{"id":2122,"date":"2015-06-06T10:03:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-06T16:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=2122"},"modified":"2015-06-06T10:28:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T16:28:00","slug":"the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html","title":{"rendered":"The United Airlines case, and letting the Wookie win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

You guys have heard about this<\/a>, right? \u00a0A woman wearing a headscarf claims discrimination because she wasn\u2019t given an unopened can of pop on a United flight, and starts a twitter campaign for re-education for UAL staff. \u00a0The flight attendant in question has not been fired per se, but according to UAL<\/a>, \u201cshe\u00a0will no longer serve United customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest:\u00a0a link to The Gateway Pundit<\/a>\u00a0(don\u2019t read the comments), as linked to by Elizabeth Price Foley at instapundit<\/a>, both of whom cite a commenter at FlyerTalk<\/a>, who claims that he was an eyewitness, and that the woman in question made the whole thing up, finding insult in not being given a Coke Zero rather than a Diet Coke, and then only being offered a partial can, prepoured, due to a shortage. \u00a0A commenter also links to a Weasel Zipper post<\/a> which asserts that the woman made further over-the-top claims (that the pilot apologized for his white privilege) which she later scrubbed, presumably recognizing that they diminished her credibility. \u00a0Here\u2019s another link, to Pamela Geller\u2019s website<\/a>, which claims that the initial United statement, since deleted, was consistent with the anonymous commenter\u2019s story, saying\u00a0that the flight attendant \u201cattempted several times to accommodate Ms. Ahmad\u2019s beverage request.\u201d<\/p>\n

So: \u00a0what do you do with this, how do you process this story?<\/p>\n

The Federalist had a piece the other day, \u201cDon\u2019t Let the Wookie Win<\/a>,\u201d by Varad Mehta. The central conceit of the article is that Han Solo advised C3PO to \u201clet the Wookie win\u201d at their chess-like game on the Millennium Falcon, because Wookies are known to \u201cpull people\u2019s arms out of their sockets when they lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faced with an opponent who will do anything to prevail in a contest to whose outcome you are indifferent, you should give in. You will lose nothing, as you stood to gain nothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, Mehta says, the problem is that, in the end,<\/p>\n

as a strategy for defending basic freedoms it is ignoble and self-defeating. The problem with letting the Wookiee win is that eventually he insists that you lose forever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

so that, bottom line, we ought not be indifferent to the outcome, because, when each individual instance of letting the Wookie win, is added together, it becomes a surrender of freedom.<\/p>\n

Sure sounds like\u00a0UAL has indeed engaged in LTWW, taking the easy way out to avoid bad publicity. \u00a0But I\u2019m still mystified at this whole story. \u00a0It is, I suppose, not at the level of the racist graffiti or noose hoaxes (that is, where it turns out that the \u201cvictim\u201d had done this him\/herself, to promote the cause), but the woman clearly has an agenda in using what was either a misunderstanding\/miscommunication, at worst, to gain attention.<\/p>\n

According to The Guardian<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked United to recognize it as an act of discrimination,\u201d Ahmad said, \u201cmy hope was they would say, \u2018You know what, this should have never happened and here\u2019s what we are going to do to make sure this never happens to anyone again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t look to be happening, leading Ahmad and her supporters to continue their boycott of United.<\/p>\n

According to Ahmad \u2013 who filed a formal complaint with United Airlines after exiting the plane with the pilot escorting her to customer service \u2013 there will be an investigation into her allegations, but the airline has not yet announced any plans to discuss issues around potential discrimination on their flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re basically failing to recognize the humiliation that happened to me,\u201d she told the Guardian. \u201cSo I am going to look into options to ensure that of course this type of discrimination doesn\u2019t happen again. Not to minorities, not to anybody else.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What does she want? \u00a0Any such organization already has massive amounts of Cultural Sensitivity Training \u2014 does she want more? \u00a0Does she want the FAA to mandate that Muslim advocacy groups be given contracts to provide such training? \u00a0Does she want to claim money damages, or set in motion a process for claiming them? \u00a0Or is this just a part of her career, needing to continue to push the narrative of injustices that Muslims face, in a continual manner, always alert for some bit of material, no different than a blogger looking for something that people will read? \u00a0Has she conditioned herself to seeing injustice at every turn?<\/p>\n

Heck, maybe this is Performance Art.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You guys have heard about this, right? \u00a0A woman wearing a headscarf claims discrimination because she wasn\u2019t given an unopened can of pop on a United flight, and starts a twitter campaign for re-education for UAL staff. \u00a0The flight attendant in question has not been fired per se, but according to UAL, \u201cshe\u00a0will no longer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe United Airlines case, and letting the Wookie win<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You guys have heard about this, right? \u00a0A woman wearing a headscarf claims discrimination because she wasn't given an unopened can of pop on a United\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The United Airlines case, and letting the Wookie win\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You guys have heard about this, right? \u00a0A woman wearing a headscarf claims discrimination because she wasn't given an unopened can of pop on a United\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-06T16:03:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-06T16:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html\",\"name\":\"The United Airlines case, and letting the Wookie win\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-06T16:03:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-06T16:28:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"You guys have heard about this, right? \u00a0A woman wearing a headscarf claims discrimination because she wasn't given an unopened can of pop on a United\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The United Airlines case, and letting the Wookie win\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The United Airlines case, and letting the Wookie win","description":"You guys have heard about this, right? \u00a0A woman wearing a headscarf claims discrimination because she wasn't given an unopened can of pop on a United","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The United Airlines case, and letting the Wookie win","og_description":"You guys have heard about this, right? \u00a0A woman wearing a headscarf claims discrimination because she wasn't given an unopened can of pop on a United","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2015-06-06T16:03:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-06-06T16:28:00+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html","name":"The United Airlines case, and letting the Wookie win","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-06-06T16:03:08+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-06T16:28:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"You guys have heard about this, right? \u00a0A woman wearing a headscarf claims discrimination because she wasn't given an unopened can of pop on a United","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/the-united-airlines-case-and-letting-the-wookie-win.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The United Airlines case, and letting the Wookie win"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}