While I don’t fly in and out of Cleveland/Hopkins Airport nearly as much as I formerly did, one thing still hasn’t changed over the years: The dearth of persons of color employed by the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to screen passengers. Look for yourself the next time you fly. The agents are virtually — with only a few exceptions — all white.
Out of a total of 252 agents at the airport, 206 are white, 27 black, 12 Hispanic, and seven Asian. (See the list of race and genders of agents obtained from TSA below).
Then, notice the number of TSA agents of color working at the airport where you land. In other cities the racial makeup of the TSA workforce at the security checkpoints is reflective of the population in that city, county, or region, which means that fair hiring practices are being observed. But that’s just not the case here in Cleveland.
If hiring practices were not discriminatory at Hopkins, one-third of the TSA agents — roughly 90 — would be minorities, which would be reflective of the percentage of minorities residing in Cuyahoga County. But that’s clearly not the case, as only 46 are persons of color.
So, how does one change these obviously biased hiring practices? One idea would to be to go to the federal government and complain. But wait a minute — this agency is a branch of the federal government.
I’d like to know what our candidates for national office think about this situation, but if the past is any indication, they will simply ignore it. After all, this is just Cleveland being Cleveland, and no one cares. In essence, the government is using the tax dollars of persons of color to discriminate against us. Am I the only person upset by this?
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: Discrimination at Cleveland Hopkins Airport”
Donna Dabbs
I agree! I thought I was the only person that noticed this..a few years ago. It wasn’t always that way..I traveled constantly for work 15 years ago…so I want to say that I noticed the change after there was some TSA review and kicked up and revamped security . ..after which all of the black employees vanished!