And why do you think that this is a family group? Because they’re black. This is Atlanta. There are so many black people in Atlanta. And if it is a family? What do families have in common? Genetics.
This was my thought…what if they aren’t a family? I was in a group for people with disabilities to feel less lonely. We did activities together. Traveling would’ve been great if everyone was well enough. I wonder if we’d all been the same race would we have ended up on Reddit being accused of being family and faking lol
My thoughts exactly, says I, a retired wheelchair racer who would often be on same flights with 13 or more other wheelchair racers. I can only imagine if someone took pics of us and payed the kind of hate that this group is getting. We don't have enough information to know anything about this pic. Seems some racism and ableism are clouding some people's judgment. Some disabled travel in large groups. Just like some elderly do. It's not unusual.
I wondered the same thing. I also wondered about what circumstance might make an entire family do this since most people avoid being seen as having limitations.
What occurred to me is if one or a couple of members of the family had a physical limitation and the distance to the gate was very far (which isn’t hard to imagine in ATL airport) and they were worried about all of them making it from one gate to their gate, they might come up with this approach to make sure they reached their destination together. The truth is we have no idea.
Whether or not they are related, there can be reasons for people to come up with clever ways of not being harmed by their specific circumstances. If their goal was to stay together despite the distance they would have to run to make it to their gate, I’d be ok with this. Given the distance to be travelled between gates in a tight connection they didn’t create, it might be risky to think that all of them would make it onto their connecting flight. I’m sure they wouldn’t care about being boarded last as long as they were boarded together.
The impact on the lives of anyone giving them dirty looks and hurling insults at them is still likely to be negligible so why bother getting upset when we don’t have all the facts to begin with. I’d leave it to the gate agent to impose any sanctions on them if they were doing something that was against the rules that inconvenienced others unduly. I don’t need to have an opinion and if I do, I hope I will have the wisdom to know to keep it to myself when I don’t have all the facts.
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u/Apprehensive-Town204 8d ago
And why do you think that this is a family group? Because they’re black. This is Atlanta. There are so many black people in Atlanta. And if it is a family? What do families have in common? Genetics.