If the author had been a tall white dude in a business suit, he would still be an asshole, and that is assuming that his version is the literal and complete truth. We don’t even need the other side to see that he is a dick.
While it is mildly obnoxious for a couple with a baby to try and hold an extra seat, and I find people who assume the fact that they deciding to spawn get extra privileges annoying, grow the fuck up. It isn’t worth it. I, a white dude, would have just moved to another seat, accepted that it is going to take 30 seconds longer to exit the plane, and call it a day.
Standing over someone waiting for the seat is just creepy and crazy behavior. Again, he could have been a white dude in a business suit, and he would still be a creepy asshole. Yes, they are being mildly obnoxious because they think that having a child makes them god’s favorite, but it isn’t worth it. When the women didn’t want him sitting there, it was because he was clearly an intimidating creeper. He then quickly moves onto physical threats of violence, raised voices, and in general intimidating asshole behavior over a fucking seat that someone was trying to save for a baby. He even gives you his own internal monologue which more or less is “bigger dude gets to beat the shit out of smaller guy”. Yes dude, you are an asshole, even if we take your version is the literal and whole truth.
Finally, when the pilot comes out, which is where I assume we get “Southwest Airlines is racist”, he wasn’t coming out to fairly resolve the dispute. He isn’t going to take a fucking deposition and decide who has the bestest rights to each seat. He doesn’t fucking care. It isn’t his job to be the judge and solved your unfathomably stupid little tift. No one else on the plane cares either. Your stupid and childish dispute isn’t worth even a split second of anyone’s time. If you are being so loud and obnoxious that the pilot has to come out (and the author admits he is being loud and obnoxious), he is going to treat people who are acting like children over who gets to sit up front like children and essentially tell them to shut up, sit down, and stop being an asshole to the hundred plus other people on the plane. He doesn’t want to hear your side because he doesn’t care. You could be a privileged one percenter, and the pilot is still going to tell you to shut up, sit down, and stop fucking up his schedule.
The lady clearly did not like something about the way I looked—even before we exchanged any words at all.
No, she didn’t like that he was an intimidating asshole intent on fighting a baby over a seat. They were trying to get everyone to pass up the seat, not just this guy personally. She might have been annoying, but she was right in her judgement that he is an intimidating asshole who uses threats of violence and is upset that an airplane isn’t a place where he can kick the crap out of someone. Is she annoying? Sure. Racist? No.
Moreover, the man felt completely comfortable telling me—a grown man, “You need to shut your mouth.” I don’t think it’s possible to see a stranger as a human being and talk to them like that.
And you he felt comfortable threatening to kick the shit out of someone and yelling at someone over a seat. Does he consider them to be humans? I personally feel a lot more comfortable telling a strange to shut up than to threatening to beat them up. Then again, I am not (as much) of an asshole.
White privilege is different than racism. I don’t THINK that the Captain was racist. That said, he at least had a very bad case of white privilege. Southwest Airlines emboldened that privilege by white-washing (see what I did there?) his behavior.
No dude, he had a serious case of “you are fucking the time table of a few thousand people over a dispute so stupid they had to bring the pilot out”. He isn’t a customer relations rep hired for his people skills. He flies planes, and you are screwing up his schedule.
Seriously, just replay this story in your head, only instead pretend it is an obnoxious white guy CEO in a business suit being a dick because he wants to sit closer to the front of the airplane so he can get out 30 seconds faster. Do you still feel offended? No. He sounds like a guy who is used to getting what he wants using physical intimidation, and in this case he was really frustrated that he couldn’t use intimidation to force someone to show him due deference that his size should afford him. He even got what he wanted, the stupid seat, he is just upset that everyone didn’t bow to him in the process. This guy is an asshole, and assholes are all the same color on the inside (kind of a pink color with brown spotting).
