Arabs on a plane: Profiling
Passengers refuse to fly until asians are removed.
Boing Boing Post
Passengers of a recent British flight refused to fly until two “asian looking” men were removed from the plane. They were apparently speaking in arabic, looking at their watches repeatedly, and wearing heavy warm clothes in an already warm climate.
Sounds suspicious to me, but all of those are rather easily explained. People regularly look at their watches when preparing to fly, especially if they have connecting flights or other appointments. Flights are often pretty chilly once you get to cruising altitude, my wife takes a warm shirt or pullover to deal with the cold, these men took heavier coats. But then again adding all of that up does make them seem a tad suspicious.
I doubt these two had any ill intent, and they ended up bearing a large inconvenience because of the fears of others. It’s profiling, it’s racist, but is it wrong?
The thing with profiling is, it works. It exists because people that fit a profile, are statistically much more likely to commit the crime being profiled, because in reality that is what has happened before! It is not because of their religion or race that they are suspected, but because of the actions of their peers.
Often times this does affect the views of a group. It leads to stereotyping, which can be unfair but is often accurate. The only real problem I see is when people over-act on these suspicions. I do not disagree with the families that were afraid and suspected them. They have every right to be wary, and afraid given the circumstances. I do disagree with the decision of removing them from the flight. It seems that the flight crew and security at the airport could have handled that much better.
In a situation where you have a person or group of people that fit a profile that instills fear and outright revolt in others surrounding them, special effort must be taken by the people responsible for safety and order. The special effort need not be the removal of the “problem”–for in this case I do not see these men as being a problem–but extra care in dealing with the other passengers.
If I were in charge I would subject these gentlemen to additional screening. And yes that would be an inconvenience, and even perhaps unfair to them, but I think it would be a much better solution to allow them to fly while reassuring the other passengers.
The other passengers were unquestionably out of line. They had the choice in their hands to refuse to fly, but not to demand someone else be removed from the plane. If I felt that sort of fear and certainty I would remove MYSELF from the plane and catch another flight.
I would be remiss to deny that I harbour resentment and suspicion towards muslims in general. I definitely do. I don’t let that boil over to an individual level. I know that a large portion of islam is pacifistic, but of course we don’t see that side covered in the media today. It’s important to remember that stereotypes are just borrowed notes for a type of people. Some of it may apply, but the person you borrowed the notes from may have copied something down wrong, or maybe the general rule does not apply here.
You can be suspicious, but don’t be an ass unless given clear justification.
*edit*
I had made a comment on the original article, but it’s since been moderated or deleted. I find this interesting as it was very clear, simple, and expressed a neutral view. I went back and looked at what comments made it through. It’s only those condemning the people that demanded the two suspicious men to leave the plane.
Does anyone else find that interesting? There’s no comments neutral or on the other side. It makes me wonder.
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