INSIDER Autumn 2019 | Page 14

Insider Comment Are airlines racist? With the election of US president Trump and talks of Brexit; racial division is at its peak. More spe- cifically, we are seeing more stories of racist incidents occur in airports. This may seem like an ab- surd topic but what I’m really asking is: are flight attendants racially biased? My first example could be a recent incident in which a white woman refused to sit next to a black woman on a Spirit airline flight from Las Vegas to Chi- cago. The victim claims that the woman argued with flight at- tendants just to deter the black woman from sitting next to her. Luckily for Tiarra, her fellow (white) pas- sengers rallied around her and switched seats so she can avoid sitting next to the rac- ist woman. Tiarra shared her encounter with her Facebook follow- ers and explained how she was so ‘’embarrassed and heartbroken’’ that she went through this as it never hap- pened to her before. The white woman defended herself with the argument that she thought the seat next to her ‘’would be emp- ty’’.However, Tiarra said that she was much happier when a young white person sat next to her. Tiarra then explained how the Spirit employees repeatedly thanked her for being a ‘’team player’’. made these threats on camera. A man behind the camera . said ‘’you were very rude to us’’ . We can all agree this comment is shows the bias of the attend- ants; why should an innocent passenger be a ‘’team player’’ for a woman who’s clearly dis- criminating against her? By al- lowing the racist woman to stay on the flight, it sets the impres- sion that people of colour de- serve to be treated like second class citizens at the expense of the comfort for white people. The victim re- calls the at- tendant say- ing ‘’oh please I’ve been dealing with you people for thirty years’’. Another woman calls out ‘’Carol’’ but the lady simply replied ‘’darling I can make it very difficult for you in customs’’. It is revealed later on in the twitter post that the attendant tried to follow up on her threat. The woman threatened to get the family in trouble knowing there were vulnera- ble people aged 3- 75 in the party Another example is an incident in which a flight attendant threatened to ‘’make it difficult’’ for a Mexican family to pass through customs after they confronted her for being rude. She openly The College magazine online: sixthformmag.blogspot.co.uk