Like, I probably sound paranoid af. But I’ve read news about apparant “illegal CCP ‘Police Stations’” operating out of NYC (and variojs places) and um… I’m Chinese-American, and I was born in mainland China, especially under current administration, I personally feel like its a very bad time to be like… flying a drone.
See, because drones are made in China, there’s basically a fear of “spying” from these drones throughout the country, and DJI is already on the path of being banned, and I’ve seen videos of karens harassing a Youtuber, even when they are white, so I can’t imagine the shit I have to face if I cross paths with a karen. I feel like they would straight up call the FBI and accuse me of “being a spy”.
Same with radios. I’ve heard of the story where someone visited India with a radio (because they were gonna do hiking or something and there were no signal), then they got arrested and held for a few hours and investigated for being a “terrorist”, so that kinda gets worrying because this fear of “terrorism” is also prevalent in the US. Someone is gonna see that radio is gonna think “this guy must be a terrorist” or “is that [the radio with antenna sticking out] a bomb?” I mean, I heard about some woman on a plane called airport security on a guys doing… algebra, like just imagine in a crowded area with a “weird device that ‘looks like a bomb’”.
Kinda feels anxiety-inducing to be playing around with these gadgets, don’t you think? Am I worrying too much?
The solution is simple: Take a Karen with you. You think I’m joking but I’m sure there’s some older white woman acquaintance who knows you’re not a spy. Ask her to come fly drones with you. Don’t mention Karens specifically, but it’s perfectly fine to say you’re a bit worried about being racially profiled, or accosted by ICE, even though you’re legal. And you’d feel safer if you had an American to vouch for you, or at least call your family if you got grabbed. And tell her it’s fun and you’ll teach her how to fly it. Maybe she could bring her dog along, unless it’s likely to try to eat the drone. Plenty of white Americans who don’t like what’s going on, maybe they’re not up for doing a protest but would be happy to extend their privilege while they do something fun with an immigrant they know.