Adam Saleh is a popular YouTube prank video creator. He’s not my thing, but then again—when you do the math—most things aren’t my thing. That being said, Saleh has over two million subscribers and clearly there are kids who like him. About eight hours ago he posted a video to his Twitter feed of him being kicked off of a Delta airlines flight from England to New York. The reason? Some passengers were uncomfortable with him speaking Arabic on the phone to his mother.
The video has been seen by over 500,000 people as of this diary. Delta released this statement:
A statement from Delta Air Lines, posted to its website, read: "Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort."
The airline has launched a review "to understand what happened".
"We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect," the statement continued.
In the video you can see the white people Saleh says were uncomfortable with him giving patronizing waves goodbye. If you think someone is an actual threat to your safety that’s not how you act. If Saleh was participating in a prank I am sure it will come out but it will not change the fact that there is a profound paranoia in our country based on religion and specifically people who are not white. If someone pulls out a Bible to pray on a plane, it doesn’t seem to illicit the same kinds of responses—and Christian terrorism is one of our biggest domestic issues.
Wednesday, Dec 21, 2016 · 10:01:02 PM +00:00
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Walter Einenkel
From what has come out in this story as it develops, right now it is unclear how things unfolded on the Delta flight. While some people have pointed to Saleh’s pranking as a possible motivation, witnesses interviewed and others don’t seem to think that a prank was involved so much as people acting rowdy and then the situation seems to have escalated quickly and poorly. Airplanes are highly tension-filled places as many have fears of flying—fears that have less to do with terrorism and more to do with general mortality.
In the end, there has to be better mediation between people when disagreements and miscommunications happen. We will have to see how this plays out.