9 Muslim Passengers Kicked Off Plane

I'm sure you've all heard about the Muslim family kicked off the plane on New Year's Day. If you haven't, some passengers overheard a Muslim couple (with children) talking about the safest place to sit on a plane. The passengers told someone and the family was removed from the plane. The FBI checked them out and said there was nothing to worry about and the airline, AirTran should re-book them for another flight. Oh, by the way, they were taking their kids to Orlando over the holiday. AirTran wouldn't re-book them, even after the FBI said they should. On Friday, AirTran apoligized for kicking them off and offered to fly them back to Washington for free, but the family had already booked a flight on another plane.

This is ridiculous! If a white mother had been talking about the safest place to sit on a plane, she would not have been kicked off. AirTran released a statement that it "was a misunderstanding, but the steps taken were necessary". I wonder if the steps would be so necessary if the family had been white? Probably not.

Even though I don't like this, it's what I expected. It's human nature, when bad things are done, we stereotype anyone who looks or acts like the bad people. Another example of this was during/after WWII when we shunned the Japanese. Put yourself in their place for a moment. Say there was a group of Christians doing very bad things. People around the world would say "Ugh! Look at those Christians, what horrible people!". Now taht ths tables are turned it doesn't feel good, does it? Wouldn't you rather they say "Look at those bad people! We need to stop them."

Please think about this when you see someone different from you. Someday, you may be the different one and you'll want people to welcome you. Y'all remember the Golden Rule: "Do onto others as you would have done onto you."