Ivy League economist ethnically profiled, interrogated for doing math on AA flight
May 7, 2016, 11:15 am
#1
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Ivy League economist ethnically profiled, interrogated for doing math on AA flight
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...irlines-flight
Summary: Woman is seated next to a foreign-looking guy who doesn't want to chat and is making strange, unreadable scribbles on a notepad. She passes a note to a flight attendant, deplanes complaining of "illness", then tells the gate agents why she really deplaned. He's forced to deplane and be interrogated.
Of course, it turns out that he's an associate professor and award-winning economist at Penn. He's Italian. The strange scribbles on his notepad were equations he was trying to work out for a paper he was traveling to present.
At least the ending was slightly better than some we've seen here. She didn't re-plane (thought it's not clear if that was voluntary or involuntary). He was allowed to re-plane by the embarrassed pilot. Total delay: 2:47 for a flight only 0:41 in duration.
The best quote from the article is the tagline:
I'm starting to think that we should start a thread just for Flying While Looking Foreign stories.
Summary: Woman is seated next to a foreign-looking guy who doesn't want to chat and is making strange, unreadable scribbles on a notepad. She passes a note to a flight attendant, deplanes complaining of "illness", then tells the gate agents why she really deplaned. He's forced to deplane and be interrogated.
Of course, it turns out that he's an associate professor and award-winning economist at Penn. He's Italian. The strange scribbles on his notepad were equations he was trying to work out for a paper he was traveling to present.
At least the ending was slightly better than some we've seen here. She didn't re-plane (thought it's not clear if that was voluntary or involuntary). He was allowed to re-plane by the embarrassed pilot. Total delay: 2:47 for a flight only 0:41 in duration.
The best quote from the article is the tagline:
In America today, the only thing more terrifying than foreigners is…math.
May 7, 2016, 12:46 pm
#2
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I think there should be a penalty for a person reporting things like this if the report turns out to be unfounded. People would be a lot better off if they just minded their own business. And yes, I do not agree with See Something, Say Something unless there is positive evidence to support the complaint.
May 7, 2016, 1:52 pm
#3
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I think there should be a penalty for a person reporting things like this if the report turns out to be unfounded. People would be a lot better off if they just minded their own business. And yes, I do not agree with See Something, Say Something unless there is positive evidence to support the complaint.
May 7, 2016, 1:55 pm
#4
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Although ... is there anything stopping the professor from filing a civil suit against the other passenger (and, I guess, the airline)? (other than being the 'bigger man'?)
May 7, 2016, 2:12 pm
#5
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You mean, other than the fact that (a) he doesn't know the name of the other passenger to file suit against, (b) it wasn't the other passenger who acted to take him off the plane, and (c) she'll have plausible deniability (which is all you need in a civil suit)?
May 7, 2016, 2:22 pm
#6
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The other two points are factual issues best left for the fact finder - judge or jury - in the trial.
May 7, 2016, 2:29 pm
#7
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It's a sad comment on our educational system that mathematics (or more specifically, a differential equation) looks like Arabic (or some similar foreign language associated with terrorism in peoples' minds) to someone.
Still, for years I've second guessed myself regarding professional-related reading materials that I bring on flights just in case some overly zealous person could look over my shoulder and raise an alarm about my work......and I don't even look "foreign."
Still, for years I've second guessed myself regarding professional-related reading materials that I bring on flights just in case some overly zealous person could look over my shoulder and raise an alarm about my work......and I don't even look "foreign."
May 7, 2016, 3:12 pm
#8
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It's a sad comment on our educational system that mathematics (or more specifically, a differential equation) looks like Arabic (or some similar foreign language associated with terrorism in peoples' minds) to someone.
Still, for years I've second guessed myself regarding professional-related reading materials that I bring on flights just in case some overly zealous person could look over my shoulder and raise an alarm about my work......and I don't even look "foreign."
Still, for years I've second guessed myself regarding professional-related reading materials that I bring on flights just in case some overly zealous person could look over my shoulder and raise an alarm about my work......and I don't even look "foreign."
He must be a terrorist!
Who knows, he might even have possessed weapons of maths instruction!
(And I won't blame her, but the airline. There always will be stupid reports from things being misinterpreted, they should take more care in filtering them out.)
May 7, 2016, 3:14 pm
#9
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It's a sad comment on our educational system that mathematics (or more specifically, a differential equation) looks like Arabic (or some similar foreign language associated with terrorism in peoples' minds) to someone.
Still, for years I've second guessed myself regarding professional-related reading materials that I bring on flights just in case some overly zealous person could look over my shoulder and raise an alarm about my work......and I don't even look "foreign."
Still, for years I've second guessed myself regarding professional-related reading materials that I bring on flights just in case some overly zealous person could look over my shoulder and raise an alarm about my work......and I don't even look "foreign."
May 7, 2016, 4:14 pm
#11
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Word Origin and History for algebra
n.
1550s, from Medieval Latin algebra, from Arabic al jebr "reunion of broken parts," as in computation, used 9c. by Baghdad mathematician Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi as the title of his famous treatise on equations ( "Kitab al-Jabr w'al-Muqabala" "Rules of Reintegration and Reduction"), which also introduced Arabic numerals to the West. The accent shifted 17c. from second syllable to first. The word was used in English 15c.-16c. to mean "bone-setting," probably from Arab medical men in Spain.
n.
1550s, from Medieval Latin algebra, from Arabic al jebr "reunion of broken parts," as in computation, used 9c. by Baghdad mathematician Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi as the title of his famous treatise on equations ( "Kitab al-Jabr w'al-Muqabala" "Rules of Reintegration and Reduction"), which also introduced Arabic numerals to the West. The accent shifted 17c. from second syllable to first. The word was used in English 15c.-16c. to mean "bone-setting," probably from Arab medical men in Spain.
May 7, 2016, 5:22 pm
#13
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That is a key element missing from the headline/soundbite versions of the story. A curt seatmate, as described in the article, definitely raises concern.
May 7, 2016, 5:45 pm
#15
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How so? I don't care for idle conversations with strangers. May be a character flaw on my part but is certainly no threat to anyone.