I Don’t Want to Be Humiliated

Comedian Eric André shared on Monday that he was racially profiled at an airport in Australia over the weekend.

In a video posted on Instagram, the Eric Andre Show star recounted his ordeal after a 25-hour journey from New York City to Brisbane, including layovers in Los Angeles and Melbourne. André, 41, stated he was “put in a special line” and “thoroughly sniffed by a dog” during his stop in Melbourne.

“It’s one of the many times I’ve been racially profiled at the airport,” André expressed. “This is a message for all Black, brown, and Indigenous people traveling through Melbourne today, especially if you’re traveling through Qantas International by Terminal 2: Please be careful.”

André also solicited connections with discrimination lawyers in Australia and requested future work opportunities in the country to provide him with police or security escort.

“I do not want to be humiliated or racially discriminated against anymore at these airports,” André stated. “I don’t want to cut my hair and wear a three-piece suit so that I’m treated like a first-class citizen. I shouldn’t be made to feel that I am unaccepted by entering a country. Shame on the people at the Melbourne Airport that have this cockamamie procedure.”

He added, “It has nothing to do with safety. It has everything to do with racial harassment.”

The Melbourne Airport has since responded, asserting it does not tolerate racism in any form. “We welcome all passengers to Melbourne, and we expect everyone to be treated equally,” a spokesperson told The Guardian. The airport also announced that government agencies responsible for processing international arrivals into Australia were asked to investigate André’s complaint.

“Those agencies have now provided a response to Mr André,” the spokesperson mentioned.

It remains uncertain if André will pursue further action over the incident. This wouldn’t be the first time he has sought redress for similar issues. In 2021, André was stopped by Clayton County Police Department officers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and asked if he was carrying drugs. Subsequently, he filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality and fairness of the police department’s drug interdiction airport program.

“During those few minutes, the other (white) passengers were forced to shimmy around me,” André wrote in a Daily Beast op-ed about his experience in Atlanta. “They gawked while doing so—after all, I must have done something to deserve all the police attention. I boarded the plane utterly humiliated, and angry.”

He emphasized that the officers had no valid reason to stop him. “It’s just part of Flying While Black,” he concluded.

Read more at The Daily Beast.