A week ago, the Sikh fashion designer/model/actor Waris Ahluwalia was denied permission to board a flight back home to New York, because he refused a demand from Aeromexico to remove his turban in public. Ahluwalia instagrammed a shot of himself stuck in the airport, which went viral.

Aeromexico initially put the blame on Ahluwalia himself, since he “was asked to submit to screening and inspection before boarding, in strict compliance with TSA protocol.” STRICT protocol, people! (Actually, TSA protocol dictates that people wearing head coverings in accordance with their religious beliefs be allowed to remove them in private, and then only after an alarm has been triggered.) The airline noted somberly and super-security-consciously that Ahluwalia was welcome to fly home with another airline. “We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused by this incident,” the statement concluded, which indeed makes it a statement, and not an apology.

Ahluwalia turned down the airline’s kind offer to take someone else’s airplane or strip off his religiously mandated headwear in front of everyone in the airport. Instead, he opted to tweet and Instagram and appear on CNN from Mexico. He also consulted with The Sikh Coalition, a community-based organization that works for civil rights for Sikhs and all people who experience discrimination. The organization was formed after 9/11, when hate crimes against Sikhs skyrocketed. (A 2010 survey by the coalition found that 69% of turban-wearing Sikh students in the San Francisco Bay Area had suffered bullying and harassment because of their religion, and 30% had been hit or inappropriately touched; in New York City, nine percent of all Sikhs have experienced hate crimes.) In 2012, the coalition launched an app called FlyRights, which combats discrimination in airports and shows the disconnect between TSA claims and Sikh travelers’ experiences; there are some airports in which 100 percent of Sikh fliers are singled out. The app lets users report harassment, compare records of airports, and learn their rights.

Ahluwalia, who used the hashtags #lovenotfear and #FearIsanOpportunitytoEducate on all his photos, was willing to miss! Fashion! Week! until he received an actual apology from Aeromexico, plus a promise that the airline would provide better diversity training and education to its employees.

He remained polite and funny. As he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, “The lightness and the humor is important to recognize…there’s no anger here. I’m not angry.” (Even if one is angry — and rightly — humor can be an effective mind-changing tool.) Ultimately, he did receive an apology, but he opted to stay put until the airline assured him it was working to ensure that this didn’t happen again to someone else. “The apology is a brilliant first step,” he noted, “and I want to thank Aeromexico for that, but that’s past-looking. Now what we’re talking about is the future.”

He won. First, here’s the apology; it appeared in worldwide media. In English, it says,

Sadly, it’s not great. A great apology doesn’t start by announcing that the apologizer is awesome. The first paragraph should not brag about how you proudly embrace and recognize the diversity of your passengers when you’re apologizing because you failed to embrace and recognize the diversity of your passengers. (Consider this a free tip for the future, Aeromexico.) In any case, the apology belongs in the first paragraph, not the second. The second paragraph has its own issues, blaming “one of our security guards” for the unnamed “unfortunate experience.” See, it’s not a systemic problem! It’s this one dude! He takes other people’s yogurts from the break room fridge! He sucks! Note, too, that Aeromexico fails to note what it is actually apologizing for, which is a way to deflect anyone’s possibly discomfiting thoughts about what the airline actually did. And finally, Aeromexico claims the incident “inspires us to make sure that we strengthen [our] customer service protocols,” which would be delightful if their first statement hadn’t been one that blamed Ahluwalia. Apparently that was the initial inspiration, before public shaming inspired the second inspiration to kick in.

BUT STILL! It’s an apology. And perhaps more importantly, The Sikh Coalition says they’re working with Aeromexico to get them to make systemic change.

As we’ve discussed, an essential part of a good apology is making reparations and/or taking steps to insure that the sin isn’t committed again. The Sikh Coalition feels that Aeromexico is committing to this course.

And Waris Ahluwalia made it to New York Fashion Week.

Ironically, Ahluwalia pretty much enacted the scene at the airport in Inside Man, a 2006 Spike Lee movie, with NYC cops standing in for Aeromexico security guards and executives.

Plus ça change.

Anyway, here is Waris Ahluwalia modeling. This picture is not from Fashion Week. I just felt like sharing.

Personally, I barely noticed the turban.