AUSTRALIA. (THECOUNT) — The musician known as “will.i.am,” has accused a Qantas flight attendant of racism after the airline worker insist he remove noise canceling headphones and put away his laptop during pre-flight security instruction.
William James Adams Jr, 44, is now facing a landslide of criticism on social media after calling out the flight attendant “by name,” in a tweet sent out to his nearly 13 million followers.
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Adams named the flight attendant and tagged his initial tweet with “#RacistFlightattendant.”
“I’m currently on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney. I’m sorry to say me and my group have experienced they worse service due to a overly aggressive flight attendant… I don’t want to believe she racist. But she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour,” the musician said on Twitter.
Here’s what will.i.am claims happened:
“I was intimidated by 5 police officers when I landed…for what? 🤷🏿♂️ I put away my laptop when she asked…why would she feel threatened by me to call the police? What did I do wrong? I wasn’t out of hand.. I was polite & did what she asked… now you’re asking me to take abuse?”
“I am posting so that this doesn’t happen again…it shouldn’t happen to a Aboriginal, Latino, African, LGBTQ White, Red or anyone… everyone deserves to be treated with respect…” he wrote. He shared a photo of a police officer, writing, “This is how your greeted when you land from Brisbane to Sydney flying @qantas with a #RacistFlightattendant named (name removed by THECOUNT)…She sent the police after me bacause (sic) I couldn’t hear the P.A while making beats on the plane wearing noise canceling headphones…”
“@Qantas Your #RacistFlightattendant was beyond rude & took it to the next level by calling the police on me. thank god the other passengers testified that SHE was out of Control 🙏🏿 the police finally let me go. imagine if the police were as aggressive as (flight attendant name removed) 😵,” he continued.
He added: “No one said she was a white supremest (sic)… I said she singled every person of colourbin (sic) the flight and gave them a hard time…and went to the extreme of calling the police on me when I did nothing wrong…other passengers on the flight agreed that she was out of hand…I wasn’t ignoring the safety briefing…& I was paying attention…I put on my headphones 20min into the flight…”
In a response to another Twitter user, he wrote, “I’m sorry? Is callin the police on a passenger for not hearing he P.A due to wearing noise canceling headphones appropriate? If didn’t put away my laptop ‘in a rapid 2min time’ I’d understand. I did comply quickly & politely, only to be greeted by police. I think I was targeted,” reports HEAVY.
“There was a misunderstanding on board, which seems to have been exacerbated by will.i.am wearing noise cancelling headphones and not being able to hear instructions from crew,” Qantas told Telegraph. “We completely reject that this had anything to do with race. We’ll be following up with will.i.am and wish him well for the rest of the tour.”
Some people criticized will.i.am for naming the flight attendant. “Disgusting that you’ve publicly named her. I hear a lawsuit coming 😂,” wrote one person on Twitter. will.i.am responded to that person, writing, “If I did something wrong….or if I was the slightest bit rude to a FAN or a journalist during work, I would be publicly named…this is what Twitter is for…we are supposed to call out wrong doings so we can have a safer more compassionate world.”
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