He’d better get one hell of an apology, and it had better have a lot of dollar signs

For a while now, I have been slowly fuming about the lack of customer service in the corporate world when legitimate inconveniences arise for consumers. About a year and a half ago, I purchased a fantastic game (and the expansion for said game) called “Attack!” The game is a conquer-the-world type of game in which you move your little military pieces around the globe, engage in diplomacy, economics, politics, and war, and try to end up the champion who bests all other nations. It was, and still is, a fantastic game, but mine came with a small defect.

The little plastic military pieces which represent airplanes, tanks, artillery, infantry, and various types of ships come in 6 different colors (to represent 6 different players), and on three sheets of molded plastic per color. All in all, there should be 18 molded sheets of plastic pieces, with three from each color. I received 18 sheets of plastic pieces, but one color had 4 sheets and another color had 2. I have written four times to the company regarding this mix-up in their product’s contents, and have yet to get a response. I know customer service is sometimes slow, but 9 months is a long time to wait for a letter back.

This past summer, I went on a vacation to visit my brother and see him safely married to a wonderful girl. My trip out was filled will all manner of inconvenience and unpleasantness, and despite having been promised a phone call to apologize and make amends for the failure of the company to satisfy their obligations, I never received such a call. I have written the company to request the promised call, but have yet to receive a response. Again, current wait time is almost 3 months on a reply.

Well, if I thought I had it bad, sit down and take a listen to the story of Raed Jarrar, an American architect of Arabic descent who simply wanted to fly from Washington to California, yesterday.

The following is the account of the incident, in Mr. Jarrar’s own words (which can be found on his own blog, here). All content as in original except where indicated by brackets:

[Mr. Jarrar details part of his recent trip to the Middle East on a
humanitarian/political mission, before returning to the United
States.]

[…]

The next day, I went to JFK in the
morning to catch my Jet Blue plane to California. I reached Terminal 6 at around
7:15 am, issued a boarding pass, and checked all my bags in, and then walked to
the security checkpoint. For the first time in my life, I was taken to a
secondary search . My shoes were searched, and I was asked for my boarding pass
and ID. After passing the security, I walked to check where gate 16 was, then I
went to get something to eat. I got some cheese and grapes with some orange
juice and I went back to Gate 16 and sat down in the boarding area enjoying my
breakfast and some sunshine.

At around 8:30, two men approached me while I was checking my phone. One of
them asked me if I had a minute and he showed me his badge, I said: "sure". We
walked some few steps and stood in front of the boarding counter where I found
out that they were accompanied by another person, a woman from Jet Blue.

One of the two men who approached me first, Inspector Harris, asked for my
id card and boarding pass. I gave him my boarding pass and driver's license. He
said "people are feeling offended because of your t-shirt". I looked at my
t-shirt: I was wearing my shirt which states in both Arabic and English "we will
not be silent". You can take a look at it in this picture
taken during our Jordan meetings with Iraqi MPs. I said "I am very sorry if I
offended anyone, I didnt know that this t-shirt will be offensive". He asked me
if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all
of my bags and I asked him "why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn't it
my constitutional right to express myself in this way?" The second man in a
greenish suit interfered and said "people here in the US don't understand these
things about constitutional rights". So I answered him "I live in the US, and I
understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt".

Then I once again asked the three of them : "How come you are asking me to
change my t-shirt? Isn't this my constitutional right to wear it? I am ready to
change it if you tell me why I should. Do you have an order against Arabic
t-shirts? Is there such a law against Arabic script?" so inspector Harris
answered "you can't wear a t-shirt with Arabic script and come to an airport. It
is like wearing a t-shirt that reads "I am a robber" and going to a bank". I
said "but the message on my t-shirt is not offensive, it just says "we will not
be silent". I got this t-shirt from Washington DC. There are more than a 1000
t-shirts printed with the same slogan, you can google them or email them at
wewillnotbesilent@gmail.com . It is printed in many other languages: Arabic,
Farsi, Spanish, English, etc." Inspector Harris said: "We cant make sure that
your t-shirt means we will not be silent, we don't have a translator. Maybe it
means something else". I said: "But as you can see, the statement is in both
Arabic and English". He said "maybe it is not the same message". So based on the
fact that Jet Blue doesn't have a translator, anything in Arabic is suspicious
because maybe it'll mean something bad!

