Racism in the air 2 more black musicians tell of Qantas bias
After rapper will.i.am claimed a “racist” Qantas staffer singled him out on a flight, reports surfaced that two other black musicians on the same Australian tour suffered similar bias from the airline.
A bassist for Janet Jackson slammed Qantas on social media saying he was mistreated on the Saturday flight from Brisbane to Sydney.
Eric Smith, who was in Australia for the RNB Fridays Live concert series featuring Jackson, 50 Cent and the Black Eyed Peas, tweeted he was given “attitude” and prohibited from placing his instrument in an overhead compartment.
Smith said he regularly rests his “thin” bass on top of luggage without a problem and posted a photo allegedly showing a white musician’s guitar resting in an overhead bin on the same flight.
Smith spoke up after an eyewitness told the Daily Telegraph that 50 Cent’s guitarist Travis Ferguson was told he couldn’t bring his guitar on the nownotorious Brisbane to Sydney flight with will.i.am (inset) that ended with police waiting at the gate.
The eyewitness said Ferguson voluntarily got off the plane with the instrument before takeoff, but then returned, saying he obtained permission from another airline staffer to keep it in the cabin.
At that point, the flight attendant tried to stop him again, triggering an argument, the witness reportedly said.
A call-in guest on the popular Australian radio show “Kyle & Jackie O” shed more light on the cabin kerfuffle
Tuesday when she claimed her boyfriend was on the flight with Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am and texted her about the incident in real time.
“You will not believe what these hostesses-flight attendants are doing,” the text read, according to the woman identified only as Sam.
Sam said her boyfriend’s job prevented him from speaking publicly on the radio, but they wanted people to know his perspective.
She didn’t name Ferguson, but described the incident with the guitar and said the “roadie” kept his cool and cooperated with the initial instruction to leave the plane and check the instrument.
“He was completely calm. He was like, ‘Yep, you know what, rules are rules, whatever.’ [He] got back off the flight, went down to see the check-in guys, [and] they sent him back with the guitar. [They] said, ‘No, it’s fine,’ ” the woman told the radio show.
That’s when the flight attendant turned defensive, reprimanded him again and “stormed off,” Sam said.
“The way she was speaking to him was really shocking,” the woman said, citing her boyfriend’s account.
She said the flight attendant later walked into the premium area where will.i.am was sitting and raised her voice while speaking to someone there.
In a tweetstorm over the weekend, will.i.am named and shamed the flight attendant he considered “racist,” claiming she called the cops on him after he missed an announcement to stow his laptop because he was wearing noisecanceling headphones.