When I asked how the airline responded to his request she told me, “The manager of the plane told him this is your assigned seat or you have two empty seats in the back of the plane. And he chose to sit in the back.” Although the flight attendant told the passenger it was not the airline’s policy to allow customers to choose their seatmates, the attendant accommodated his request by allowing him to sit in the back of the plane. The compliance of the airline to the request of the passenger is telling. By accommodating racist attitudes toward Muslims, the message is that Muslims are not worthy of protection from humiliation and racism because the state has confirmed they are dangerous through its security policies. Passengers are able to report their fellow passengers as suspicious to flight attendants just for being Muslim and consequently have them removed them from flights. This practice normalizes fears of Muslims and thus racializes them as a threats.

Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, loc. 242