‘A World Of Casual Racism’ Exposed At BA
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A senior British Airways pilot reveals today the startling levels of casual racism in the flagship UK company, which once famously claimed to be “the world’s favourite airline”.
Captain Doug Maughan, who has 28 years’ flying experience, including 15 years with BA, says that derogatory remarks about race by his colleagues are so common they are treated as normal.
Mr Maughan, a serving pilot who captains BA aircraft to all parts of the world, has decided to go public with his complaints after struggling to persuade BA’s management to take racism among its senior staff seriously. He has complained by email to BA’s chief executive, Willie Walsh, but says no action was taken.
His allegations are an acute embarrassment for the airline which carries 36 million passengers a year; operates out of airports in every continent; and could plausibly claim to be one of Britain’s most high-profile companies. The airline is already threatened with a boycott by Nigerians flying to and from the UK.
Mr Maughan alleges that racism is a “generational” problem—common among middle-aged pilots, but rare among younger pilots.
He lodged his first complaint after hearing a senior training captain use the word “coon” during a training session on a flight simulator—but says that no action was taken.
“There was the time when we set off for Los Angeles with a large party of Saudis on board, who had joined us at Heathrow direct from the VIP lounge,” he added. “In the cruise, my captain suddenly embarked on an extraordinary rant about ‘rag-heads’. He got the word out twice before I stopped him by explaining he was going to be short of a first officer for the return sector if he carried on.”
Mr Maughan, who lives in Dunblane, Perthshire, was on another flight when a fellow flight officer complained that there were too many Asians in Britain. “The captain turned to me and said: ‘I don’t suppose there are many of them up your way.’ I replied: ‘Well, there’s my wife.’ After that, they had the decency to fall silent,” he said.
He has also complained about abusive emails sent to him by a fellow pilot, who is English. One of the emails said: “Come separation, will all Jocks F. off to that Welfare State (paid for by English middle classes)??? Please say yes.”
Mr Maughan, 53, is so exasperated by what he sees as BA management’s refusal to tackle the problem that he is planning a protest at this year’s annual shareholders’ meeting. “It’s what I’d call a canteen culture,” he said. “It seems to be accepted that people are going to make racist remarks and get away with it. The phrase ‘institutional racism’ has been so over-used as to be almost worthless, but I have to say that racism is as prevalent now in BA as it was in the RAF 25 years ago.
“What is common among white flying crew in BA is the use of mildly derogatory, sometimes jokey, language about other races, mainly aimed at black and Asian groups. Because it’s so common, it’s hard to tackle: it’s . . . the norm and rarely even noticed.”
BA said: “All British Airways employees must adhere to our policies concerning dignity at work. Under these policies we encourage employees to report incidences of racism, sexism or any other behaviour that they deem offensive or inappropriate. Any reports of such behaviour are taken extremely seriously and investigated as a matter of priority. Captain Maughan has a duty as an employee to provide details of any alleged inappropriate behaviour direct to the airline.”
Mr Maughan’s revelations come as BA’s treatment of Nigerian passengers threatens to have diplomatic repercussions. Robert Dewar, the British high commissioner to Nigeria, has been summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be warned that Nigeria expects its citizens to be treated with “dignity”. And a meeting between BA representatives and the director general of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Harold Demuren, broke up when Dr Demuren objected that BA had slighted him by sending junior managers.
Nigeria’s President, Umaru Yar’Adua, has ordered an investigation into an incident at Heathrow in which 136 passengers were turned off a BA flight to Lagos. It developed as immigration officers and BA staff were trying to force a man who was being deported to stay on board against his will. The deportee, Augustine Eme, is a member of Massob, a banned organisation in Nigeria campaigning for independence for the region of Biafra.
A fellow passenger, Ayodeji Omotade, from Chatham, objected to Mr Eme’s treatment and was arrested. Mr Omotade’s arrest triggered more protests, until the BA captain ordered every passenger in economy class off the plane. BA has defended the decision to empty the aircraft saying that it was legally obliged to carry passengers such as Mr Eme. It said a large number of passengers on flight BA75 on 27 March became disruptive; that it was not possible to pinpoint which ones were involved; and that the police and crew agreed it could pose a safety risk to allow them to stay on board.
BA’s other troubles
*TERMINAL 5
BA’s biggest disaster in recent years was the botched opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 on 27 March. More than 500 flights were cancelled after a hi-tech baggage handlinge system malfunctioned. The fiasco cost the airline £16m, and, combined with rising oil prices, caused its share price to fall to its lowest level in four years. Chief executive Willie Walsh resisted calls for his resignation.
*Gate Gourmet
In August 2005, the catering firm Gate Gourmet, which wanted redundancies among its full-time staff, brought in 130 temporary staff to handle the holiday workload. The firm’s 600 staff went out on unofficial strike, and were sacked. About 1,000 BA staff walked out in sympathy.As a result, 900 flights were grounded and BA lost £45m.
