‘You Are Guilty of Looking Asian While Flying’
25, August, 2006
Lubna Hussain
“Is it true that two men had to leave a plane because they looked Asian?” asked my 11-year-old daughter.
“Yes,” I replied matter-of-factly.
“But that’s racist!” she declared with the sort of outdated idealism that is the exclusive ideological territory of children these days.
I tried explaining to her the reasons as to why this had happened without much success. Not because I myself was totally unconvinced by this latest round of blatant hypocrisy, but more due to the fact that she could see through the pathos of the so-called “justification” that has brought about such discrimination.
“You can’t judge a person because of the way they look,” was her closing remark. What she didn’t realize was that in the Western Hemisphere you can. And what’s more is you do.
The incident happened at Malaga airport where two men were not allowed to fly back to England because of their appearance (a euphemism for skin-color) and the fact that they were speaking a “strange language that could have been Arabic” (it could have been Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Guatemalan as far as their fellow complainants were concerned because they were obviously too ignorant to even tell the difference. And besides, how on earth can parlance in a foreign language be deemed as a breach of security?).
If anything, the poor passengers who were off-loaded seemed to have been found guilty as charged. They weren’t white and spoke a funny language. They were fully clothed (decency of attire may also be counted as a future criminal offense) as opposed to wearing shorts and flip-flops like their fellow travelers. They were also probably brazen enough to have names that were not Tom, Dick or Harry. Naturally they were seen as “suspicious” by some “tabloid-reading” elements (if the accusers had any literacy skills it would surprise me) who would not have had the common sense to understand that not everyone who wears trousers, is brown and speaks a plethora of other languages is necessarily inclined to blow up a plane.
The world really has become a sad place if you happen to have been cursed by being born into the wrong ethnic group. Had this taken place pre-Sept. 11, 2001, there would have been a public outcry, widespread condemnation and a declaration of a violation of human rights. But in the current climate of global paranoia it was seen as a perfectly measured response to an amorphous ill-defined and ubiquitous threat.
What amazed me was that the airline, in order to assuage the unfounded nonsensical fears of a couple of media junkies, ordered the gentlemen off the plane and marched them straight into the custody of Spanish police. It sounds more like a sketch from Monty Python than a scene from reality. I wonder what they would have been accused of.
“Is it true that you are guilty of looking Asian while flying?”
“Have you eaten chapattis and chicken curry within the past 24 hours?”
“Do you know anyone called Muhammad?”
“Are you guilty of watching Bollywood movies?”
Absolutely absurd! Completely ludicrous!
What’s worse is that none of the other passengers complained about the total unfairness, downright humiliation and thorough embarrassment caused to these poor guys. I wonder why it was that in spite of holding up the flight for three hours, those who had been complaining were allowed to travel? Would it not have made more sense to put these individuals on another flight considering they were the ones refusing to cooperate with the crew? How is it that they didn’t face charges for false accusations or causing a delay of a scheduled flight? Probably because they were white, wore string vests and had English names. So much for equal opportunities and cultural sensitivity!
I read of another incident recently of a Continental Airlines pilot who, traveling as a passenger, was also asked to leave an aircraft after the doors had been sealed. (I wonder if he would have been given the shove had he been manning the cockpit?) And yet another of a European MP who was asked if he was seeking political asylum when a passport official failed to check his documents and relied solely on the color of his skin as a qualification for entry into the UK. Muslim women have been asked to remove their hijabs in order to fly. I can’t imagine nuns being asked to remove their habits somehow, but hey! What right do I have to ask such questions when I am as brown as brown can be?
I don’t remember witnessing the same sort of discrimination being meted out to people with an Irish accent at the height of the IRA’s terrorist activities or Catholics being forced to remove their crucifixes on planes. If anything this policy of stripping Asians and Muslims literally and figuratively of their basic dignity will serve to increase their already growing resentment and further alienate them from societies where they are an important factor in counteracting terrorism. Playing into the hands of the lynch mob and organizing and legitimizing witch-hunts does not bode well for countries that had erstwhile prided themselves in espousing values of racial equality and multiculturalism.
* * *
(Lubna Hussain is a Saudi writer. She is based in Riyadh.)
