LUDIC LOG

In the "America: Where Racism Really Isn't Such a Big Problem Anymore" Department, we note that towards the end of April, there was a spate of non-terrorist Middle Easterners (yes, apparently, there are a few of them in the urban centers of our ever-fragile republic) who got kicked off of airplanes for reasons of unrepentent swarthiness and impenitent Arabosity. Normally, this would not raise an eyebrow, except among the attorneys on both sides of the equation who have found plenty of work since September 11th; after all, quite literally hundreds of Middle Easterners and Americans of Middle Eastern heritage have been shown the door of the jetliner since that deadly day. however, one incident stands out as, well, slightly more shameful than the normal "hit the road, raghead" order of the day.

In Washington, D.C., 11 members of Asif Ali Khan & Party, the critically acclaimed and internationally renowned q'awalli musicians, were ordered to leave a commercial airliner on which they were ticketed passengers. Asif Ali Khan (the protege of the late and legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, one of the most respected figures in the history of Arab music) himself, seven of his brothers, his 76-year-old father, and the band's manager -- all Pakistanis -- were forced to give up their seats after several flight attendants reported that they were "sweating, acting nervous, and making frequent trips to the lavatory". These were, at last notice, not criminal acts, which might be undertaken by anyone who was, for example, afraid to fly; but the real crime here is one of recent vintage: FWA.

But the sad display doesn't end there. Ali Khan and his band -- who are in the United States, making a rare tour, in order to raise money for Developments in Literacy, an American charity that funds literacy programs in impoverished parts of the Muslim world -- also were forced to miss a second flight, because they were being questioned by the F.B.I. Needless to say, they were released, since they are were innocent people and not a gaggle of building-toppling terrorists; they finally boarded a third flight, which managed to get all the way to the point of taxiing down the runway when the pilots were persuaded -- this time by a combination of flight attendants and passengers -- to return to the airport and once again boot Ali Khan & Party off the plane. This time, passengers applauded as the men were escorted off the aircraft.

Ali Khan and his band were finally able to leave Washingon -- our nation's capital and seat of freedom -- three days after their scheduled, paid-for flight, but only by breaking up into three small groups and taking separate flights. If it had been me, I would not only be suing the airline, but I would absolutely refuse ever to perform again in a country that treated me so shabbily. It's to Ali Khan's great credit -- he, like his mentor, is a supremely talented, devoutly religious, peaceful man not inclined to a lack of forgiveness -- that he simply stated he would continue the tour as planned before returning to Pakistan. He is certainly showing more civilized behavior than he was shown.

Any discussion of racism inevitably involves great contestation on both sides; the accuser often overstates the severity and consequence of the offense, and the accuser often states that no racism was even intended and that the accuser is simply "race-baiting" to evoke sympathy. Certainly it's possible to exaggerate the effects of Ali Khan's experience; no one was killed or even hurt, he is too dignified a man to have received an injury to that dignity in such a petty way, and while it cannot be overstated how dangerous it is to marginalize minorities and isolate them due to their "otherness", it's unlikely that this is the first step on a path that leads to Arabs in death camps. But the airline, and even a number of commentators on both ends of the ideological spectrum, are falling all over themselves to deny that the behavior of the attendants and passengers was racist.

The facts of the case are not in dispute. No one seriously differs on what happened, or why. But it's pretty clear that none of the people who, after all, are responsible for throwing 11 people off of an airplane, want to admit to themselves that they behaved in a racist fashion; and none of the people looking at the case -- from conservatives who say the passengers had a perfect "right" to be suspicious to liberals who trot out the deceptive powder-puff words "racial profiling" -- want to admit that average, everyday white Americans are capable of repeatedly displaying such clearly racist behaviors.

But that this was a racist act couldn't be more clear. Look at it this way: imagine the 11 men had been black. Imagine that the flight attendants and passengers noted that the black passengers looked "shifty" and were "smelly" and kept "fidgeting around" and "talking amongst themselves". And then one of them stood up, and went to the pilot, and said, "Sir, can you take a look at those 11 black men back there? I don't like the way they're behaving. They make me very uncomfortable, and frankly, I'm afraid they might rob me, or rape my daughter." After all, blacks have committed far more acts of rape and robbery against whites than Arabs have committed acts of terror against Americans. And then imagine that the pilot had turned the plane around, and told the black men that they were making everyone nervous, and that they would have to get off his plane and board another flight if they could, because he wasn't taking them anywhere.

Racist? You're goddamn right it is. Watch out for war, friends. Because in a war -- even a trumped-up, one-sided shell of a war like this one -- demonizing your enemy is really easy. But once you start, it's hard to stop. As for the people who cheered and applauded when 11 innocent musicians were kicked out of the midst of good white Americans like themselves for the crime of difference, shame is not a strong enough emotion for me. I have to turn to disgust. I urge them to remember the way they felt when they saw footage of Palestinians allegedly cheering in the streets when they heard news of the destruction of the World Trade Center, and try and recognize how identical they must have looked when they cheered the bravery and effectiveness of their own racism.