation of human rights. Yes we live in a free country, but are we really “free?” This even happens at airports now as the TSA can search anyone for no reason just as Border Patrol. My dad is ALWAYS picked to be searched and I suspect it’s because he is very tall, domineering looking, and German, you wouldn’t want to make him mad, but he’s no convict. This frustrates him more than anything especially since he is an upper class, white male, which I guess all comes back around to Silko’s finding that “ no person, no citizen, is free to travel without the scrutiny of the Border Patrol.”