*The crucifix
BA was threatened with a boycott by protesting Christians, after Nadia Eweida, a check-in worker, was suspended for refusing to remove her crucifix at work.
(Posted on April 28, 2008)
Comments
Maybe British Airways and other European Airlines should stop it’s services to Nigeria so that the Nigerians will have no option but to fly only Nigerian airways or some other African airline. After random crashes and bad service, the Nigerians will come back crawling to BA.
Posted by Brick at 6:33 PM on April 28
“Mildly derogatory, sometimes jokey, language” about non-whites common.”
OK, so what? How is this different than the way non-whites categorize and stereotype white behaviour when they’re amongst each other? For that matter, non-whites do it in public without any qualms and black entertainers make comedy routines about how hokey and uptight white people are. Why is everything so one-sided with minorities?
Posted by Cliff Yablonski at 7:00 PM on April 28
“For that matter, non-whites do it in public without any qualms and black entertainers make comedy routines about how hokey and uptight white people are. Why is everything so one-sided with minorities?”
What non-whites do for real is worse than anything whites joke around about. Why is the media never concerned about that?
Posted by LHathaway at 8:51 PM on April 28
What do want these people to do? Their country is being invaded by all manner of third worlders. Their government is not doing a damn thing about it; as a matter of fact, is encouraging the destruction -the racial destruction of the British Isles; these 3rd worlders can do whatever they like and get away with it and these poor Brits can’t even talk about it or make a derogatory remark towards these aliens. What kind of sickness is it when a race’s defense mechanisms are frozen by the major media? I liken these events to a body that receives a transplant. The body’s defense mechanisms tend to reject the new organ, so a drug is introduced to paralyze the body’s defenses so that it will accept the new organ. Picture if you will, one organ after another being replaced in this fashion until every organ in the body is completely different. Then imagine the brain being transplanted - the final transplant making the body completely different than before. Only the outside appears the same. This is what is happening in all European countries and here in the U.S. right now. If this madness continues, our heritage, traditions, history, and way of life will be a distant memory.
Posted by Awakened at 9:26 PM on April 28
Yet again, huge hysteria over mere WORDS. No threats or even remote implications of violence. And not even words spoken in anger — JUST WORDS.
What would the Eminent Victorians think to read a London paper today and see their own white English men pointing accusatory fingers because other white English men have been heard referring to black Africans with insufficient deference. Our ancestors could probably not even comprehend or mentally process the idea as anything other than a perverse and not-very-funny joke. They would likely find the moon landing and space travel more easily understandable than 21st Century race relations. And they’d be right.
Posted by A Paler Shade of White at 10:21 PM on April 28
“Mr Maughan, who captains BA aircraft to all parts of the world, has decided to go public with his complaints after struggling to persuade BA’s management to take racism among its senior staff seriously. His allegations are an acute embarrassment for the airline. The airline is already threatened with a boycott by Nigerians flying to and from the UK.”
Well, what’s HIS problem? Is he black? Married to a black? Black grandchildren? I small something fishy there.
“On another flight when a fellow flight officer complained that there were too many Asians in Britain. “The captain turned to me and said: ‘I don’t suppose there are many of them up your way.’ I replied: ‘Well, there’s my wife.’ ”
Aha! So that’s it! I KNEW there was something. There always is something like that. This obsessed race-traitor is on his own personal crusade and is making a national campaign out of it.
Posted by browser at 11:05 PM on April 28
Airways staff meet more foreigners than most of us - perhaps thats why they have such a low opinion of them.
Personnaly, after many years of being subjected to threats and intimidation by the “politically correct” in the UK, I have started to say it like it is - my country would be a far better place without blacks and Asians. Its an indisputable fact - one that no-one now can argue against.
It is interesting to see that many are feeling like me.
Enough is enough.
Vote BNP and lets get our country back!
One day, I pray, Britain will again become home to the British.
We can once again live in peace and safety.
Maybe, just maybe, we can look back upon the last 50 years and learn the lesson once and for all that third world people are incompatible with the West. They need a few more centuries to evolve into civilised human beings in civilised societies.
Then, of course, they should have no need to swarm over us.
Posted by Geoff Miller at 1:04 AM on April 29
“The captain turned to me and said: ‘I don’t suppose there are many of them up your way.’ I replied: ‘Well, there’s my wife.’ After that, they had the decency to fall silent,” he said.
Ah, the mixer. An entire people must perish so the mixer can have his way.
Posted by Michael T at 1:31 AM on April 29
Sounds like an airline I would like to fly with. However, the Asian airlines do not have age and weight discrimination rules so they have really attractive stewardesses - a Singapore Airlines or Philippine Airlines flight crew looks like a beauty contest.
