Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Discrimination
The closest I came to witnessing racial discrimination was hearing others complaining about other races and when I took a flight home a few years ago. I was on a flight from San Diego to Las Vegas and then on to Nashville. I had boarded the aircraft took my seat and I happened to look up a see two Arab looking men getting on the plane. They caught my eye because it was getting dark and they both had on very dark sunglasses. Neither one of them was speaking nor from what I could tell they did not seem to be happy. It just so happens they sat down right next to me. At that time most people are friendly and say hi or something close to that but they said nothing. The flight attendant never said anything to them but I’m sorry, they just looked creepy. So I politely asked them to remove their sunglasses. The gentlemen sitting next to me turned and looked at me as if to say “are you kidding me” but I was not joking. They removed them and I told them thank you. I even offered them some gum before we took off. That was the longest hour flight I have ever taken. I do not know if that was discrimination but I will let others say yes or no. I was taught to treat others the way I would want to be treated. I do not care if you are white, black, brown, yellow, red or whatever race or nationality you claim creepy is creepy. If I got on a bus, train or plane and I creeped you out please tell me and I would have no problem trying to come up with a solution.
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Well now that you mention it, you creep me right the hell out. Not really, but asking those men to remove their glasses was pretty creepy to everyone else on the plane with you. I understand where you are coming from. When a person looks "shady" (get it...sunglasses!) or outright guilty, you should say something. Politely asking them to take off thier glasses is one thing, if you asked them if they were Islamic...that could have been crossing a line. When something makes you uncomfortable you should be able to stand up for youself and make your situation better in that timeframe. Imagine how uncomfortable you would have felt had you NOT been nice to them. We are in a hightened state of alertness in the U.S. and I'm afraid I profile people all the time, no matter what the color. If someone looks out of place, or up to no good, I'm gonna freak out a little and either say something or report it to someone who will. I don't feel that's racist per say, just cautious.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if that situation was particularly racist, but I have noticed that some people that keep on their sunglasses indoors (or inside a plane) may look a bit creepy. In other instances, they look like they are trying too hard to look cool. The ethnicity of the person wearing the sunglasses doesn't matter to me, but with the right type of facial structure and sour expression, I could understand being a bit intimidated. However, I probably wouldn't have asked them to take off their sunglasses. I would feel really bad if I asked them to do that and they turned out to be blind or something! With that being said, I've always been the type of person that is really shy about asking people for stuff and I tend to go out of my way sometimes not to offend others. So perhaps it was brave of you to speak up when you were uncomfortable.
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