The U.S. Department of Transportation has fined Delta $50,000 for two incidents of profiling that adversely impacted Muslim passengers. Delta maintains it did nothing wrong.
Incident #1: Delta Flight Attendant “Uncomfortable” With Passenger Who Did Not Smile
A Muslim couple were flying on Delta from Paris to Cincinnati in 2016. A passenger told a flight attendant that he had seen the passenger “put something in his watch”. Upon investigation, the flight attendant felt uncomfortable because the woman was wearing a headscarf and because her husband appeared to be sweating. She also noticed (somehow…) that the husband texted the word “Allah” several time. Finally, she was concerned that he did not make eye contact when she smiled. Another flight attendant saw the man quickly change his screen when she walked by. Both relayed their concerns to the captain, who alerted ground staff.
The couple were removed and faced additional screening (we don’t know the specifics). Although cleared by security, the captain demanded another round of security. The couple was again cleared. Still, the couple were not allowed back onboard and were booked on another Delta flight the next day.
After an extended investigation, the DOT determined it was only their religion that made the Delta flight crew uncomfortable and that the couple was unjustly denied boarding.
Incident #2: Man Removed For Making “Significant” Eye Contact
Just days later a second incident occurred, this time from Amsterdam to New York. At least one passenger reported that one Muslim-looking man onboard was “making significant eye contact” with another “person of similar ethnicity” and later allegedly received a package from him.
The pilot spoke to Delta security officials on the ground who had interviewed the couple earlier and then pushed the aircraft from the gate and prepared for takeoff. But flight attendants insisted the passengers be removed, saying one passenger also looked sweaty and anxious.
The flight returned to the gate and the and was ejected. He was promptly rebooked on another flight with no additional screening. This, said the DOT, constituted proof that he was not deemed a true threat and thus pure unlawful discrimination.
Delta must now pay a $50,000 fine and provide cultural sensitivity training for the crews of the two flights in question.
While Delta insists “it acted on observations of behavior, rather than identity,” it added “that it has learned from the two incidents at issue here, and has improved its processes because of them.”
Still, a Delta spokesperson insists that the carrier could have done better, but was justified in removing the passengers:
“While we understand that our best customer service was not reflected in how the incident was handled, we disagree with the Department of Transportation’s contention that Delta engaged in discriminatory conduct. For that reason, we have worked to improve our investigative process since these incidents and we have supporting programs, policies, training and procedures that back up our commitments in this area.”
CONCLUSION (+ My Thoughts)
This is a difficult issue…don’t try and argue otherwise. Would I be afraid if I saw a young Muslim man looking nervously around an aircraft and sweating? Yes, I would…for better or for worse, I’d be suspicious of any person who looked nervous and was sweating.
But I also realize that the reason he may be sweating and looking nervous is precisely because he already has a target on his back and is deemed by many to be inherently suspect and guilty until proven innocent. That’s a huge problem.
Maybe the crew was justified, though I tend to think not if even the Trump-led DOT concluded the discrimination was not justified. Hopefully there will be a day when someone with dark skin wearing a taqiyah is not instantly viewed as suspicious…
image: Mila Supinskaya Glashchenko / Shutterstock.com
We need reeducation camps like china has. Everyone that professes to be religious need to be sent to these camps and should be able to answer questions about other religions that a panel of experts had put together before. All to understand that their religion is not special.
All religions are cults, or mafias. Everyone thinks theirs is better and are loyal to it but they are all equally useless.
Religion though is opium for the masses. The party of the tax cuts for the rich and lying, raping blond leader won’t give up religion so easily. They use their equally useless religion to brain wash stupid people that follow that religion to win votes and cling to power.
Lol, looks like someone has never read the Bible.
I want to make sure that everyone in the US reads the bible and Quran everyday.
We should print it on toilet paper so everyone can read a verse everyday and then wipe their ass with it and flush it down for the garbage it is.
Debit- you’re a clown. First off, to take issue with your ‘Opium of the Masses’ comment, you clearly are not educated on political philosophy. Marx did not mean this to equate to a drug like high for people, but instead to ameliorate the suffering of many people. He saw religion as having some usefulness in the same way a pain drug or pharmaceutical aids a sick person, while at the same time creating dependencies that limited one’s vision of the broader world around them. The actual quote is “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”. People turn to faith for different reasons- some positively and some negatively. Many democrats are highly religious- Nancy Pelosi is a practicing Catholic. Stop being such a hack man, bad look.
A convicted felon had more heart than today’s Republicans (aka fake christians)
https://www.history.com/news/al-capone-great-depression-soup-kitchen
When they stop being terrorists people will stop accusing them of being terrorists.