Lubna Hussain
“Is it true that two men had to leave a plane because they looked Asian?” asked my 11-year-old daughter.
“Yes,” I replied matter-of-factly.
“But that’s racist!” she declared with the sort of outdated idealism that is the exclusive ideological territory of children these days.
I tried explaining to her the reasons as to why this had happened without much success. Not because I myself was totally unconvinced by this latest round of blatant hypocrisy, but more due to the fact that she could see through the pathos of the so-called “justification” that has brought about such discrimination.
“You can’t judge a person because of the way they look,” was her closing remark. What she didn’t realize was that in the Western Hemisphere you can. And what’s more is you do.
The incident happened at Malaga airport where two men were not allowed to fly back to England because of their appearance (a euphemism for skin-color) and the fact that they were speaking a “strange language that could have been Arabic” (it could have been Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Guatemalan as far as their fellow complainants were concerned because they were obviously too ignorant to even tell the difference. And besides, how on earth can parlance in a foreign language be deemed as a breach of security?).
If anything, the poor passengers who were off-loaded seemed to have been found guilty as charged. They weren’t white and spoke a funny language. They were fully clothed (decency of attire may also be counted as a future criminal offense) as opposed to wearing shorts and flip-flops like their fellow travelers. They were also probably brazen enough to have names that were not Tom, Dick or Harry. Naturally they were seen as “suspicious” by some “tabloid-reading” elements (if the accusers had any literacy skills it would surprise me) who would not have had the common sense to understand that not everyone who wears trousers, is brown and speaks a plethora of other languages is necessarily inclined to blow up a plane.
The world really has become a sad place if you happen to have been cursed by being born into the wrong ethnic group. Had this taken place pre-Sept. 11, 2001, there would have been a public outcry, widespread condemnation and a declaration of a violation of human rights. But in the current climate of global paranoia it was seen as a perfectly measured response to an amorphous ill-defined and ubiquitous threat.
What amazed me was that the airline, in order to assuage the unfounded nonsensical fears of a couple of media junkies, ordered the gentlemen off the plane and marched them straight into the custody of Spanish police. It sounds more like a sketch from Monty Python than a scene from reality. I wonder what they would have been accused of.
“Is it true that you are guilty of looking Asian while flying?”
“Have you eaten chapattis and chicken curry within the past 24 hours?”
“Do you know anyone called Muhammad?”
“Are you guilty of watching Bollywood movies?”
Absolutely absurd! Completely ludicrous!
What’s worse is that none of the other passengers complained about the total unfairness, downright humiliation and thorough embarrassment caused to these poor guys. I wonder why it was that in spite of holding up the flight for three hours, those who had been complaining were allowed to travel? Would it not have made more sense to put these individuals on another flight considering they were the ones refusing to cooperate with the crew? How is it that they didn’t face charges for false accusations or causing a delay of a scheduled flight? Probably because they were white, wore string vests and had English names. So much for equal opportunities and cultural sensitivity!
I read of another incident recently of a Continental Airlines pilot who, traveling as a passenger, was also asked to leave an aircraft after the doors had been sealed. (I wonder if he would have been given the shove had he been manning the cockpit?) And yet another of a European MP who was asked if he was seeking political asylum when a passport official failed to check his documents and relied solely on the color of his skin as a qualification for entry into the UK. Muslim women have been asked to remove their hijabs in order to fly. I can’t imagine nuns being asked to remove their habits somehow, but hey! What right do I have to ask such questions when I am as brown as brown can be?
I don’t remember witnessing the same sort of discrimination being meted out to people with an Irish accent at the height of the IRA’s terrorist activities or Catholics being forced to remove their crucifixes on planes. If anything this policy of stripping Asians and Muslims literally and figuratively of their basic dignity will serve to increase their already growing resentment and further alienate them from societies where they are an important factor in counteracting terrorism. Playing into the hands of the lynch mob and organizing and legitimizing witch-hunts does not bode well for countries that had erstwhile prided themselves in espousing values of racial equality and multiculturalism.
* * *
(Lubna Hussain is a Saudi writer. She is based in Riyadh.)
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 6:14 AM
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