University of Arkansas associate professor Khaled Beydoun--who, perhaps not coincidentally, is also affiliated with UC Berkeley’s Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project--is accusing Delta Airlines of discrimination after he was downgraded from first class to the main cabin due to a malfunction.
Delta apologized for the seat reassignment, but Beydoun, upon landing at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, demanded to speak to the pilot. He later claimed the pilot grabbed him by the neck and shouted at him, which the pilot denies.
Beydoun engaged in his own brand of stereotyping after the alleged incident, tweeting, “This is Trump’s America, it happened in the South, and I’m Arab and Muslim.”
While the truth of Beydoun’s allegations remains to be seen, let’s hope the “leading scholar of Islamophobia” learns to better cope with the indignity of economy seating on future flights.
