Lawyer Booted From Flight Over 'Misunderstanding.' His Clearly Iranian Name Obviously Has Nothing To Do With It.

The airline claims it had nothing to do with racism. That's probably not true.

In the aftermath of a terrorist attack, many are inspired by the solidarity and outpouring of support. Everyone throws up a French flag over their dubiously attractive Facebook profile picture and we all pretend we don’t remember when half of these latter day French patriots ranted about the existential necessity of changing every menu to read “Freedom Fries” a decade ago. But this frenzy has a dark, embarrassing side. It’s the side that starts leering at Syrian refugees — which the French gunmen were not — and ends with kicking anyone vaguely “Middle Eastern” (a term that includes those of Indian descent and Sikhs because “such as maps, such as“) off airplanes.

Including a prominent Texas lawyer who was not allowed to board a Virgin America flight because of a “misunderstanding” involving a revolving door and not at all because of his Iranian last name. Nope. Not at all.

The lawyer, Robert B. Abtahi, the vice chairman of the Dallas Plan Commission, the official body that makes planning and zoning recommendations to the City Council, said he was trying to board Virgin America Flight 885 to Dallas before its scheduled departure at 3:50 p.m., when he was told that he would not be allowed onto the plane.

Mr. Abtahi, who goes by “Bobby,” said the reason he was given was that the captain and crew did not feel comfortable with him on the flight. When he pressed for specifics, a gate agent told him that he had cut off a crew member in a revolving door while arriving at the airport, he said. He was forced to cancel the ticket and rebook on another airline.

As we all learned from Seinfeld an airline crew can kick passengers off the plane for no real reason at all, a policy that makes sense if you start from the premise that members of the airline crew are rational actors. But this is ‘Murica, so instead let’s assume they freaked out at the idea of a vaguely brown guy in a hurry to get to their plane.

Mr. Abtahi said he wanted the airline to tighten policies giving flight crew members broad discretion to decide whether to allow a passenger on board. “We have all these regulations around flying and safety, and that seems the most subjective one,” he said. “I have PreCheck and Global Entry and I’m not acting crazy; I haven’t been drinking. I’m just standing.”

You know who else just stood places? Hitler.

Seriously though, it’s a testament to either the power of prejudice or the prevailing lack of faith in the Department of Homeland Security — or both — that someone vetted into the Global Entry Program could still not meet the ever-so-exacting standards of an airline crew flying to Dallas. In official statements, Virgin America proclaimed that Abtahi was not profiled for flying while Iranian-American, but it’s hard to believe anybody would get so worked up over Bobby Milquetoast beating them to a revolving door. It’s not just why the crew member felt aggrieved, but also the bundle of reasons why the crew member couldn’t let it the f**k go. Implicit biases are a bitch.

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Abtahi ultimately got his ticket reimbursed and two free future flights on the airline (which he donated to charity). As one of those “Freedom Friars” aggressively “Praying for Paris” would quickly point out, this deal actually places him 69 virgins short of a suicide bomber.

Which, of course, isn’t even a thing. But, like I said, implicit biases are a bitch and tragedies bring out the worst in a lot of people.

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