Being a brown American in Saudi Arabia

Khuloud sent me this (I cite with her permission):  "Yes, a racialized hierarchy continues to exist today, especially in Saudi Arabia but beyond for sure (I wonder if your friend has experienced the "brown room" at any US airport?). I am not sure what your Pakistani-American colleague is talking about, and wonder if he even bothered read the "transit visa requirements" on the Saudi embassy's official website, which explicitly states that you need to apply for a transit visa ahead of time, and that although you don't need one if your transit time is less than 18 hours, you still cannot enter the country. I wonder if your colleague even noticed the frozen lines of non-US-citizen brown people, being treated like animals, or the fact that there were no women alone in the transit area. Your colleague, as a brown US citizen, has more rights in the transit area of a Saudi airport than the majority of Saudi nationals in their own country, not to even mention those of South Asian or African descent. And he can rest assured, that without his US citizenship, he would not have escaped without repercussions for the statements he made. Luck had nothing to do with it. "