#Thread I didn’t get to send before we took off. So two men were next to each other on the plane, one a man of color & one white. According to the person next time, before I got on the two men were arguing about where the boundary is between them for the row.
Then the white guy stomped on the man of color’s foot. MOC was pissed & like “WTH.” As I arrived the the flight attendant came over & white guy whines like a kid: “Well HE keeps putting HIS foot all the way over HERE and *I* just put my foot down where it’s SUPPOSED to go”
Flight attendant is like, “Do I need to call someone to come intervene here?” MOC is like “nah, we’re good. I’m fine” & white guy is like “Yes, I think you should”. Of course I know where this shit is going. This man of color is going to be kicked off this plane, maybe hurt. Nah.
So I offered to switch seats with the white guy. The flight attendant looked relieved. White guy looked annoyed, like he wanted there to be confrontation, like he was disappointed that this might be resolved simply, without violence.
Flight attendant asks white guy to switch so we do. I sit by MOC & say “Hey, you ok?” He said “Yea I’m good. He was just being a diva” I said “Yea but I wasn’t about to have them call plane police on you.” He just nodded & said “yea, thanks for that”
This is what we do for each other. We can’t stop all the violences of the world but we can de-escalate, get involved, protect each other, even strangers. It’s what marginalized folks have always done for each other because we know one angry white man, one police call can end us.
