Eric André says he was 'racially profiled' at the Melbourne Airport: 'It has nothing to do with safety'
"I do not want to be humiliated or racially discriminated against anymore at these airports."
Comedian Eric André is speaking out after feeling "humiliated” by his experience at an Australia airport, where he claims workers were unethically targeting "Black, brown and Indigenous people."
In a video shared to Instagram on Monday, the Emmy-nominated host of The Eric André Show said that he had just finished a 25-hour journey from New York City to Brisbane, with stops in Los Angeles and Melbourne, that was made all the more difficult by his experience at the Melbourne Airport.
"I got detained," André told followers. "I got pulled out of a lineup and put in a special line in Melbourne where I was sniffed thoroughly by a dog."
He continued with a warning to POC viewers: "It's one of the many times I've been racially profiled at the airport. So, 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. They are searching Black, Brown, and Indigenous people."
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André then asked fans with information to provide the name of the program and the officers in charge of the dogs. He also enlisted the help of any Australian viewers able to connect him with a discrimination lawyer in the country, and asked that anyone hoping to hire him for future work in Australia provide a security escort or otherwise fly him in through a different airport.
"I don't feel safe in the Melbourne airport. I do not want to be humiliated or racially discriminated against anymore at these airports," André said. "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."
He added, “Shame on the people at the Melbourne Airport that have this cockamamie procedure. I doubt it yields any safer world for anyone in Melbourne or Australia.”
The video also sees André question the success rate of the dog screening program, saying that such measures have “nothing to do with safety” and “everything to do with racial harassment.” He likened the practice to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” program, arguing that, “it is providing a less safe experience for Black, brown, and Indigenous passengers.”
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, a spokesperson for the airport said, "Melbourne Airport does not tolerate racism in any form. We welcome all passengers to Melbourne, and we expect everyone to be treated equally."
They further stated that the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) were asked to investigate and have since contacted André with a response to his complaints.
Qantas Airlines declined to comment and representatives for André did not immediately respond to EW's requests.
André offered no further comment on the incident, but directed followers to a 2014 study of racial disparity in dog sniff searches from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois via his Instagram Stories.
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This is not the first time André has experienced discrimination while traveling. Two years ago, he and fellow comedian Clayton English filed a lawsuit, claiming a police program at the Atlanta airport violated their constitutional rights by racially profiling and illegally stopping them. The duo said they were singled out and grilled about drugs as other passengers watched, in an interaction that André described as “dehumanizing and demoralizing,” per the Associated Press. The lawsuit was dismissed, and in January, André and English filed an appeal.
"I have the resources to bring national attention and international attention to this incident," André said at the time. "It's not an isolated incident."
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