I have been thinking about racism in this country. I have been thinking about how an old woman was abused racially on an airplane and the attitudes that prevail on a daily basis.
Dulcie Gayle’s story is certainly not unique. Ok, yes, it’s not often that you witness a complete bigot ranting away like that, everyone agrees that he was a complete idiot for behaving that way (secretly some people will be thinking “right on”). However, the real racism in this story is the way the victim was treated. She is 77, she is disabled, she is still coming to terms with the death of her husband and she was verbally abused in the vilest way and threatened with physical violence by a man, much younger and more able than her. Since when would this be acceptable in anyone’s eyes? If she were white, I dare say that the man would have been bundled off the plane by the majority of the passengers and he would have been arrested immediately for his threatening and violent behaviour. And so should it have been in this situation.
Think now… if the person to defend her had been a young black man, I think it’s highly likely that he might have been mad that she was being treated this way (I know I would be), and maybe he might have been aggressive in his defence of her. What do you think would have happened in that situation? I know – the young black man would have been bundled off the plane and arrested on the spot, for being aggressive.
Can you not see that this treatment of black people by the majority is totally and utterly racist? I am gobsmacked that people behave the way they do towards others.
Here are some quotes that I have taken from this thread and my thoughts on them:
The video link I watched didn't show how it all started.
Did you think she did something that deserved that treatment? An old lady? Really?
Urgh - horrible but not surprising.
So why are we allowing this behaviour to continue – it’s completely unacceptable.
Saw that on twitter yesterday. Dreadful. What a bastard.
I can't believe (some) people still behave like this towards non-white people in 2018!
It's almost always sub intelligent, badly educated people too. It's rarely intelligent people who are ugly racists.
What kind of eejit refuses to sit next to someone because they're black? Weird!
This post is shocking – “it’s rarely intelligent people who are UGLY racists” – no they are too busy being duplicitous racists like the rest of the passengers and crew on that flight (other than the hero of the hour, David Lawrence). This person here just totally misses the point.
Disappointed that no-one asked for the police to be called at the time.
Disappointed? How would you feel if she was white? Outrage? Disbelief? Anger?
At least on a plane, you know he's not likely to be armed with a knife... but on a bus or train or subway ... people do worry about being stabbed for standing up to people! Sadly, a common event these days.
When did this society we live in stop caring for others? I still think the issue is that she was black and therefore not worthy of defence in their eyes.
They must have at least sarcastically been asking if he was ok, to make him feel a twat?!!
No, they were asking him to stop his tantrum so they didn’t have to deal with it and they could pretend nothing happened.
The reaction of the cabin crew is appalling
Is it so appalling to be afraid for your job?
It is appalling that would even come into it. Injustice needs to be faced head on.
I’m sympathetic to people who didn’t step in. There are good reasons not to join in a disturbance on a plane.
I understand not everyone is brave, but would you be sympathetic if she was your Mum?
To all the people saying cabin crew should have moved him, would you want to sit next to him?
Of course not, he should have been removed full stop.
It's tempting to think he should have been chucked off for what he did to the poor lady, but let's not kid ourselves ... if passengers had missed connections or whatever because of the delay that would have caused, Ryanair would no doubt be slammed for that too
Again, people are so unkind to others that they would complain that throwing off the flight of this poor woman’s attacker would inconvenience them. I think, somehow, that there would be less complaint if she were white.
It's worth noting the woman was asked if she wanted to move by the air attendant early on in the video and she said no. She then did say clearly something to the man that wasnt caught on the audio.
Not excusing his behaviour, but i'd like to hear the full audio as her responses are almost entirely missing.
I can imagine what she said, I know what I would have, and it would probably be me that got kicked off the plane. Does anything she might have said justify the action (and inaction) of so many?
If aeroplanes delayed flights by several hours every time a passenger said something rude/offensive then airports would grind to a halt.
What difference does it make if the police were waiting at the airport for the flight or picked the man up from his home the next day, it doesn't change the punishment. Police are very stretched and have to prioritise.
If airlines did delay flights it would create inconvenience for some but I think you would find that such incidents would drop off pretty damn quickly. It’s the unwritten rule, if a behaviour is condoned then it’s acceptable. This kind of behaviour is definitely not.
The difference would be to Dulcie Gayle, and other people that face daily discrimination, that she is valued and honoured and treated with respect – as is her due.
Think Ryan did fab on this one
In what imaginary place do you live?
I'm not into mob justice, personally.
All it takes for evil to prevail is for a good man to say nothing. It’s not about mob justice, it’s about people coming together to stand up for what they know is right.
We have but one side of the story too. I will hold off until I get both sides, they could have both been as bad as each other, but we don't know do we?
I wonder was he quiet for the rest of the journey? The other passenger did not like his body odour, so maybe she said something to him that riled him too.
The fact that he was not kicked off gives me a signal that both sides were at fault perhaps. No one else on the plane apart from the man behind did or said anything, but filming it was no problem at all for others.
