I experienced my personal bias of immigrants when traveling on airlines. I will never forget this day. I was on an airplane headed back to DC. Several Muslims boarded the plan. They were all on the same row on both sides of the plane. Honestly, I was horrified to the point of nausea and a severe headache. They kept talking to each other and sitting up in the seat looking around. During the flight, they started getting up to use the restroom. As one of them was approaching my row, I literally thought I would stop breathing. I have never been this afraid on a flight, as I fly quite often. I'm sure he knew what I had to be thinking. When we finally were above our destination city and the pilot was informing us to prepare for landing, I began to feel embarrassed, as well as, relieved at the same time. I mean, is it okay, on some level, for me to have these feeling toward Muslims given our experiences with terrorists in American? I told my, then, boyfriend immediately when he picked me up from the airport. His response really made me feel bad about myself. I then felt like I was no better than Caucasian individuals who act on their biases regarding African-Americans.
Everyday in America, people commit crimes. In a perfect world, we should be able to dismiss the race, gender and/or sexual orientation of the criminal. However, that is not the case. So many times, I have been guilty, of holding racial and ethnic groups responsible for members of their racial and ethnic groups. That's so not fair! I do realize such. I was indeed sorry for allowing those messages to turn into bias and prejudice against Muslims. Since this experience, I have been on several flights, I still remind myself that people are people. Everyone is entitled to the same things in life no matter what happens. People have a right to life their.
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