You have to read this story, it’s horrible. A Lebanese couple who were traveling from Istanbul to Beirut via MEA witnessed an act of racism on board the plane. A male Lebanese passenger complained to a MEA flight attendant that he did not want to sit next to a black man. You read right, he did not want to sit next to a black man, I mean wtf? If that wasn’t bad enough what happened next was even worse, instead of the MEA flight attendant asking the Lebanese guy to go back to his seat and shut the fuck up, she instead forced the black man to change his seat (probably sent him to the back of the bus plane).
While the whole world is moving forward around us we’re stuck with dial up speed internet, no electricity, the same politicians bickering over and over and to top it all off we’re racist. According to the pilot who spoke to the couple this incident was nothing compared to the amount of racism they witness on board flights from Dubai and Africa.
I find this very depressing…
Here is the blog that has the post on this incident [Link]
I found out about this story from the Lebanese Anti Racism Movement blog [Here]
I remember one time we were playing basketball with a group of friends and a black man (also a friend) joined us half an hour later. One of my friends refused to play with him cause he’s black, so he got yelled at and asked to stay seated if he is that bothered.
Mark, I am glad you are shedding light on this issue. I think that only people that have lived outside Lebanon all their lives can really see the major flaws this country is facing. It leaves the younger generation with no hope and this is why I believe we’re not going to have highly educated adults in the future, which is terribly sad.
Thanks for sharing this Mark. I’m glad it’s getting some traction, and hopefully someone somewhere will answer this gross injustice. We’re also working on writing something more substantial about the issue in local newspapers.
Racism, sectarianism, and all the other ‘isms’. You can find it all (and more) right here in our beloved Lebanon. We used to teach the world, now the world teaches us.
Has the CEO of MEA been informed? I will boycott MEA until the staff member resigns, MEA issues a public apology and reassessment of its racial policies, retrain its staff in how to be professional (something that they are usually not).
to me talking MEA is like opening can of worms, vile worms, They are expensive, offer sub par service with respect to the cheaper competition, their planes, if not brand new, are usually disgustingly dirty, their on board staff think they can solve problem through (hamshara), and almost all their in flight hostesses believed it when someone told them they are pretty and better than everyone. The 60s era of the Jet Set is over, you are waiters on a glorified (A7dab) so get on with it and get your noses out of the clouds for &^*%’S sake…and now you are racists with a pedigree… Wohoo…
“While the whole world is moving forward around us we’re stuck with dial up speed internet, no electricity, the same politicians bickering over and over and to top it all off we’re racist.” Well Said!
I share the original article on Facebook and one of my black friends from the states told me that he has experience this when he was on flight to/from Kuwait and the UAE. I am really disgusted by this type of behavior. It can’t be allowed to continue. I really hope MEA does something about this. And FAST.
You need to change the lebaneese racist mentality