Pure victim blaming. I’m sure that no one would want to sit next to a man in a confined space for a number of hours when they stink! I know that some people are not backwards in coming forwards, maybe she did offend him, but in all honesty, do you really think that anything she could have said would justify his response? Really? What if your old Mum said something to someone in that way and was abused the way she was? There are no mitigating circumstances here.
I do think that filming it was helpful in this case – people might not feel that they can directly intervene, I get that, but it has highlighted this common racist behaviour – the way this woman is being treated by the majority of the passengers and the airline staff.
Mob justice has already decided both him and Ryanair are guilty. He's had his face plastered all over the internet.
He was brave enough in front of the passengers and crew on board that flight – why shouldn’t he have to face the consequences of his outburst, it was criminal after all. However, is it mob justice to demand equal rights for all? The right to not be verbally abused and threatened with physical violence?
I think racism minimisers like to try to muddy the waters. The more they can cast doubt (on a case like this, as you say, there ARE no mitigating circumstances) then they think the wavering middle will get uncertain and do nothing.
And they can be very persistent. The goal is to move what's acceptable away from the decent human reaction towards basically accepting racial abuse.
I absolutely agree with this opinion. Victim blaming, dehumanising, inherent and societal racism.
Sadly, this inherent and societal racism is something that people of colour face on a daily basis. Being treated as less than, unimportant, must deserve it somehow. I could give a million examples of this…
Sadly, this happens a lot! A black friend of mine was on a bus (the only person on the lower floor). She was talking on her phone. Old white man gets on, walks to the back of the bus and sits right in front of her, and proceeds to berate her - initially for talking on the phone and then for 'being in this country' and then for not having the decency to have an English accent?! Shouting at her to move to another seat as far away from him as possible, preferably on the top deck of the bus. She initially ignored him, but then he tried to hit her with his walking stick, so she told him if she was bothering him that much, he could move as he actually found her seated there and the bus was empty so he could choose to move if he wished. Well, he flew into a huge rage to the point that a couple of lads from the top deck came down to see what the raucous was about, and offered to walk my friend the rest of the way (cos the driver refused to intervene and luckily my friend wasn't too far from her stop). That said, despite the help from members of the public, her feeling of being less than due looked down upon cos of the colour of her skin and being berated for it, took a while to abate.
It’s the fact that the black friend had to leave the bus before her stop because the old white man was given dispensation for his actions. Driver didn’t intervene? Why not? Can you not see how this woman was made to feel, not just by the actual attack, but that of the driver? Those things scar you, how would you feel? I, as a woman, know how intimidating people can be and how a nasty situation like that can affect you, quite severely, for some time, but the worst of it is, she was made to feel looked down on, less than, unsupported. This is the evil.
Will all be forgotten about tomorrow anyway no matter what happened
In the name of all that is good, I bloody well hope not.
I can't offhand think of anything that would excuse his behaviour, but I would still be interested to know how it developed.
You know why you can’t think of anything? Because there is NO reason on earth that would justify his behaviour, but somehow, you think that there must be.
First and foremost, the guy who uploaded this has his own agenda, that's plain as day from his twitter feed.
Hallelujah, yes! The guy is uploading this to twitter to highlight the daily racism black people are subjected to. I applaud him.
At least the public outcry indicates that many more people than years ago are rightly angered by racism. Sad that Ryanair would have brushed it away if they'd been able to.
It’s not sad, it’s racist and MUST be stopped.
I've just seen the woman interviewed on the news, she does seem genuinely upset
Of course, she is – what a ridiculous statement. Unless of course, you would expect her to not have feelings!
I was abused recently, I think because I am disabled. I have started using a cheap "body-cam". Mine was under £40, still a lot for me, but it makes me feel safe.
What kind of a world do we live in? Anyone can see that someone feeling vulnerable and unsafe in this world should not have to live like that, we should be free from fear. How much more should a black person have to take just because of the colour of their skin?
The thing is if this had been a black man abusing an elderly white woman he would have been removed from the flight. Drunkenness and mental health wouldn’t be mentioned
We have all heard the cases whereby men of Asian appearance have been removed from some flights because people feel ‘uncomfortable ‘ despite the fact that the Asian men were just sitting there minding their own business
My dd travelled to Spain by Easy Jet ( school trip) and told me that herself and her school pals witnessed an incident whereby five white men abused an Asian man calling him ‘ a terrorist’ and ‘ISIS’. The cabin staff did absolutely nothing. It took a bunch of fourteen year old school girls to intervene and tell the five men to shut up
Double standards, always favouring the white person – it’s just how it is. But not as it should be.
I want to see REAL change for black people. I want to see happy, smiling faces, I want us all to love each other and live in peace. For us to be interested in each other and cross the divides. Please let’s make it happen! It starts with us, as individuals standing up for what is right and not making excuses, looking for ways to blame the victim. Black people deserve the right to be treated equally.