Take No Chances
2002; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1177/10778004008002010
ISSN1552-7565
Autores Tópico(s)Disaster Management and Resilience
Resumo“Your bags are light. That’s good.” The dark-complected, clean-shaven, 40-ish-looking man scurries around the Royal Cab to load my small, softsided bag and laptop backpack. I nod in appreciation as I talk on my cell phone, which has become my lifeline during the last week. “I am at the rental car agency in Richmond now,” I explain into the phone. “The taxi is here to take me to the airport. I must go.” “Take no chances,” my husband Art implores, resisting my attempt to end the conversation. “Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.” I hang up and get into the backseat of the cab. “I lost my suitcase,” I reply once I am settled. “When I went to visit my mother to help her return home from a stay in a nursing home, she gave me this small bag and a few of her clothes.” “It’ll be easier to get on the plane,” the man says, “faster without so many bags.” “Will they let me take my things on the plane?” “I don’t think so. That’s what I heard on TV.” “I was on a plane Tuesday morning,” I say. Noting the man’s Middle Eastern appearance, I wait to see how he will respond. “If you see a group of Muslim-looking men together, turn and head in the other direction,” my husband, worried that I was flying home to Tampa alone, had instructed on the phone. “If they’re getting on your flight, don’t get on. Take no chances.” “I doubt I’ll be the only person watching out for Muslim men,” I had replied. “I guess you’re right,” he acknowledged. “Just take no chances. Be a good ethnographer. Pay attention to your surroundings.” “I haven’t been able to talk for 3 days,” the dark-complected man says now, as he pulls into traffic. “I am so distressed. I can’t sleep. Nothing.” “It’s awful,” I acknowledge, not knowing how to talk about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington that occurred almost a week ago now.
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