En historie brer seg i dag som en farsott blant mine Facebook-venner. Det er en fantastisk historie, og den går slik:
This really happened wow
A 50-something year old white woman arrived at her seat and saw that the passenger next to her was a black man.
Visibly furious, she called the air hostess.
"What's the problem, ma?" the hostess asked her
"Can't you see?" the lady said - "I was given a seat next to a black man. I can't seat here next to him. You have to change my seat"
- "Please, calm down, ma" - said the hostess "Unfortunately, all the seats are occupied, but I'm still going to check if we have any."
The hostess left and returned some minutes later.
"Madam, as I told you, there isn't any empty seat in this class- economy class. But I spoke to the captain and he confirmed that there isn't any empty seats in the economy class. We only have seats in the first class."
And before the woman said anything, the hostess continued
"Look, it is unusual for our company to allow a passenger from the economy class change to the first class. However, given the circumstances, the commandant thinks that it would be a scandal to make a passenger travel sat next to an unpleasant person."
And turning to the black man, the hostess said:
"Which means, Sir, if you would be so nice to pack your handbag, we have reserved you a seat in the first class..."
And all the passengers nearby, who were shocked to see the scene started applauding, some standing on their feet."
SHARE IF YOU ARE AGAINST RACISM!
Fin, ikke sant?
Men når man ser en historie som føler å måtte påpeke at den er sann, så ringer noen alarmbjeller. Jeg har sett minst to varianter av historien delt på Facebook bare i dag. Historiene er identiske, med unntak av innledningen. En variant starter med:
This happened on TAM airlines.
TAM Airlines er et flyselskap fra Brasil og opererer hovedsakelig i Latin-Amerika, men har også noen internasjonale ruter. Og begynner man å google historien finner man at veldig mange andre steder starter historien slik:
This scene took place on a British Airways flight between Johannesburg & London.
I noen varianter brukes ordet "kaffir" istedetfor "black man", og det finnes også andre mindre variasjoner i historien, men det overraskende og gode poenget er alltid det samme.
Det er utvilsomt en god historie, men er den virkelig sann? Sannsynligvis ikke. Jeg har sittet og googlet historien og har funnet den gjengitt i mange ulike forum og artikler til ulike tider helt tilbake til år 2000. Hvis den hadde vært sann, så er det hvertfall ingen ny hendelse, og når en slik gammel historie dukker opp som en farsott med noen års mellomrom, pleier det bety at det er en klassisk vandrehistorie og altså falsk.
Det naturlige sted å gå når man vil sjekke validiteten til en historie er Snopes.com, og de kommer oss til redningen også denne gang. De oppdaget historien først gang tilbake i 1998, og skriver følgende om den (og flere lignende historier som omtales):
That all of the preceding tales are likely apocryphal doesn't lessen our enjoyment of them. It's a rare traveller indeed who hasn't good-naturedly faced a long delay at check-in only to see some jerk try to jump to the head of the line, and it's an even rarer individual who hasn't been seated on a flight next to someone he'd like to see sucked out the window.
At different times the stories are circulated anew with their details altered. For instance, the story we recorded in 1998 about the racist woman on the British Airways flights out of Johannesburg came back for another round in 2004, this time purporting to be about a white woman on a flight between Saskatoon and Calgary. In 2005 it was told of a well-to-do woman seated next to a yarmulka-wearing Jew on a flight out of Atlanta.
We'd like to believe virtue will be rewarded and the patient among us will eventually get the level of service we deserve. However, bitter reality often goes the other way - it's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil, hence it's the line jumper and obnoxious passenger who receive special treatment, not us. Legends such as the ones above help to set the world to rights. Even if they never happened, we'd like to think they did and thus gain a measure of comfort from them. Somewhere, maybe only in the realm of legend, someone is standing up to horrid people.
Nettstedet TruthOrFiction.com sjekket også historien tilbake i 2001, og de klarer heller ikke å finne noen opprinnelig kilde:
This smacks of an urban legend and TruthOrFiction.com has not been able find any substantiation for it, so we're classifying it as Unproven!
Så selv om historien er god, så er den nok neppe sann. Del den gjerne med andre på internett, men ta gjerne bort påstanden om at dette er en sann historie eller at det skjedde på et navngitt flyselskap, fordi det er rett og slett ikke riktig - og helt uvesentlig for poenget i historien.
Oppdatering:
Og her er den brukt i en reklamefilm mot rasisme i Portugal i år 2000:
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