American Sikh actor Waris Ahluwalia barred from US-bound flight because he refused to remove his turban

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It’s always for flights into the US.

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That “turban” looks dodgy!

[note sarcasm]

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Yeah, I am not sure if flying into the US had anything to do with it. It’s a Mexican airline staffed by primarily Mexican employees and security personnel (natural assumption here) - and they care about someone coming INTO the US because… why?

The US doesn’t hold a monopoly on racism. In fact I think if you put the US against any other country, we are overall the least racist. We certainly have one of if not the least homogeneous make up of citizens.

In my limited travels outside the US, I have encountered racism. In Mexico the people of more direct decent from the original natives (Aztec, etc) and those from South and Central America have the same status blacks and Mexicans have in the US.

Racism and xenophobia is unfortunately a human trait that effects everywhere.

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Racism isn’t the issue to which I refer. I’ve found that the security (I’ve seen it mostly in Latin America) try to meet very different standards for flights into the US than they do for other destinations.
The only thing that I know about the TSA is that I don’t like them, but I get the impression that they provide guidelines for other countries, real or implied. And sometimes it seems that the security in those other counties are perhaps a little over eager to comply.

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Well we can agree on that.

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After being offered both a complimentary flight on AeroMexico and a flight on an alternate airline, he’s decided to stay in the airport until his demands (an apology and improved training of AeroMexico staff) are met.

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Obviously the airport security people in Mexico City aren’t Wes Anderson fans. :rage:

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I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard anyone running for Prime Minister of Canada talking about rounding up any members of our population based on race or creed, and then getting standing O’s.

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He should’ve stopped at that first sentence. Racism /= white supremacy.

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Oh, I absolutely agree with Mister44’s first sentence.

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Agreed. I think that local security may have to enforce a different set of security standards for flights to be allowed into the US. I got the same thing in Argentina, Chile, and Qatar. In both cases I didn’t get to bring bottled water onto the plane. In SA I had to have my bag opened and examined. It’s not uniform though, my flight back from Japan had no apparent extra security. Regardless of why, it’s unfortunate.

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we are quite exceptional, aren’t we?

Racism and xenophobia is unfortunately a human trait that effects everywhere.

Xenophobia is a feeling. Racism is a behavior. One leads to the other. They are not inevitably linked; people can choose to behave differently than they might prefer to… but you cannot police feelings.

What you can do is muddy the waters though, and then it appears nothing can be done.

But something can be done about systemic racism and racist behavior and language.

And sports team logos.

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That is a pretty Sikh move.

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Good thing they didn’t find his Kirpan!

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Actually, Canada is the only nation I have visited where I didn’t witness racism first hand. Though I also don’t recall seeing many minorities on my visit and I only was in one area of one city, Your track records with the First Nations isn’t stellar. And then just a few months ago you have racial slurs at a hockey game, as just one recent example I recall. Soooo maybe it’s less, but don’t act like your shit doesn’t stink. Racial slurs reported at Ottawa hockey game prompt investigations | CBC News

At any rate, I still contend that people all over the world harbor biases against others. The US is unique in how large our various populations are and how we all co-mingle. A lot of people have this notion that Europe is all liberal and open minded compared to the horrible to the US, but then you see posters reminding people not to say certain words at football matches, and you import a few hundred-thousand brown refugees and you spark huge protests. It is easier to not be outwardly racists when those people you are racist against don’t actually live around you.

Nah - a lot can be done. Continued education and mainly just getting people to meet and talk to each other to see that basically we are all the same in most cases. But let’s not pretend that it is only the US that needs work.

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could have been a better apology but at least it was an apology. Then again I wasn’t the person insulted.

Never said anything remotely like that, and only a deliberate misreading of what I wrote would lead you to think I did. I only pointed out that a country that has a contender for it’s highest office who openly espouses racist viewpoints can’t really be called the least racist country. I really like America and Americans, but I’m getting a bit tired of seeing something about how the US is the greatest most superbest ever on every site I visit that can be even remotely political. A little humility goes a long way.

(FWIW, I was very embarrassed by some of the things I saw said about Harjit Sajjan on his becoming Minister of Defence. Including by people with some political clout.)

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The bleeding hearts will call racism. But what if the turban had a bomb and all aboard were killed…then what?
The world has rules. It’s sucks when you’re innocent of something people of your culture have been doing, but man up and follow the rules.

If Americans were blowing themselves up in the Middle East do you think they’d give a squirt about your rights as an American? NOPE. And neither do I.

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