I'm not 100% sure on how I missed this story, because it sounds like it's right up my alley, but I sure as hell did. This gentleman, Raed Jaffar, boarded a JetBlue plane back in 2007 wearing a shirt that read "We Will Not Be Silent" in both Arabic and English. He was then taken off the plane because some passengers and crew were all afeared of the Arabic man wearing a shirt that has any pro-ethnic message.Obviously, as is American custom, Jaffar sued both the TSA and JetBlue for discrimination, and the ACLU jumped in to help out. Today he was awarded $240,000 in a settlement from both groups. The only thing unfortunate about it was that the settlement wasn't higher.
My mind can't even begin to comprehend why anyone could ever think that it would be OK to kick Jaffar off the plane simply for wearing a shirt! Seriously?! Oh, that's right, he's one of them there brown-skinned peoples, they all want to kill whitey, right? Stupid, ignorant fucks.
WE CANNOT ACCEPT DISCRIMINATION AND INTOLERANCE ON ANY LEVEL!!! It's not OK. The man was equated to a terrorist because he was wearing a shirt with an obvious political message, which is odd because the shirt has nothing to do with terrorism. Had I been wearing the same shirt, a pale-ass white boy, would the same conclusion have been drawn? Nopers. Some douche bag skin-head could probably get away with wearing rebel flags and swastikas on a plane, obvious signs of hate and intolerance, but heaven-fucking-forbid an Arabic man wearing something with Arabic writing on it!
This is so beyond sickening. If the TSA and JetBlue were allowed to get away with this behavior, just imagine what else might happen! No more rainbow flags, because there might be heteros around that think we're all militant gays. No more churches because they lead young queers to kill themselves. No more minority PACs because someone might think they are planning on hurting the old, white people on Capital Hill.
Good god damn, this is ignorant. We need to get over it, people! For example, I HATE Christian Churches (if that isn't obvious, you haven't read enough of my blog). However, I will always support the rights of someone to practice their Christianity. The amount of psychological damage that has been inflicted upon the LGBT set due to constant berating of ignorant, Crazy-Ass Evangelicals is immeasurable, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to exist. They shouldn't be allowed to shape policy, but they can believe what they choose.
Thank you to whomever forced this settlement, it was truly well-deserved. I would contend that financial reparations are due to Jaffar from the "frightened" passengers as well, but ultimately, it was the airlines fault for not standing up the bully fucks that were all sorts of scared by a man not-ashamed and proud of his heritage.
1 comment:
Sad to say this is a fucked up country we live in right now. I wonder if the passengers that were kicked off the AirTran flight a few days ago will take legal action?
All they were doing was discussing where the safest place to sit on a plane might be. Hell I've had that same discussion pre and post 9/11 without being kicked off a flight.
What's even more fucked up is the watch list. I happen to have one of the most common names that's on the list. So I can really sympathize with anyone that looks a little bit Muslim having a hard time getting on a flight. Alaska Airlines had to call the FBI to get me cleared for a flight one time.
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