Man Apologizes After Photo Of This’ Woman Goes Viral

[Music] [Applause] the man in our story is emmett just like every other passenger he was patiently waiting in line as we all know it takes quite some time due to the security protocols but all of a sudden a woman approached him according to her emmett should allow her to skip his place in line why the lady said she had priority seating that's reasonable however she missed one essential detail emmett was also in priority seating but then it clicked this woman assumed emmett's seating area based on his skin color as an african american this was ridiculous but he responded in the best way possible emmett remained calm throughout the whole situation as soon as it was over others began cheering for him this was proof that he was doing the right thing thus he felt it was okay to write about it online the music executive knew that his friends would get a good laugh at what happened however he didn't expect his story to resonate so well with so many people he was still on the plane when his facebook post went viral and when he got out of the airport more people were applauding him there's nothing wrong with admitting the truth about airports if you want to stay calm this isn't where you should be airports will test your patience some lose their luggage and have their trips ruined from the get-go and let's not even talk about the tiresome security procedures moreover the meals haven't improved airline companies have reduced the perks a typical passenger has but if you pay a little more you can have a better experience that's the case with emmett who opted for priority seating the data backs up what many passengers have felt recently if you're paying for economy class you will have a bad time trying to get comfy on the other hand those in the first class have a lot to enjoy aside from the additional space you also get priority seating this is terrific for those who don't want to wait too long emmett was one of those people and he was willing to pay for it a first-class ticket will likely improve his flight experience emmett didn't expect anything odd to happen but while he was waiting to pass through security a lady came over she wanted to go past him in the line while emmett got confused he had priority seating so why is she in such a hurry and why did she pick him to get ahead of it didn't take long before emmett realized what was happening the woman judged him by his looks she was white while he was african-american she must have been one of those people who still felt superior just because of their color the woman may have also judged him for other reasons emmett was a black man but he was also quite big thus it made perfect sense why he would prefer the more sizable seating for first class passengers but the woman probably thought his size was indicative of his financial conditions in truth he was a successful music executive he's earned quite enough money for many projects to afford a first class ticket if the woman thought his choice of clothing was bad that was her problem it wasn't indicative of his socio-economic position emmett didn't need this trouble after all he was preparing for his highly anticipated birthday vacation he was going to the dominican republic first he had to reach the ronald reagan washington national airport after that he was on his way to paradise it was a conscious decision for him to leave early he still had a full day before his birthday after all the planning he found the perfect flight this was his opportunity to relax after all his hard work he wasn't going to let a disrespectful woman ruin his day he'll never forget what she said excuse me i believe you may be in the wrong place you need to let us through this alone was insensitive but then she said this line is for priority booking at this point emmett understood the situation he looked at her and asked priority meaning first class correct he was being polite but the lady was in a rush and said yes now excuse me they will call y'all after we board she didn't even wait for him to say that he was in first class as well she just assumed his seating based on his looks emmett didn't have to go anywhere he was right where he should be and so he replied you can relax ma'am he wanted nothing but for both of them to calm down things could be handled properly thus the music executive told her that he wasn't in the wrong area he was there earlier so he had all the right in the world to stay ahead of her in case she was skeptical he also revealed his first class ticket yet things were still not over the woman wasn't giving up she was appalled at how she was blocked from doing what she wanted emmett remembered her saying he must be military or something she then told her friends but we paid for our seats so he should still have to wait it was ridiculous she couldn't believe that a black man with a large build could afford a first class ticket what world was she living in it was as if she lived in a bubble where people of color were unlikely to build wealth remember emmett posted about the whole thing on facebook and that paid off someone who was in the military clarified the whole first class issue he said i'm prior military and i'm offended the truth was that people in the military don't get free first-class plane tickets thus it didn't make sense for the woman to think emmett was in the military military personnel don't have that kind of perk anyway the commenter continued heck they gave us economy seats these races are bold so when emmett heard her lousy assumption he responded nope too big to be in anybody's military but he wasn't done he wanted her to realize that he knew what she was thinking he said that he was a black man with money emmett wasn't entirely sure that she was judging him