Is AirTran Racist?
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A Muslim family removed from an airliner Thursday after passengers became concerned about their conversation say AirTran officials refused to rebook them, even after FBI investigators cleared them of wrongdoing.
Atif Irfan said federal authorities removed eight members of his extended family and a friend after passengers heard them discussing the safest place to sit and misconstrued the nature of the conversation.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had this exact conversation on a plane. But I’m a white male. I’ve never been kicked off a plane for having this conversation. I bet I could go on AirTran tomorrow and have this conversation and not be kicked off their plane.
What are your thoughts?
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January 2nd, 2009 at 10:51 am
The two girls probably wouldn’t have reported suspicious activity if it had been a white, middle-class family. You are right about that.
On a different note, the airline was right in taking them off and questioning them. They legally would have to after they were reported as allegedly acting suspicious. However, they were most definitely wrong in not allowing the family to fly with them after they had been cleared of any wrongdoing by the FBI.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:02 am
We live in a paranoid world. I suspect if these good people were boarding an Israeli aircraft and were overheard commenting re safety they would have been removed from the flight.
TSA is largely a useless organization putting on a show of security while doing little or nothing to actually protect fliers. The evidence of that statement is TSA has failed repeatedly when tested. Ipso facto, it is largely up to the passengers to be vigilant. While I don’t know that I would have reacted exactly the same as the women who voiced concerns to AirTran, a Washington attorney of the Muslim faith surely should have realized it would be imprudent to discuss safety with family members while boarding a plane.
This is less about the airline and the passengers and more about the naivete of the attorney and his family/friends. Or perhaps I should be less circumspect and say the fact that the gentleman is a Muslim does not make him a terrorist but the that he’s an attorney considering a lawsuit does make him an archetype.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
I agree with the FBI and the airline that ANY concern raised by the passengers-at-large is wise to investigate. Consider the worst-case-scenario prospects of a situation where a dangerous passenger was observed, concerns were raised, but not investigated because they DID match a suspicious profile? The irony would be [rightly] outrageous, and policies set around this would render airline security ineffective- “just dress like this, and they aren’t allowed to investigate you! Muahahaha….” Oh sure, great idea.
I agree that there are elements of this that seem prejudiced. I can see and sympathise with how terribly inconvenienced this family was, and agree that a simple refund is no compromise for the hours of planning, other reservations and deposits lost, lost opportunity, work scheduling time off, coordinated family planning, and of course - the actual loss of perhaps badly needed vacation time. The family should be compensated for all that, if indeed the investigation was fruitless, if the FBI cleared them, and the airline therefore had no reason to hold them!
Yes, the public-at-large (and therefore passengers-at-large) are likely to be prejudiced. Yes, Arab families might need to mind their P’s and Q’s a bit more than some other racial groups. But the Arab family themselves even misconstrues the nature of the racism, saying:
“They see one Muslim talking to another Muslim and they automatically assume something wrong is going on.”
I don’t believe anyone “sees” religion. What does religion look like? But this is the crux of what the middle east (and obviously Arab-Americans also) believe the prejudice to be. There’s some ignorance in believing that Americans see “Muslims” rather than “Arabs”. It’s the fuel behind the anti-American sentiment in the middle east, and that’s dangerous. The perception of Americans being Anti-Muslim is unique to Muslims.
Americans are [understandably] frightened of terrorists and terrorism, and [understandably] tune in and maybe develop a little paranoia when they see someone who they believe might fit the visual profile of one…
But that’s not religion, or religious-based on what they see with their eyes, and how they react to their inner fear. An Arab-American might be a Buddhist or a Christian, and I don’t think anyone would treat him differently. It’s the terrorism that breeds fear.
The comfort (and calmness) of the passengers is rightfully a concern of the airline, but the airline needs to manage the expense involved in maintaining that, just as they invest in comfortable seats. The wrongdoing was toppling this family’s domino and not taking responsibility for the domino effect.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 am
The Muslims reap what they sow.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 am
Whites didn’t hi-jack planes and fly them into the WTC. This is why Muslims need to police their own.
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Here is the issue….
