It first happened shortly after 9/11.

I traveled overseas. At the check-in counter, I looked at my business class boarding card and saw a black ballpoint squiggle on it. It meant nothing to me at that time. At security, I was asked, not very politely, to step out of the line. Every nook and cranny of my carry-on was scrutinized. My handbag. Shawl. Purse. I was frisked roughly. As it happened, I was the only non-white traveling to London out of Dulles airport on that flight.

Naturally, nothing questionable was found on my person or in carry-on. And I wondered why I was singled out.

On my boarding card I noticed the notorious squiggle. A red flag went up. I asked security what that mark meant. The guy flushed and told me the system threw up random names to be searched before boarding. I made little of it.

I travel a lot. Was it coincidence that my entire family was searched after the dreaded black mark appeared on boarding cards?

Subsequent trips proved that it was not. Random check my ass. I’m a Muslim. It was my name, dear reader, my obviously ‘Muzzlim’ name!

It continues to happen. Now I laugh and submit to more and more sophisticated searches. the little black mark of damnation. I don’t doubt that token random names are thrown up by the system. I’m American. My name? EVERY TIME.

So it’s no surprise to me that fascism is firmly rooted and in full bloom in the American mind. It was always there.