Participant Observer Paper Assignment

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Participant Observer Paper Assignment
Recently, as I was flying from Birmingham to Dallas, two Muslim men were suspected of being terrorists and they were eventually ejected from the plane and taken for questioning. When I was the airport in Birmingham, two men clad in Muslim regalia waved at each other. The two looked from middle eastern origin and they had small backpacks. One of the men was right in front of me in the queue as we boarded the plane. He had been on the phone for a while in the queue and was only hanging up during security checkups and call again as soon as he was able to. He was talking in a middle eastern language but occasionally inserting English words in the conversation. From the tone and the occasional English words, you could tell he was talking to a family member. It was during one of these calls that he noticed another man in the other line and waved at him. After we had boarded the plane, the man sat in the middle row near the aisle and he seemed engrossed on his phone. At this time, he had stopped talking on the phone. The other man sat near the entrance. The man seated at the entrance went to use the bathroom as the plane was taxing. Shortly, the other man went to use the bathroom too and he came back to his seat but picked his backpack from the overhead storage compartment seemingly to fish out headphones. The flight attendants had finished briefing on the emergency procedures and sat down. Suddenly, one of the flight attendants, a white lady in her early 30th walked over the communication booth and talked over the phone to the pilot whilst suspiciously looking at the men. Suddenly, the pilot announced that the flight was returning to the boarding area for an emergency and advised everyone to remain in their seats. There were some murmurs in the plane as the plane taxied back to the boarding area. We were advised to remain seated when the door opened and two uniformed cops came in and straight to the two Muslim men. They told them to accompany them and all their belongings. They tried to resist citing they knew their rights but they were bundled out of the plane. Shortly, we were informed that the flight had been cancelled since Delta airlines could not guarantee the security of the flight. The two Muslim men were taken for questioning and later I learnt from the news that they sued Delta airlines for racial profiling.
Racial profiling is common in the United States especially since 9/11 and all Muslims are seen as imminent threat. Though obviously not all Muslims are terrorists, each one of them is treated like a terrorist and a small unusual event/activity may trigger suspicion against them. Waving at each other in an airport and using the bathroom in quick succession while the plane was taxing is unlikely to be interpreted as a threat for whites or other ethnicities. Only middle eastern Muslims are treated with that suspicion yet the events are mere coincidental that deliberate. In themselves, the...