Posted by Lost in Paradise at 1:33 AM on April 29
“What kind of sickness is it when a race’s defense mechanisms are frozen by the major media? I liken these events to a body that receives a transplant. The body’s defense mechanisms tend to reject the new organ; therefore a drug is introduced to paralyze the body’s defenses so that it will accept the new organ.”
Awakened
…………………..
I found the biological analogy offered by Awakened to be extremely apt. There’s a lot of solid meat for thought in his comment — well worth pondering. The European nations are not simply dying; they are being drugged and killed.
Posted by ghw at 1:47 AM on April 29
I think, taken at face value, the captain has a legitimate complaint. It’s an INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE folks! So it must, by definition, cater to various nationalities. Nothing is to be gained by making sweeping remarks about other ethnic groups and it doesn’t sound like we’re talking about constructive criticism of British immigration policy either. If non-white groups behave the same way toward whites, while on international flights, then they should also change that behavior. Yes, it’s just words and therefore drastic measures should not be taken. It’s not the sort of thing heads should roll over, but the airline should certainly make it clear that passengers and crew should be treated with respect because… they’re customers.
Posted by jewamongyou at 10:55 AM on April 29
This self-righteous embarressment to Scotland should take his Asian wife and move to London where she’ll be right at home
Posted by Dougie (Edinburgh) at 11:04 AM on April 29
“…derogatory remarks about race by his colleagues are so common they are treated as normal.”
Remarks about race are common because everyone who is around anyone draws the same conclusions from what they see in others.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 1:05 PM on April 29
So some Whites make derogatory comments about Blacks or Asiatics. So what? What’s the big deal? Don’t Blacks or Asiatics make racist comments about Whites when talking amongst themselves?
As to claiming to be deserving of respect, when Blacks collectively start ACTING, LIVING and THINKING like human beings, they’ll earn the respect of Whites they so desperately seem to crave. People judge other people by their actions!
Posted by Fed Up at 3:36 PM on April 29
I often wonder what the motivation is behind this conspiracy is to destroy Western culture… it’s going on everywhere. Why is the West attempting to commit suicide? Why all this insane appeasement?
Posted by Andy at 3:38 PM on April 29
A “generational” thing? Somehow I doubt that claim. As the this generation sees Blacks and Asiatics perpetrating crimes, making their incessant demands for handouts, and comporting themselves in their usual manner, the present generation will also learn to despise them. While the media, especially European media does its utmost to cover up the racial identity of the criminals, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure things out for one’s self.
Posted by Fed Up at 4:10 PM on April 29
Racial stereotypes are actually funny, even those about whites. This fellow merely has no sense of humour.
Let’s see, the Scots like drinking, the Irish like fighting, and the Welsh steal. Or is it that the Scots like fighting, the Irish like drinking, and the Welsh steal.
“The Englishman fights when he must, the Irishman fights because he knows no better, and the Scot fights because he honestly likes it,” is another one I’ve heard.
In Heaven, the innkeepers are English, the cooks are French, the cops are Irish, the lovers are Italian and the mechanics are German, while in Hell, the innkeepers are French, the cooks are English, the cops are German, the mechanics are Italian and the lovers are Irish.
In Heaven, you get an American salary, Mexican food, an English house and a Japanese wife. In Hell, you get a Mexican salary, English food, a Japanese house and an American wife.
Think of the other ethnic stereotypes you’ve heard about folks. The Scots are supposed to be cheap. I’ve lived in Scotland, and I know why: there’s just about nothing there but a hilly landscape that some *trees* would help very much. We have mountains in Colorado, but ours have trees on them. If the Scots are cheap, it’s because the place used to be poor. I remember Edinburgh, where in 1971 our milk and coal came on horsecarts and we didn’t have a refrigerator, so my mother kept our perishables in a shady spot in the back yard.
Among Slovenes, Croats have a reputation of being arrogant and Serbs have a reputation of being greedy thieves.
Among Chinese, Japanese are regarded as drunk womenizers. I can’t get a repeatable opinion from my wife about the Chinese themselves except a long diatribe about the “1937 Incident.”
Humour is a large part of what keeps folks who are different from each other civil to each other in person. Mr. Maughan really would be happier if he relaxed and abandoned what seems to be a personal crusade that causes him and others only pain.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 6:16 PM on April 29
“If non-white groups behave the same way toward whites, while on international flights, then they should also change that behavior….the airline should certainly make it clear that passengers and crew should be treated with respect because… they’re customers.”
Posted by jewamongyou
————
Of course all passengers (as well as public and crew) should be treated with respect. That goes without saying, and I don’t think it is in question. But I fail to see what that has to do with private comments shared between captains in the privacy of the cockpit.
Posted by voter at 3:07 AM on April 30