Our flight arrives at the gate over an hour late. Flight attendant asks us to let people through who have tight connections.<\/p>\r\n
As soon as the seatbelt lights go off, 3\/4 of the passengers stand up and clog the aisle.<\/p>\r\n
Two fairly small passengers try to push through, a white woman and a black woman. (All genders and races in this post are my guesses, of course.) They keep saying \u201cwe have a tight connection, can you let us squeeze through?\u201d People shift aside for them for about five rows, and then stop shifting aside for them and start ignoring them. They\u2019re stuck behind a tall white man.<\/p>\r\n
I start composing a Facebook rant in my head about how people ignore the request to let people through for tight connections. I think about what y\u2019all might say in response to that, and I think one of the questions might be \u201cWhat did you do to help, Jed?\u201d<\/p>\r\n
But I\u2019m several rows back, and in a window seat; I can\u2019t physically get to the blockage. And I lost sight of the two people trying to get through, and the two who I think they are are now waiting quietly so maybe I\u2019m wrong about those two being the ones who were trying to get through. I sometimes misunderstand situations and make things worse by trying to make them better.<\/p>\r\n
So I go back to composing the Facebook rant.<\/p>\r\n
And then someone near me mutters, \u201cyou\u2019d think the flight attendant would take some leadership and get people to move aside.\u201d And I look again and this time it\u2019s clear that the two who were trying to get through earlier are indeed the two who are stuck behind the tall guy.<\/p>\r\n
So I stand up, in my window seat, and I yell, \u201cHey! People who don\u2019t have close connections! Please move out of the way for people who do!\u201d<\/p>\r\n
And half a dozen people in the blocked area turn and look at me, mildly curious. And then they turn away and resume standing in place. I get mutters of approval from people near me, but essentially no reaction from the people who were blocking the aisle.<\/p>\r\n
Too easily defeated, I sit back down again. But a white woman near me (who also doesn\u2019t have a connecting flight) takes up the mantle. She starts calling out for people to move aside.<\/p>\r\n
Right around then, the plane doors open. Heartened by the support, I stand again and yell for people to sit down if they don\u2019t have tight connections. The woman is calmer and more perseverant than I; she continues to firmly and loudly tell people that there are a bunch of tight-connection folks in the back. The aisles clear out. The tight-connection people stream forward. The woman near me keeps people further forward informed\u2014\u201ctwo more, coming through!\u201d<\/p>\r\n
And everyone with tight connections gets off the flight, and then we go back to regular offboarding.<\/p>\r\n
I think the main thing I conclude from this is that it\u2019s possible for people to help each other be brave in social situations. If someone hadn\u2019t complained aloud, and if I hadn\u2019t been thinking in terms of letting down y\u2019all who\u2019ve been working for change in various ways, I don\u2019t know that I would have had the nerve to make a start. (Edited to add: also, if the two women trying to get through hadn\u2019t been vocal in their attempts to get through in the first place, I might have been too uncertain about the situation to try to help, and if the flight attendant hadn\u2019t made the original announcement, I might not have been willing to follow up.) My attempt wasn\u2019t good enough, but it helped someone else make a more effective attempt. And together, we helped out. I don\u2019t know if anyone made their flights because of us who wouldn\u2019t have, but it seems possible.<\/p>\r\n
So I encourage us all\u2014especially Future Me\u2014to remember that collaboration can help embolden people to work to improve things.<\/p>\r\n