Missing the point
If you think that being alert to suspicious behavior by someone on a plane is a good move, then you are very clearly racist. That’s fairly lame. I think the behavior warranted suspicion and I would have become quite alert. In fact, I’d draw attention of it to other passengers in the event it warranted intervention. And I’d tell them to knock it off.
Not worrying about it may lead to some sort of feeling of moral superiority but refusing to become alert to the situation doesn’t make you a racist, it makes you smart.
July 16th, 2004 at 4:43 pm
This was bullshit when you posted it on my site, and it is bullshit now.
First, please show me where I said she was a racist. I said she was stupid and a coward. Not the same thing.
Second, oh you who doesn’t bother to read the stuff linked to — not only did she act idiotically on the plane, she thinks that not enough has been done to keep people like them off the plane — despite the fact that they were detained, questioned, and found to be perfectly fucking innocent.
And what did they do? They went to the bathroom more times than she thought necessary, and they glared at her. Well, frankly, if I had caught someone obsessively watching me the entire trip and whispering about me to the flight attendants, a glare would have been the nicest thing they got.
The only way to think this was suspicious behavior is to be so addled brained, so riddled with fear at the site of an Arab, so mush headed from listening to Ann Coulter (who she cites in her article!) and Rush Limbaugh that you think going to the bathroom too often and treating assholes with the disrespect they deserve is somehow suspicious. That is not reason, that is panic and fear, and I refuse to call it anything else.
July 16th, 2004 at 4:51 pm
its a blog fight. lets go.
July 16th, 2004 at 4:57 pm
1 – You said it was racial profiling, which infers racism.
2 – I did read it. Hand signals, dirty looks, the fact they went out of their way to act suspiciously, the alarm by the stewardess and flight crew, congregating in groups, seven men went to the restroom at once to congregate, etc. So, my ass, that’s fucking suspicious.
Oh, and while i don’t think that people should necessarily jump to conclusions based on race, to excuse those behaviors because of race is just asinine.
July 16th, 2004 at 5:02 pm
I’ve seen absolutely no indication one way or the other about any charges. Even if they were not charged, “not guilty” does NOT equal “innocent”, in a legal or moral sense.
July 16th, 2004 at 9:13 pm
Phelps:
OK, if you want to pick nits, the FBI found no reason to hold them, in an era when they can hold people indefinitely and without charge “because they feel like it.”
Uncle:
Assuming, of course, that this is what actually happened. All we have to go on is one paranoid woman’s recounting of the affair.
July 16th, 2004 at 10:53 pm
Well, yeah. But i also have to take your word that the fbi can hold people willy nilly. After all, that’s one paranaoid man’s recounting of current law.
July 17th, 2004 at 6:22 pm
I love the reasoning that “If the people had been lilly white instead of middle-eastern, nobody would have looked at them twice”.
Last I checked, white folks don’t have a habit of hijacking airliners and flying them into buildings.
You have to wonder about people who are perfectly willing to ignore the obvious for fear of offending a minority.
July 17th, 2004 at 9:19 pm
Unfuckginbelievable.
July 18th, 2004 at 1:08 pm
Uncle:
But i also have to take your word that the fbi can hold people willy nilly. After all, that’s one paranaoid man’s recounting of current law.
No, you can read a myriad of news stories concerning recent supreme court rulings holding that the government can do just that, provided they slap the completely arbitrary “enemy combatant” tag on. It’s not just “one paraniod man’s” version. 🙂
Jed:
Last I checked, white folks don’t have a habit of hijacking airliners and flying them into buildings.
You’re right. Next time I see a crew-cutted blonde white guy renting a Ryder truck, I’ll call all the authorities and write a scathing editorial when they don’t stop him from doing it.
July 18th, 2004 at 6:20 pm
Next time I see a crew-cutted blonde white guy renting a Ryder truck, I’ll call all the authorities and write a scathing editorial when they don’t stop him from doing it.
See, there is something to profiling.