Yo, is this Racist?
In 2016 an article came out about a college student no different than any other that was on a flight talking on the phone prior to take-off. This sounds like a pretty ordinary situation; except for the fact that the student was not speaking English, he was speaking Arabic. Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was soon after removed from his flight and interrogated for hours due to the sole fact of speaking his native language on a plane according to Independent.com. This brings up the question, Yo, is this racist? Or was the airline just going out of their way to ensure the safety of their passengers? We will now indulge into finding the answer to that question and how to prevent these situations from happening in the future and determine if Southwest Airlines has some answers to give due to their actions.
To begin, ever since the terror attacks on September 11, the flight policies and precautions have taken an enormous turn from what they used to be. The process of getting to your flight is lengthy, and you are checked to determine whether your breaking any laws before you can enter your plane. Airlines have flights that can fit nearly 200 people and all of the passeng
1. Photo of Khairuldeen Makhzoomi
ers are relying on the airline security to get them from point A to point B. Unfortunately, due to the attacks that were seen on September 11 that were done by the terror group Al-Qaeda, many members of the Islamic and Muslim community are singled out and stereotyped unfairly simply because of how they look or what they are wearing. This form of stereotyping would be similar to if your roommate robbed a bank that you were unassociated with, and all of a sudden people were looking at you as if you are a bank robber due to associating with them. When you think of it in a different way like that, it begins to make significantly less sense that due to someone representing Islamic culture within their
2. Increased Airport Security Following 9/11
clothing and appearance, that they have any association with a terrorist group. Independent.com states, Khairuldeen was approached by the police and taken into questioning following his phone call, which would be extremely rare, if ever, to happen to an English speaker at an airport.
Furthermore, can Southwest Airlines possibly justify this as ensuring safety for their passengers? Often times at airports they will single people out simply as a safety precaution when passengers are going through airport security. This has happened to me whether it be through an X-ray, or bag check; and it most likely has happened to you as well. After a passenger has passed through this check, they should feel safe and be able to relax until their flight, and unfairly for Khairuldeen that was not the case. According to Independent.com, after extensive questioning on why Khairuldeen was speaking Arabic and releasing him from questioning, they would not allow him to book a new flight with them. This shows that this was much deeper than just looking out for the safety of their passengers, and rather what appears to be an attack on this young man’s background, culture, and native language which should never happen to anyone. After the extensive questioning and determining that he was not a threat to anybody, they should have been more then willing to book him a new flight; even compensate the flight for him. This extensively shows they were not just concerned with the language he was speaking or his appearance, they chose to discriminate against him.
Contrary to the statement Southwest Airlines released according to Quartz.com stating it was a linguistic misunderstanding, this is something that we need to eliminate people from experiencing in their daily lives within our society. The fact that this happened at all shows that there is a deeper issue going on than just a simple misunderstanding as they stated, and this is a form of discrimination that affects peoples lives. When people fly on airlines, they usually have a list of other priorities already set like living expenses and transportation lined up and making it on a flight on time is very important to those priorities. Being kicked off of an airline unprovoked and for no reason other than the way that you are speaking, which was no threat to anybody; Khairuldeen may have had many of his plans messed up, those that could be irreparable such as hotel payments or important meetings. Southwest airlines should have taken responsibility and covered the cost of the next flight, and repaired any damages they may of caused for him missing his flight; but instead they decided to act like they did not discriminate against Khairuldeen and continued to not allow him to fly using their company.
3. Southwest Airline Plane
The fact that they did not allow him to fly, even after determining that he was not a threat risk should be a much larger issue and they should ace repercussions for their actions. Not allowing him to fly due to speaking Arabic violates his rights, which should be the same as everybody else’s rights that peacefully got to fly to their destination on Southwest Airlines that day.
Furthermore, to truly understand what it would be like to go through a situation we need to put ourselves into Khairuldeen’s shoes. According to Independent.com Khairuldeen was an American citizen who came to the United States as a refugee and studied at the University of California at Berkley. This was a successful young man that was working on bettering himself in a country he was not native to but was indeed a citizen of. Though it should never matter whether he was a citizen or just visiting, he lived in the United States and deserves the exact same rights as every other citizen; which included being allowed on a plane and speaking whatever language is comfortable to him. Imagine living in a foreign country doing absolutely nothing wrong but speaking English at an airport waiting for your flight and being removed because your language was considered threatening in their country. This is something that almost seems crazy to an English speaker but is the sad and harsh reality for many travelers from foreign countries within the United States. This roots from people being closed minded or not being fully educated within certain topics and is something we as an entire country need to push to improve. By not fully learning about different cultures and groups within the United States, it is ignorant to then judge these groups on certain stereotypes and believing them. Stereotypes are extremely hurtful to the groups that they target, and that is essentially what this whole issue stems from is a stereotype.
This brings us to the original question, which is Yo, is this racist? After analyzing the situation on both ends and thinking through what both sides were thinking; this is a clear and easy decision. Yes, Southwest airlines was definitely racist in this situation because they profiled and stereotyped one of their passengers, and to take it a step further would not allow him back onto a new flight after they completed their interrogation on him that should of never happened in the first place. According to Independent.com, Khairuldeen has been trying to work through this in a legal process because of what they
4. Examples of Stereotyping
did to him, and that is rightfully so. The world we are living in nowadays is no place for these types of actions to take place, and it is sad to hear that a young Muslim student like Khairuldeen had any problems from getting on his flight that day. Southwest could have done a list of better things in this situation that occurred,
but even after the fact they should have taken fault for the way he was treated when attempting to fly on their airline. Sadly, this is not the only story of events like this taking place with airlines, and it most likely will not be the last; but one thing that remains true is we need a society where people truly stop using stereotypes within their lives because they are so harmful and how no content behind the information.
Overall, I hope this is something that was taken into reflection by Southwest and that they begin implementing training on how to avoid situations like these from happening within their company. As for Khairuldeen, though nobody should go through it this was a fairly public scenario of this happening that hopefully was able to open the eyes to many that may not experience this but want to help implement change from these occurrences. When occurrences like these happen, it is extremely important for people to be held accountable for their actions to show that we as a nation will not tolerate them. The sooner we can eliminate stereotypes the better off our country will be able to operate as a whole, and not take away from the great lives and potential that many of the people that are effected have to experience on a daily basis within our society.
Work Cited
David Yanofsky, Gideon Lichfield. “Southwest Has an Explanation for Why It Kicked an Arabic-Speaker off Its Plane.” Quartz, Quartz, qz.com/665134/southwest-has-an-explanation-for-why-it-kicked-an-arabic-speaker-off-its-plane/.
“Muslim Man Sues after Being ‘Thrown off Plane for Saying Inshallah’.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 14 Feb. 2018, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/muslim-man-removed-flight-arabic-speaking-sues-southwest-airlines-racial-discrimination-a8210636.html.