The papers publish “A Muslim” family, when in reality they could have been Catholic, but just look middle-eastern in dress and skin coloring. The trigger here was they looked middle eastern….it is not possible to definitively “look Muslim”.
The media hypes the Muslim part of it.
The other issue is it is unfortunate that people who look a certain way are lumped together BUT…
If there was a report that white dogs were biting people in your town, and a white dog came walking down your street, would you be extra cautious ? Of course. It does not mean you hate all white dogs, or that all white dogs are bad. It simply means you are more vigilant around the dogs that fit the description of prior problems.
You will still be cautious around spotted dogs too…. just not to the extent you are near the white ones.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
The government has not yet (as of 02 Jan 09 at 11:30) taken over the airline industry, or AirTran in particular.
That means if AirTran is free to offer or refuse its services to anyone they choose without so much as offering an explanation. If you don’t like their way of doing business, you are free to find an airline that you want to patronize with your dollars.
If you cannot find an airline that you are willing to patronize with your dollars, you are (like Herb Kelleher & Co) free to start your own airline and offer service exclusively to the patrons whom you wish to serve.
If your airline, or AirTran, or Delta, or Southwest (etc, ad nauseum) chooses not to allow me to fly because I am wearing a Parrothead T-Shirt (sorry Jimmy), a capitalist T-shirt, a communist T-shirt (etc, ad nauseum). You, and they, are free to do so.
I for one, would be willing to pay a premium to fly on the airline who removed any passenger who even said the word “bomb” in jest.
In short, it’s a non-story.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
michelle malkin’s fans have nothing but spite for the muslims, forgetting that US dollars funded the terrorists during the Afghanistan ploy which led to the Soviet Union collapsing and distintegrating, only to coalesce into the Russia of today.
yes, 911 happened, but South Asians were not behind it. Men from Saudi Arabia and Egypt were.
Yet the Saudis and the Egyptians are US’s friends.
This never gets reported regarding 911.
therefore this is not about Muslims. this is a racist incident, and is no differnt from the Sikh man being murdered in cold blood in Phoenix immediately after 911.
So yes, Airtrans is racist as a minority of Americans are.
This is no different from the aftermath of Dec 6, 1941.
Except there won’t be any prison camps, not when you can make America into the gulag it is today.
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:25 am
I’m as white as a loaf of bread and I keep completely silent from arrival at the airport until get off at my final destination.
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:24 am
I think a lot of you are missing the point. Their conversation was not a threat. It’s one I’ve had a dozen times. What part of the plane is safest? And then they were clearly removed because they looked a certain way and then AirTran refused to let them fly even though the FBI requested they be put back on the plane.
“The FBI agents actually cleared our names,” Inayet Sahin, one of the family members kicked off the flight, told CNN. “They went on our behalf and spoke to the airlines and said, ‘There is no suspicious activity here. They are clear. Please let them get on a flight so they can go on their vacation,’ and they still refused.”
This was issued yesterday:
WASHINGTON (AP) ? AirTran Airways is apologizing to nine Muslim passengers kicked off a New Year’s Day flight to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gfsO6SsGJUrRCXhujgS5ycbUIsfQD95F7H401
Personally I think this is a disgusting display of blatant racism. Sure, they can hide behind “saftey” but the truth is this would have never happened to a white, black or asian family. Because the women were dressed in traditional muslim attire (not sure what that’s called) and the men clearly looked Middle Eastern they were targeted and then removed.
Maybe the airlines should just ban all middle eastern people from flying so we can all feel better…
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 am
It’s got to be tough for Middle eastern folks to travel.
I remember shortly after the shoe bomber incident, I was in a departure lounge waiting for a boarding call. The Middle - Eastern gentleman sitting next to me casually bent down to tie his shoelace and every eye in the lounge suddenly trained on him. It was a creepy feeling. I too glanced at what he was doing.
911 happened because no one was looking - I saw it as a sucker punch. The bad guys must see now that 911 was too big, because now we are all looking. Awareness is a safe precaution, but I think we also have to try very hard to not infringe on the rights of those we are obviously profiling.