What happened on Northwest Airlines flight 327?
The question has been on the lips of the press, public, and punditry
ever since the story was reported on the website, Women
on Wall Street. The author of the article, Annie Jacobsen,
was traveling with her family from Detroit to Los Angeles on
June 29, 2004. She and
other passengers were frightened when fourteen Middle Eastern men
behaved in what they felt was a “suspicious” manner
during the flight. One gave her a hard stare and others went to
the bathroom in succession. The crew shared Ms. Jacobsen’s
alarm and dialed the airline equivalent of 911. When the plane
landed in Los Angeles the FBI and other law enforcement personnel
were on hand.
A search of the plane turned up nothing suspicious and it was
later confirmed that the men were musicians on their way to a performance
near Los Angeles. By now the tale has been told on the Internet
and on radio and television talk shows. It has become commonly
accepted that the musicians were practicing for a terrorist attack
or might have planted explosives on the aircraft.
September 11th made it easy to justify racial
profiling and this story has bolstered the argument. Anyone who
questions the practice
is dismissed as “politically correct,” naïve,
or forgetful of the terror attack that took nearly 3,000 lives.
If it is acceptable to be queasy on a plane if a group of Arabs
go to the bathroom on a three-hour flight it should also be acceptable
to assume the worst about other groups. If Arabs can be automatically
suspected of terrorism just because they are Arabs, then white
people should be suspected of chicanery, thievery, and corruption,
just because they are white. Paranoia is often justified,
and we should not exclude any group from our own personal security
alerts.
Richard Grasso was CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, which unbeknownst
to all but a few, is a non-profit organization. Mr. Grasso was
forced out of his job but not before he convinced a passive board
of powerful New York movers and shakers to give him an exit package
totaling $139
million.
When the startling sum was made public, Board Chairman H. Carl
McCall, former Comptroller of New York and the only African American
ever elected to statewide office, was forced to resign due
to the board’s dereliction of duty. Not only has Mr. Grasso
refused to return any of the money wrongly given to him but he
has sued his
successor, John Reed, for defamation because Reed had the gall
to criticize the pay package.
The list of corruption, conflicts of interest
and outright theft among the white, high and mighty is a long
one indeed. Who bankrupted
Enron? If one listens to those on the daily “perp walk” the
culprit is a mystery. Ken Lay, a fund-raiser for George W. Bush
(who gave Lay the nickname, “Kenny Boy”) pleads ignorance.
His cohorts who cashed in their chips before the bottom fell out
on Enron employees and their 401Ks are likewise clueless, even
as they cut deals with prosecutors to get the shortest prison sentences
possible.
Who worsened prescription drug coverage for
retirees? It wasn’t
Arabs, terrorist or otherwise. It was white American politicians,
lobbyists, pharmaceutical companies and a corrupted AARP. The recently
passed Medicare prescription drug package will not provide adequate
coverage for needy seniors, but it also imperils coverage
that millions of middle class Americans already have.
If Arabs should be suspect while in flight,
then white people should not be allowed near anyone’s money. Taxpayers, shareholders,
and workers have all been taken by the group that is most trusted
but is the least worthy of anyone’s trust. The United States
is occupying Iraq, incurring the wrath of the Iraqi people and
millions more around the world. The total of American soldiers
killed in action now stands at 900. The Iraqi death toll is 11,000.
Anyone who wanted payback for September 11th should be happy. The
Iraqis have paid a very high price for the American desire for
revenge.
Of course, powerful white people in executive suites brought this
tragedy to fruition. They wanted to make lots and lots of money.
So began a litany of no bid contracts, deals to transport oil to
an oil rich nation, jobs for non-Iraqis while Iraqis look for work
and immunity from
prosecution for any corporate wrong doing.
To those who argue that we can’t take a chance with suspicious
Arabs I say that we should be consistent. If we can profile in
the airport we should profile in banks, board rooms and in the
halls of Congress. White people should be banned from involvement
in any transactions involving large sums of money. If every Arab
can be a presumed Mohammed Atta, then every white man should be
a presumed Richard Grasso or Ken Lay. Let’s have racial profiling
everywhere in America. We will all feel a lot safer.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly
in . Ms.
Kimberley is a freelance writer living in New York City. She
can be reached via e-Mail at [email protected]. You can read more
of Ms. Kimberley's writings at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/ |