Darlene Hider, an Arab-American from Dearborn who wears a headscrarf, says she got a big dose of ethnic intimidation and harassment aboard a Delta flight Monday that was departing from Florida to Michigan.
And the flight crew not only did nothing about it, but made matters worse, she told the Arab American News.
Ali Harb of the Arab American News reports:
The victim, Darlene Hider who was traveling with her husband and four children children, wears a headscarf and says the harassment against her family was motivated by hate.
She said a woman sitting in front of her family kept looking back at them in a condescending manner.
"Excuse me, can you please control your kids," The passenger said before takeoff, according to Hider.
After the mother of four tried to smile and explain to her fellow passenger that the children were not doing anything, the woman said, "This is America," Hider told The Arab American News.
Hider then said that a Delta ticket agent who was already on the plane for a different matter, came and forced the Arab American family to change their seats, threatening to remove Hider's husband from the airplane, the paper reported.
"I am about to kick you out of this airplane,' the agent told my husband," Hider told the paper. "She scolded me and my family for no reason. It was a hurtful, unnecessary approach."
The paper reports that Hider is the sister of the legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).Abed Ayoub. She notified her brother about what happened, and he told of the incident on Twitter while the plane was on the way to Detroit.
As a result, two Delta representatives met her in Detroit and said they would look into the matter, the paper reported.
