re: “Was taking off your shoes that big of a deal?” Um, yes, it was. If you weren't white, you were often forced to go through extra screening every fucking time, just based on the color of your skin. My sister-in-law has an American-sounding first and last name, was born in the US, and is of East Indian descent. She and her family (who have similarly non-“ethnic” sounding names) were forced to go through secondary screening every time they flew until around 2005—not because their names were similar to people on the blacklist, or because their citizenship was different—but because of the color of their skin (They were selected for screening by the ticket agent based on their appearance—if they were going by name of history, they wouldn't have looked any different from any White American citizen). It happened so many times that they were able to recognize when they would have to go through the screening and get felt up (some symbol on the ticket or something…I can't remember). Disgusting.