[nfbwatlk] An Apology

Arielle Silverman arielle71 at gmail.com
Thu Mar 26 03:56:39 UTC 2015


Hi Sushil,
I want to apologize to you on list for my comments I made about your
incident with Alaska Airlines. Reading over them again, I think I came
across as being a lot more harsh than I intended, especially since I
don't think we've met. I'm sorry for any hurt my comments may have
caused.
Even though we haven't met, I always believed you were telling the
truth about what happened and I never thought you were leaving out any
facts. My reaction was more coming from my surprise and confusion
about why the incident happened. When I said I thought we don't know
all the information, I was referring to more subtle things that might
have gone down in your conversation with the airline staff, like your
body language and Byron's, that could have caused it to escalate. In
general, I like to try to figure out both sides of a situation if I
can. I think we as an organization can target discrimination more
effectively when we can figure out the other party's reasons for
discriminating. Even when those reasons aren't valid, it's helpful for
us to know the discriminator's motives so we can plan a strategic
defense. Sometimes, knowing their motives can lead to a compromise
solution.
I experienced airline discrimination a few months ago (though not as
serious as your case) so I empathize with your situation and I do
support you in any action you may choose to take. In my case, the
flight attendant who reseated me eventually apologized and admitted
that he made a mistake and misinterpreted the regs aboutwhere blind
people can sit. I hope you are able to reach a satisfactory settlement
with the airline. Again, I am sorry that my empathy and support
probably didn't come through in my first response to this thread.
Best, Arielle




More information about the NFBWATlk mailing list