Meanwhile, a third man walked in our direction. He stood with us without
introducing himself, and he looked at inspector Harris's notes and asks him: "is
that his information?", inspector Harris answered "yes". The third man, Mr.
Harmon, asks inspector Harris : "can I copy this information?", and inspector
Harris says "yes, sure".

inspector Harris said: "You don't have to take of your t-shirt, just put it
on inside-out". I refused to put on my shirt inside-out. So the woman interfered
and said "let's reach a compromise. I will buy you a new t-shirt and you can put
it on on top of this one". I said "I want to keep this t-shirt on". Both
inspector Harris and Mr. Harmon said "No, we can't let you get on that airplane
with your t-shirt". I said "I am ready to put on another t-shirt if you tell me
what is the law that requires such a thing. I want to talk to your supervisor".
Inspector Harris said "You don't have to talk to anyone. Many people called and
complained about your t-shirt. Jetblue customers were calling before you reached
the checkpoint, and costumers called when you were waiting here in the boarding
area". it was then that I realized that my t-shirt was the reason why I had been
taken to the secondary checking.

I asked the four people again to let me talk to any supervisor, and they
refused.

The Jet Blue woman was asking me again to end this problem by just putting
on a new t-shirt, and I felt threatened by Mr. Harmon's remarks as in "Let's end
this the nice way". Taking in consideration what happens to other Arabs and
Muslims in US airports, and realizing that I will miss my flight unless I
covered the Arabic script on my t-shirt as I was told by the four agents, I
asked the Jet Blue woman to buy me a t-shirt and I said "I don't want to miss my
flight."

She asked, what kind of t-shirts do you like. Should I get you an "I heart
new york t-shirt?". So Mr. Harmon said "No, we shouldn't ask him to go from one
extreme to another". I asked mr. harmon why does he assume I hate new york if I
had some Arabic script on my t-shirt, but he didn't answer.

The woman went away for 3 minutes, and she came back with a gray t-shirt
reading "new york". I put the t-shirt on and removed the price tag. I told the
four people who were involved in the conversation: "I feel very sad that my
personal freedom was taken away like this. I grew up under authoritarian
governments in the Middle East, and one of the reasons I chose to move to the US
was that I don't want an officer to make me change my t-shirt. I will pursue
this incident today through a Constitutional rights organization, and I am sure
we will meet soon". Everyone said okay and left, and I went back to my seat.

At 8:50 I was called again by a fourth young man, standing with the same
jetblue woman. He asked for my boarding pass, so I gave it to him, and stood in
front of the boarding counter. I asked the woman: "is everything okay?", she
responded: "Yes, sure. We just have to change your seat". I said: "but I want
this seat, that's why I chose it online 4 weeks ago", the fourth man said "
there is a lady with a toddler sitting there. We need the seat."

Then they re-issued me a small boarding pass for seat 24a, instead of seat
3a. They said that I can go to the airplane now. I was the first person who
entered the airplane, and I was really annoyed about being assigned this seat in
the back of the airplane too. It smelled like the bathrooms, which is why I had
originally chosen a seat which would be far from that area.

It sucks to be an Arab/Muslim living in the US these days. When you go to
the middle east, you are a US tax-payer destroying people's houses with your
money, and when you come back to the US, you are a suspected terrorist and plane
hijacker.

Bad customer service is one thing when it comes from a company. When it comes from a company and the federal government at the same time, it's enough to almost make you wonder whether it is time to start reminding those in power that their grant of authority does not extend to discrimination on the basis of arbitrary characteristics, and most certainly does not extend to protecting people from their own ignorance-based fears of Arabic language T-shirts.