Last summer, Raed Jarrar was harassed by jetBlue employees for wearing a shirt with Arabic lettering on the front. In his ACLU-led legal team’s words, here’s what happened:
JetBlue and a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official, identified as “Inspector Harris,” would not let Raed Jarrar board his flight at John F. Kennedy Airport until he agreed to cover his t-shirt, which read “We Will Not Be Silent” in English and Arabic script. Harris told Jarrar that it is impermissible to wear an Arabic shirt to an airport and equated it to a “person wearing a t-shirt at a bank stating, ‘I am a robber.’”
Lovely metaphor. Added bonus: Jarrar says that, after he relented and donned an additional shirt, jetBlue tore up his boarding pass, which had him seated near the front, and gave him a new boarding pass to sit at the very back of the plane. How nice of them — and how symbolic.
Jarrar threatened to bring a lawsuit. Consider it brought.
A discrimination lawsuit charges federal officials and JetBlue Airways with racial profiling for refusing to let an Iraqi man board an August 2006 flight at Kennedy International Airport because he wore a T-shirt inscribed with an Arabic phrase.The incident is part of a discriminatory pattern at U.S. airports since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with officials targeting people perceived to be of Arab descent — particularly those displaying their ethnic background or religious faith, two civil liberties groups said Thursday in filing the lawsuit.
I say go get ‘em, Raed. It’s important to push back against fearmongering hysteria that erodes our civil liberties. He’s doing us all a favor, and representing what the country really stands for, by standing up to this sort of small-minded censorship.
Related:
- Would an anti-Tony Blair shirt get me in trouble in the U.S.?
- Short hops – August 23, 2006 – JetBlue rewards one flyer a free t-shirt (in exchange for his civil liberties)
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August 12th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
While waiting for someone at Midway Airport earlier today, I saw someone come out of the concourse with a T-shirt with large letters reading “AWOL” and a subtitle that I could not read from the distance away I was. And the letter “O” was a hand grenade.
I would consider a picture of a hand grenade on a T-shirt more of a risk than this statement. But in both cases, they are sayings on a T-shirt. Should these people get more scrutiny than anyone else as they go through security? I would not have a problem with that.
mp/m
August 13th, 2007 at 12:48 am
Mike, what “risk” do you perceive in a picture of a handgrenade on a t-shirt?
August 13th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I don’t think these people should be treated differently. If you were going to commit a terrorist act, would you wear a t-shirt advertising it??
August 13th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
How ’bout “the guys a jerk trying to cause trouble in a place where people are already stressed and anxious?”
It’s not a civil rights moment, it’s just an wanker trying to get his 15 minutes to fame.
I’m in an airport with my wife and three kids trying to get through necessarily (whether you think so or no) security and gates and tickets and luggage….
Yeah, this guy is just what I need.
He wants interstate commerce, let him ride the Greyhound or take his own car or maybe the ACLU can give him a ride to Hyannasport or something.
Sheesh.
-TF
August 14th, 2007 at 12:55 am
TF – Why on earth are you frustrated by the guy wearing the tee shirt and not the people hassling him unnecessarily?
I would have barely more sympathy for your case if he had something offensive on his shirt, but his “crime” is displaying a language far older than ours!
August 14th, 2007 at 6:33 am
TF,
How is Arabic script on a shirt “trying to cause trouble” ? Are you seriously suggesting that anything in Arabic is by default threatening? Better not connect in Dubai. Or London. Or Detroit, for that matter!
Have you looked at the photo of the shirt? It barely draws any attention to itself. It doesn’t even meet the school principal test for being offensive.
August 14th, 2007 at 6:36 am
…and also, if the guy finally caved and wore another shirt over it, why would Jetblue take away his existing seat and make him sit in the back. He’s clearly not a threat to security, so they let him on the plane. That’s just vindictive. Sue.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:32 am
TierFlyer,
You and I have debated about shirts once before, in the comment section here:
http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2006/12/15/would-an-anti-tony-blair-shirt-get-me-in-trouble-in-the-us/
In that case, the passenger was clearly being a provocateur, but the airlines overreacted. But while I didn’t feel his shirt warranted being kept off a flight — especially with the canard that his shirt was a security threat — I could see how you and others would be irritated by the guy.
In the Arabic script case, I don’t even see the guy as a provocateur. And I really don’t see any plausible reason to keep this guy off a plane. If people are offended by things written in Arabic, that’s their problem. Then, to turn your argument around, it’s they who should be opting to drive their car or ride the bus. And they’d better hope they don’t pass anything on the roadside that might threaten their heightened xenophobic sensitivities. They might lose control of their vehicle if they catch sight of a falafel stand.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Ok, if you yell, “I am FIRED up” in a theater you clearly haven’t yelled “FIRE” to panic people. But people will panic.
So, did we ban the use of the word “Fire” in movie theaters? No, we have laws against panicking people in certain places.
For example, it is *not* against the law (here in my state, anyway) to yell FIRE on a city street.
So are we banning Arabic or other offensive or “it’s funny if you’re 15″ t-shirts everywhere? No. Should the guy on the ground dealing with the situation have some latitude?
Well, that depends on if you think the zero tolerance rules in schools today are an improvement on the rules we had when I was a kid where the principal and teachers had leeway.
-TF
PS – I have thbe “celebrate diversity” t-shirt full of different kinds of guns on it. I wear it to shoot skeet, but would *never* wear it on public transportation. I suspect it might make people very uneasy…..
August 14th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
First off, Arabic or other offensive shirts? I sure hope you don’t really think that Arabic script is, by default, offensive.
Second, the question about giving folks on the ground leeway is a fair one. Leeway is sensible if the people given that leeway have a modicum of common sense. The jetBlue and TSA representative sounds like they lacked that common sense. Maybe they DO need a zero-tolerance policy on the books, with clearly defined boundaries.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
how is ‘we will not be silent’ offensive?
oh yes, the arabic.
so if it said ‘love’ in english and arabic i assume that would be offensive too?
TSA, Jetblue, etc. deserve an a$$reaming
October 12th, 2007 at 11:33 am
The main point that everyone is forgetting is that this person does not have a right to fly. Jetblue is a privately own company and as such can deny services to anyone at anytime for any reason. They should have just given him a refund and asked him to fly another airline. Is this discrimination? Maybe, but I dont think it is any more so then the typical “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” type of mentality. People do not have a right to not be offended in this country, but they also dont have to be nice to someone who is annoying them either. If you want to wear a T-shirt that is going to stir up trouble, even if you dont think it should, then you will have to live with the consequences.
October 12th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I know I’m repeating myself, but I still fail to see how this shirt was ever offensive or liable to “stir up trouble” for anyone except the most racist xenophobes in our society.
So, “FrequentFlyer,” are there any limits to where the airline fashion police can’t go? If I wear a Boston Red Sox shirt and the gate agent is a Yankees fan, can they keep me off the flight?
October 12th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Technically, yes, they could deny you service to fly on their airline. That is the point. It is their airline and you are paying them to use their services. If they do not want your business, then they can deny you for just about anything. Is that good business? No, if they deny to many people or if an airline is consistently a pain to all of its travelers, then the travelers will stop flying that airline and it will go out of business. But, that is their decision to make. He has a right to wear his T-Shirt, and the airline has a right to not let him fly on their airline.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
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