Southwest Airlines is the product of a true southern sensibility. Meaning there is little sense – or heart – in anything it does. It represents all that is ugly about the US south. Especially lately. It is making a name for itself not for excelling in air service but for evicting passengers for petty and discriminatory reasons.
It recently created a brouhaha when it evicted L-Word star Leisha Hailey for sharing what appears to be an innocent kiss with her lesbian lover. Not long before that, it grounded the pants of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong for low riding. And who can forget its booting of director Kevin Smith for being too fat.
The latest lapse of southern hospitality on a Southwest Airlines flight is a little more ugly, if not downright Islamophobic.
A Muslim woman is suing Southwest Airlines for being kicked off her flight after a flight attendant reported hearing her say “it’s a go” into her phone — though according to the suit, she was just saying “I’ve got to go” as the plane was preparing to take off.
Irum Abbassi alleges that on March 13, Southwest Airlines employees unlawfully removed her from a flight from San Diego to San Jose, where she was headed to finish research for her Master’s thesis.
On the upside for the airline, I’m sure Hank Williams Jr. loves Southwest.