It’s always a shame when Black people perform white nationalism, because, baby, them people don’t want us in this country either.
Take, for example, this Black employee at Southwest Airlines who went viral this week for telling a Latino family, “Maybe we should call ICE on you,” because “you don’t act like a citizen.”
From CBS News:
East Bay resident Julio Varela, who was traveling with his family, told CBS News Bay Area that the incident began when an employee, who has not been identified, was rude and dismissive to him at the ticket counter. When the 54-year-old Varela asked for her name to report her, he said she refused, so he pulled out his phone to record her and the employee later did the same.
The video of the interaction caught on Varela’s phone, which has gone viral since being uploaded to Reddit and other social media platforms, shows the employee holding up her phone in front of her face as Varela tries to get her name.
“Maybe we should call ICE on you,” the employee is heard saying.
From behind the camera, Varela says, “You’re going to call ICE on me?” As he tells the employee to repeat herself, she can be heard adding, “Maybe you need to be, because you don’t act like a citizen. Get away.”
“I was so shocked, I was angry,” Varela said. “It’s intimidating, because my kids didn’t know, you know, if when we get back, are we, am I going to be arrested? Is ICE going to be there?” he added.
CBS noted that Varela, his wife and their three daughters are all U.S. citizens. Varela said the episode all started because his daughter’s plane ticket had been mistakenly issued with her middle name as her last name, causing the family to have to spend hours in the airport trying to get the problem fixed. He said he was told by the ticket agent that nothing could be done, and that they would miss their flight.
“I say, well, my wife made the mistake, but we’ve been trying to correct it,” Varela told CBS News. “So that’s what we’re here for, so you can help us. She says, well, I don’t care if you fly or not. So that’s what got me upset. And that’s, I said, what’s your name? She said, I’m not going to give you my name.”
So, here’s the thing: Varela’s story could be 100% true. Events could have gone down just as he said. Or maybe the confrontation was a little more nuanced than that. Maybe the airline customers were being obnoxious about the mix-up, and the employee just got sick of it. None of that would explain the threat to call ICE.
Look, NewsOne has covered so many stories about white people acting a fool on planes and at airports that it would take hours to read through it all. And, hell, for that matter, Black people aren’t always the best airport patrons either. But what we can expect is that no matter how much of a pain in the ass a customer is behaving like, if they’re visibly and audibly American, a threat to call immigration officers to the scene won’t be made or even thought of.
And, again, Black people simply have no business engaging in such white nationalist racism and xenophobia.
One can only wonder if this Black woman understands that ICE has shot and killed two immigrants within a week of each other this month, and in both cases, the agency has claimed the victims weaponized their vehicles against officers, which is the same thing unarmed Black victims of police violence are accused of to justify their extrajudicial executions. When the victims of ICE shootings get smeared by the government and put on trial for their own killings, does that not remind us of how Black victims of police or vigilante violence are treated by local law enforcement and by white America once the stories become national news?
Do we really think the racial profiling ICE regularly engages in won’t be weaponized against Black people, whether we’re from the U.S. or not?
MAGA America thinks non-white immigrants are violent criminals, moochers and DEI hires here to replace the white workforce. And, my good people, they think all those same things about us. This is why the same people protesting immigrants in Minnesota one day can be found protesting Black people at the BET Awards the next.
This isn’t even about the debate around whether or not it’s on Black Americans to engage ourselves in the nationwide protests against ICE and President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. No one’s asking this airline employee to do that. But aligning ourselves with a white nationalist movement — including the use of colonizer language to make colonizer threats — is not just antithetical to who we are as a people; it’s antithetical to our best interests as Black people who share a country with white supremacists, including the ones who are currently running it.
Anyway, Varela told CBS that the issue was eventually rectified minutes after the incident, and he and his family were able to board their flight. Meanwhile, United Airlines said Monday that it is investigating what has now become a viral moment, but the airline had no comment on what action it will take after the investigation, if any.
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