Quote:
Originally posted by sequel_1913
I am very sorry but I would not have wanted to fly with them either. Now I know what you all will say, "How can an AA person say something like that?" Well I am saying what most are feeling but afraid to say. If I am on a plane and someone of Arabian descent(sp) is on the plane I will remove myself and find other means of transportation, if they are not removed. Now I agree with the airline, it is better to be safe than sorry. There were other box cutters and knives found on other planes that were grounded, so we have no way of knowing who is a threat and who is not. So my opinion is, it is better to risk a lawsuit and save many innocent(sp) lives than to be afraid of giving out a little money.
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This is interesting because Blacks have been terrorized by Whites in this country for 400 years. But if one of us walked on a plane w/ a bunch of White people, and said to the stewardess "Um, excuse me, but these people look very much like the White people who enslaved my family, raped my female relatives, systematically discriminated against me for 400 years, arrested me just because I'm Black, and constantly get off for shooting my people just because they have a badge...I have been terrorized my whole life, and I'm not comfortable flying w/ them so please escort them off the plane."
Not only would the authorities be called, but they would probably drag us off in straight jackets. Saying all of that to say this: right now there is a very powerful propaganda machine that has a lot of us feeling like we're "Americans united", and for the purposes of finding survivors, and claiming the bodies of our loved ones, that is a good thing.
But let us not forget that in the previous nine wars that this country has fought, Blacks have done the same thing in hopes that after the war, we too would FINALLY be considered "American" and benefit from all that comes w/ that title, you know, like not being lynched, getting fair treatment in the legal system, not facing a one in three chance of going to jail or prison, getting an equal education in terms of access to the basics like books and teachers.
Blacks have been terrorized in this country for so long that we think it's normal and don't even recognize it as terrorism. And while we rally around the flag, our children are dying from terrorism in the ghettos, our brothers are shuttled out to jail in terrorist paddy wagons, and while a few of us manage to make it out and get a good job, we can still be pulled over for driving while Black, or shot by the boys in blue for looking suspicsious (sp?). But if we were to respond to our terrorism the way this country wants to respond to bin Laden (please recognize the fact that they have convicted this man w/o showing us any evidence...oh, but that is exactly what they do to us also...) then we would be shot down on site (which can happen anyway).
So we can rally around this flag if we want to...it almost serves as some kind of comfort to know that for once, we are not at the bottom...but wait until this blows over...we'll still go shopping at the 8 out of 10 stores owned by Arabs in our community, we'll go back to being hunted by cops, go back to dying faster than any other race from any other diseases because we can't afford anyother medicine except prayer (which I KNOW changes things).
I'm sorry this is soo long, but I grew up as a Black woman in Germany. What is happening in this country right now w/ the propaganda and empty rhetoric is exactly the way Hitler began his campaigns. It's scary to see Black people who know what it's like to be on the bottom, take part in it.