Being an ancient goddess Eirene is a little weary of technology, and a nervous flyer. She was moreover surprised by her own reaction the first time she flew with a female pilot in a Jumbo Jet, and realised then how much the stereotypes fed to us by the prevailing culture can affect even those dedicated to eradicate discrimination. She probably would have kept this episode as a shameful secret had it not been for the following paragraph:
“We put down briefly in Khartoum, where we changed to an Ethiopian Airways flight to Addis. Here I experienced a rather strange sensation. As I was boarding the plane I saw that the pilot was black. I had never seen a black pilot before, and the instant I did I had to quell my panic. How could a black man fly a plane? But a moment later I caught myself: I had fallen into the…. mind-set, thinking Africans were inferior and that flying was a white man’s job. I sat back in my seat, and chided myself for such thoughts……”
Can you guess who the author is?
Can you guess who the author is?
Nelson Mandela in his autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom"
No comments:
Post a Comment