The racial abuse of a black woman by a white man on a Ryanair flight comes amid a surge in hate crime. In the face of freshly emboldened racism, white people, and particularly men, must intervene
For those who remain convinced that racism doesn’t exist, or prefer to luxuriate in the simple white pleasure of colour-blindness (towards the experiences of actual people of colour rather than our skin tone), Wide Awoke refers you to video footage of a white man on a Ryanair flight yelling racist abuse at a black woman. Then keeping his seat while she was asked if she wanted to move. Ryanair reportedly said that the cabin crew were not aware of the racist slurs. This appalling chain of events, which will not be shocking to anyone who has been on the receiving end of racist abuse, tells us everything we need to know about how racism is routinely handled in our country.
The film shows the man threatening to “push” the woman to another seat. The woman, a 77-year-old member of the Windrush generation who is returning from a holiday with her daughter to mark the death of her husband, has arthritis. Apparently she takes too long to move. The man calls her an “ugly black bastard” and shouts “don’t talk to me in a foreign language” when she replies in English. Eventually, a flight attendant intervenes. A passenger confronts the man.
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