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by Naeem Mohaiemen
Visible Collective
http://disappearedinamerica.org
“In practice, the huge registers built up from the
sixteenth century onward did not serve as a real means
to identify people. Pre-modern identification
procedures relied on much more efficient means:
informers, secret individuals who were good at finding
people through informal techniques.”
[Valentin Groebner, Ready For Inspection, Cabinetmagazine # 22]
SNAKES ON A PLANE was, for a brief moment, the
uber-hyped, internet-propelled, buzz film of 2006.
With a title that is punch-line and plot synopsis
rolled into one, the film provided a study in Barnum
theory in action. Forget relational aesthetics in a
museum, this was the ultimate exercise in audience
participation. Long before the film opened, internet
discussion of the film was at a fever pitch and the
studio capitalized by adding scenes in response. The
most-quoted dialogue from the script actually
originated as an online parody of Samuel Jackson’s
pistol-whipping persona ever since PULP FICTION:
“Enough is enough! I have had it with these
muthafuckin’ snakes on this muthafuckin’ plane!”
When you leave that theater, think of the film as a
metaphor for the expansive paranoia that has gripped
air travel. If it’s not on your screen, it’s real
Arabs or Muslims biting you as you sit waiting for
takeoff. Overwhelmed by the fear that Seat 3B is not
just looking for a snack as he rifles through his bag,
passengers have become the new enforcers on our
flights.
Getting there is half the fun.
Ultimately, this is not a security conversation — it
is about enabling individuals to act out their
fantasies as “terrorist spotters.” Every person is
now an Action Hero?, ready to pounce on evildoers.
Even after someone makes their way through security
checks, passengers are indulged when they “spot
suspicious behavior”, kick up a royal fuss and boot
that passenger off the plane.
When you target behavior and facial tics, are
passengers passive actors in all this or do they start
behavior modification and self-censorship? This is
partially debated by Bernard Harcourt in his
forthcoming book Against Prediction: Profiling,
Policing and Punishing in an Actuarial Age. Faced with
new measures to study passengers faces through
“behavioral profiling”, airports have become locations
for a new form of performance art. Many of us have
become used to rehearsing a script that allows an
assumed normality roleplay, so that some hair-trigger
suspicion meter doesn’t go off.
What is suspicious? Suspect behavior has expanded to
include not smiling (the Syrian musician case), going
to the bathroom repeatedly (the two Indian men
detained soon after 9/11), changing seats and using
cell phones (Amsterdam-Bombay flight scare), wearing
heavy clothes (Malaga-Manchester flight, shades of
Jean Charles de Menezes who was also wearing a heavy
coat), wearing hijab (JFK detentions), wearing an
Arabic t-shirt (JetBlue’s “We Will Not Be Silent”
fracas with Iraqi activist Raed Jarrar), and speaking
“arabic” (Malaga-Manchester again) In the last
instance, mob rule forced two men off a Manchester
flight. The men in question were Asian and were most
likely speaking Urdu — apparently everyone is an
amateur and inept Arabist. Maybe they can help fill
the Intelligence Department’s deficit of Arabic
translators.
One of my innocent pleasures are horror films for that
balls-to-the-wall fear buzz. One such enabler was the
first installment in the FINAL DESTINATIONAL
franchise, featuring a protagonist who sees a vision
of an airline crash, and by freaking out, saves a
group of passengers who get off the plane.
For any of us who already have a fear of flying, the
accelerating nervousness displayed in the scene below
is true to life:
Alex Browning: “I saw it. Like, I don’t know I just
saw it. I saw it on the runway, I saw it take off. I
saw out my window. I saw the ground. And-and the cabin
starts to shake, right? And the left side blows up and
the whole plane just explodes! And it was so real,
just how everything happens, you know?”
Tod Waggner: “You’ve been on a lot of planes that blew
up?”
This exchange is not taken well by the flight
attendants, who insist:
“We will remove you from this aircraft!”
To which Alex replies with bravado:
“Fuck you! I’ll remove myself!”
And he storms off the plane, along with some lucky
souls who are scared by his outburst. Moments later,
the plane is in the sky, and even fewer moments
afterwards, it has exploded. Death does not take a
holiday, and eventually all the survivors get their
comeuppance in maximal gory fashion. The film was
made in 2000, but subsequent sequels wisely avoid the
air for freeway pileup (#2) and ferris wheel mayhem
(#3).
If Alex Browning had a darker hue and a different
name, the sum result of his freak out could very well
be deep incarceration. Center for Constitutional
Rights might still be suing for his release today.
These are the realities of air travel in this eco
system of fear.
Happy Flying.
Naeem Mohaiemen/Visible Collective work on art
interventions about hyphenated identities and security
panic.
http://disappearedinamerica.org
Additional Research: Anjali Kamat
Bibliography
Visible Collective: Fear of Flying
http://disappearedinamerica.org/video/part2/
Visible Collective: Driving While Black Becomes Flying
While Brown
http://disappearedinamerica.org/photos/driving/
JetBlue vs Arabic T-Shirts
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2006/08/people_here_in.html
Southwest vs “Meet The F***ers” t-shirt
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/06/news/fortune500/southwest_shirt/?cnn=yes
Syrian Musicians Trigger Security Panic
http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1260_0_26_0_C
Omar Ahmed vs. Southwest Airlines
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shobak/message/2498
Diabetic vs. British Airways
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CWU/is_2005_March_15/ai_n13252118
Mob Forces Asians Off Manchester Flight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5270500.stm
Omar Ahmed, Napster & Florida Pilot License
http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2004/09/omar_ahmed_naps.php
Final Destination
http://www.metrofilm.com/destinationfinale/
Snakes On A Plane: The Money Shot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bGv6Ijf1aU
Mobile Phone Triggers Dutch Air Scare
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=112484
200 Detained at JFK, Muslims Targeted
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-prof0824,0,4565671.story
And the profiling cheerleaders…
Mark Flanagan Wants Racial Profiling At Airports
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/15329196.htm
OP-ED: What Israeli Security Should Teach Us
OP-ED: Maybe, sometimes, profiling makes sense
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060822/OPINION02/608220305/1014
