Shilpa Shetty alleges racism in Australia
Shilpa Shetty says people’s tone must not depend on the other person’s skin colour
Actress says people’s tone must not depend on other person’s skin colour after unpleasant airport experience |
Actress-entrepreneur Shilpa Shetty Kundra, 43, yesterday alleged that she faced an unpleasant experience for being “brown” at the Sydney airport, over cabin luggage.
Upset by an official who was curt, she says people’s tone must not change depending on the other person’s skin colour.
Shilpa, who public dealt with racism in 2007 when she was a contestant on the fifth season of the British reality show Celebrity Big Brother — which she went on to win — says she faced the latest experience while boarding a plane for Melbourne from Sydney. She took to Instagram to share the ordeal with a Qantas Airways woman staff member over a hand luggage item.
Shilpa wrote: “At the checkin counter, met a grumpy Mel (that’s her name) who decided it was ‘OK’ to speak curtly to ‘us’ [brown people!] travelling together. I was flying business and had 2 bags [my allowance] and she insisted and decided my half empty duffel bag was oversized [to check-in], so she sent us to check it in at the other counter dealing with ‘oversized luggage’.
“Their [Qantas] staff must be taught to be helpful and tone can’t change with preference to colour. ‘We’ are not pushovers and they must know that being callous and rude will not be tolerated,” she added.