Tone can't change with preference to colour: Shilpa on facing racism at Sydney airport

Melbourne: Shilpa Shetty called out an Australian airline staff Sunday for alleged racist behaviour, saying colour of a customer cannot decide treatment meted out to them. The actor, who was travelling from Sydney to Melbourne, shared the incident on Instagram in a lengthy post.

“… At the check-in counter met a grumpy #Mel (that’s her name) who decided it was ‘OK’ to speak curtly to ‘US’ (brown people!) travelling together, I was flying business and had two bags (my allowance) and she insisted and decided my half empty Duffel bag was oversized (to check in!),” Shilpa wrote.

The actor said she contacted the counter dealing with “oversized luggage”, where the staff told her to check in the bag manually.

“As the manual check-in wasn’t going through for five minutes (we tried) I went upto #Mel and requested her to put the bag through as her colleague said it wasn’t an oversized bag. She refused again. Just being adamant especially when I told her this is causing a lot of inconvenience,” she added.

Shilpa said as they did not have time to waste, they took the luggage to the oversized baggage counter and requested the staff to put the bag through. Other staff reiterated the bag was not “oversized” and could have easily been checked in.

“The point is… This piece is only for #quantas airlines to know and take cognisance… That their staff must be taught to be helpful and TONE can’t change with preference to #COLOUR. ‘WE’ are NOT #pushovers and they MUST know that being #callous and #Rude will NOT BE TOLERATED,” she concluded.

The actor also shared her picture with the bag asking if it appeared “oversized”. Shilpa also faced racism in the year 2007 when she participated in the British reality show “Celebrity Big Brother”. She was declared the winner.