Jacked

I just read a news story about how nine American Muslims of South Asian descent were removed from an AirTran flight (between DC and Orlando) because a few of them had been overheard discussing airplane safety aboard the plane prior to taking off.

The airline’s spokesperson rationalized the decision to remove the passengers because “someone heard something that was inappropriate, and then the airline decided to act on it.” Coincidentally, the white guy sitting behind me on my Wednesday flight from Sarasota to Atlanta (on route back to Europe) made an almost identical comment. I wonder what amounts to “inappropriate” speech on a plane: the words or the ethnicity of the speaker. So much for post-racial America.