That’s like saying all white people are racist because of the KKK.
Gonna be honest, if the first scenario actually played out like described, I’m with Delta on that one.
Why?
They were security checked twice more and passed twice.
Why shouldn’t they be let on?
Agree with Richard. So we have no faith in our airport screening?
Yes the TSA in routine tests aren’t very good – but to fail *twice* on extra, special screening whether the agent is presumably on the highest of alerts as they’ve been specifically told this person is being dodgy.
If that isn’t sufficiently safe – no traveller can ever be
I found it thoroughly distasteful to include a swipe at Trump. Get your freaking bias out of your writing.
This religion has been responsible for more terrorism and death in the last 50 years than any other. They also flew 3 planes of passengers to their deaths. They should be scrutinized.
It wasn’t meant as a swipe at Trump.
Matthew- is it really worth it? Angry gonna angry online
Who is “they”? How disgusting of you to lump all Muslims in with the people who committed the Sept 11 attacks, Matthew mentioning is nowhere near as disgusting or distasteful as your ignorant hateful comments.
@Jacqueline Brown
All white Americans are racist mass shooters who are responsible for the death of thousands of schoolchildren, concert goers, and worshipers in churches, synagogues and mosques. White Americans should not be allowed in any public spaces. They should be scrutinized.
Love your username though, doesn’t get any whiter than that!
Also love that his swipe at trump is distasteful yet your flagrant discrimination isn’t, seriously how dumb do you need to be? I mean even for trump supporter you’re off the charts dumb!
Oh for G-d’s sake, are you serious? You need to read your history (Inquisition maybe?) and you also might want to ask the religion of the majority of US citizens that carried out terrorist attacks on other US citizens.
Why not swipe at Trump? He is a traitor to the constitution, a criminal, a racist, and a misogynist. He has seeded more hate across the world than any man in the last 50 years and much of the blame for incidents like this very much falls on his shoulders.
Not everyone is that lucky to be born white, It’s just how unfair the world is. You have to suffer your all life.
Based on the description provided, I have terrorist concerns about #2 but not about #1.
Delta should be fined at least $500,000 — and hopefully sued by the passengers. What happened is absurd and likely a reflection of the company’s “hometown values,” Georgia being one of the more backwards places on the planet.
Some whacko trolley dolly is Delta’s front line anti terrorist agent? The fine should have been 20 million. I feel ‘uncomfortable’ with such clueless airheads having any say in security matters. Stick to serving the coffee and leave such issues to the professionals.
As a brown man of sub-continent descent, I sympathize with the poor travelers subjected to this crap. I was regularly on the receiving end of this stuff between 2008 and 2015 when I lived in the US. I used to literally get death stares from all the other passengers on my short haul flights, and I had to go out of my way to speak english whenever a family member called me while I was at the airport, I had to also speak loud enough on the phone so that people nearby could hear how mundane and boring my conversation was, and I also had to make just enough eye contact and smile at random white folks just to make them feel comfortable for the flight. All of this so that THEY could feel comfortable. I once boarded an AA flight sweaty and short of breath after running to catch a quick connection, first thing the flight attendant did on the second flight was question me as to why I was sweating so much, I told her I literally ran from international customs clearance to domestic (@LAX) on different tickets, re-checked luggage, went through security and ran to this gate. She was unrelenting and asked to see my international boarding pass from the prior flight as proof – thankfully a fellow (white) traveller from the prior flight also on this flight said he was on my earlier flight, and the flight attendant finally relented. It’s tough being brown skinned in America. Guilty until proven innocent.
Makes you wonder about “if you see something, say something”. Very difficult situation for everyone concerned, customers, flight crew, security. Talk about becoming a loose loose situation!
I think it’s time for new rules and laws.
Only white people should be allowed on planes.
Only Whites and Asian people on cars.
Only black people on buses.
And Latins on horse/donkey.
The rest can walk.
That way Sherryl, the FA from middle America can feel safe again.
A source familiar with the situation says the FA was black. Still think we should fine the “backward” airline out of business?
And Georgia is one of the most backward places in the US? That is a painting with a broad brush just as you are arguing against.
In reality the vast majority of people do not care about the color of others skin. They have much more important things to think about.
Being an FA is a tough job. There is a lot of training for emergency situations that, hopefully, will not be used so we all just assume that their job is to make FF’s as comfortable as possible.
If mistakes were made, and I assume they were, fines will pe paid and lessons will be learned. Is that not the outcome we should be happy with?
THANK YOU, DELTA!!!!