based on his color but what else could it have been about if he was a white male this likely wouldn't have happened he didn't want her to feel ashamed in public but what else was there to do at first emmett was glad that people caught their attention after his response people started clapping for him for them he was standing up for what was right he wasn't going to let someone trample over his rights but why did they react that way as we've said before airports aren't ideal for relaxation you'll come across many people who are either impatient or intolerant or both emmett was admirable because he didn't fight back with the racist notion as well instead he was calm and proved to her that he was in the right area one should never underestimate the power of social media it didn't take long for emmett's posts to reach people across the globe it only took 48 hours for the post to have more than 250 000 shares as time passed the facebook post swelled to more than 300 000 shares moreover it had more than eight hundred thousand reactions he was getting praise from people he didn't even know one commenter said the power of an educated man with patience as expected the online world couldn't stop sharing its opinions an individual commented never judge a book by its cover and they were right people shouldn't judge people based on their color or clothing of course there were also comments directed to the woman she got many people irritated one person said she is so ignorant it makes no sense that people like her still exist still the commenter was proud of emmett saying enjoy yourself you handled it well yet emmett wasn't feeling entirely happy if he posted the simple meme and it went viral he would have been elated but his viral post was about a variety of things tolerance racism and patience with the online reception he got he began wondering did he do the right thing emmett still acknowledged that the woman wasn't kind to him but he also realized that something was wrong he said in another post this racist stuff is definitely an issue but this is not the solution to that issue as he had his vacation in the dominican republic he wrote a facebook update here he was saying sorry to the lady he wrote it brings me no joy waking up in paradise he was supposed to celebrate his 37th birthday but his post made another person feel ashamed in front of the entire world furthermore he verified that the story was true he claimed the story was definitely real just like this issue is definitely real however he now knew that his actions weren't ideal he continued but i now know that i should have handled it another way or left it how it was and not shared it publicly emmett couldn't predict the effects of his facebook post he wanted others to know that people can gently handle racism but the viral post itself was leading to bad consequences plus he didn't need to post about it online anyway he saw that some comments on his post were racist thus it led to other people feeling attacked based on their skin color others reported these racist remarks but it proved how toxic the situation had been emmett had to step up and change his approach thus emmett told everyone about his realizations he stated when dealing with people i always try to stay on the side of right then he continued so to make sure i never do anything wrong i try to always put myself in that person's shoes and ask how would i feel if that person did this to me in other words he was trying to empathize with others and if i was her this morning i would be a total wreck today and that doesn't help this situation or her he was right emmett went on it only makes them more angry and brings more drama emmett knew that some people wouldn't pay attention to his post so he wrote the following words in capital letters so i would like to apologize again to the woman i had this encounter with yesterday no matter how wrong your actions you don't deserve this he was sincerely looking for forgiveness he even tagged other people so that they could share it as well emmett ended the post with the following i believe if you can't help nobody at the very least you should never do anything to hurt them emmett thought that the facebook post wasn't enough so he took a short video of him after his flight he once again expressed his regret and realizations moreover he clarified that he didn't know that his post would get that viral he said that he often just had around five people seeing his posts the music executive didn't need this attention in contrast he didn't want anyone to bug him that was the point of his vacation anyway once again he said i want to take the time to publicly apologize to the lady in the picture most people didn't think emmett did anything wrong they supported his response to the woman but he knew that he wasn't doing his best he did show that racism is still around at this age but his viral pose doesn't significantly solve racism around the world the biggest outcome was that he caused the utter humiliation of one woman likewise the comments section began filling up with more racist comments and irritated people this wasn't building bridges between people emmett did what he could to address the viral issue but it seems that the woman has suffered the online hate as of now he hasn't said any updates about this thus the woman either hasn't seen his apology post or she doesn't want to talk to him this was a bad ending for everyone in the end this small incident highlights big issues first it reveals the need for communication we must respectfully approach each other second it expose the dangers of social media the platform can help educate people around racism but it can also lead to angry mobs if emmett experiences the same issue at the airport he won't publicly share it online anymore