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LifestreamMan questioned and misses flight for speaking Tamil Clearly un-American — after all, no REAL American would know more than one language or indeed have any interest in learning.
A 32-year-old man speaking Tamil and some English about a sporting rivalry was questioned at Sea-Tac Airport and missed his flight Saturday because at least one person thought he was suspicious.The man was speaking Tamil, a language largely used in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore, on his cell phone at the departure gate and on the aircraft. An off-duty airline employee heard the conversation and informed the flight crew.
Boing Boing has a recap of other similar incidents.
Come on, to recognize tamil language means that at least ONE paranoid studied a bit.
Come on, from the story it seems more likely that the suspect told the investigators as he explained his situation. Nowhere does it imply that they pegged the language as Tamil. So it’s still a case of xenophobia.