MC and member of the now defunct group, ‘Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am is putting one of Qantas flight attendants on blast over an alleged racist behaviour towards him, while on board a flight from Brisbane to Sydney, Australia.
Will.i.am took to his twitter handle to narrate to his over 12million followers of how he was racially treated by the Qantas flight attendant just because he had to put away his laptop which he was working with on board before being asked to take it away. But to his surprise and that of the other passengers, Policemen were later called on him for his actions.
He said:
“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,” he posted. “I don’t want to believe she racist. But she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour.
He follows up on the situation tweeting a photo of a police officer and adds more context, claiming this was all a result of him not hearing the order to put away his laptop.
“This is how your greeted when you land from Brisbane to Sydney flying @qantas with a #RacistFlightattendant named Lorraine Marshall,” he posted, putting the employee who treated him unfairly on blast. “She sent the police after me because I couldn’t hear the P.A while making beats on the plane wearing noise canceling headphones.”
He continued, “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 Lorraine Marshall.”
Since his tweets, fans have been reacting while most of them confirmed the incident as they were on the same flight, some have attacked Will.i.am for his tweets, to which he has also responded, calling Twitter an equal ground both for the poor and rich where they can express themselves. He also asked those going against his tweet to also do a reverse of the case, with him being the aggressor, as the attendant would have gone on twitter to report him.
A Qantas representative has released a statement to the Independent, saying the company will follow up with Will.i.am, but does not believe incident was race-related.
“There was a misunderstanding on board, which seems to have been exacerbated by Will.i.am wearing noise-canceling headphones and not being able to hear instructions from crew. We completely reject the suggestion 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.”