The NAACP is threatening to issue another travel advisory warning Black Americans not to travel with American Airlines unless the carrier delivers a ‘swift and decisive response’ to a recent spate of alleged discriminatory behavior by its employees.
The warning was prompted by a recent lawsuit filed by a group of Black men who accused a flight attendant of ordering all the Black male passengers off a flight from Phoenix to New York JFK because of a complaint of body odor.
Three of the eight men removed from the flight have accused American Airlines of “blatant and egregious race discrimination” following the January 5 incident, arguing that none of the men who were booted from Flight 832 had offensive body odor.
American Airlines initially tried to get the men rebooked onto another flight but after realizing that all the other flights to JFK were fully booked, the men were permitted back onto the original flight that had, by then, been delayed by more than an hour.
As they reboarded, the men say they had to endure the stares of the mostly white passengers who “viewed them as the cause of the substantial delay”.
While this is the most high-profile case of alleged racial discrimination perpetrated by employees at American Airlines in recent months, the NAACP says this isn’t an isolated incident and that a “troubling pattern of a failure to address harmful behaviors” is starting to emerge at the Fort Worth-based carrier.
“Recent discriminatory actions from company employees prove that there is a dire need for continued accountability and resolution to this clear pattern,” commented NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson on Tuesday.
“Without a swift and decisive response, the NAACP will be forced to reinstate an advisory against the airline.”
The NAACP issued its travel advisory in the Fall of 2017, warning Black Americans that they faced “disrespectful, discriminatory or unsafe conditions” if they traveled with American Airlines.
The civil rights group lifted the advisory in July 2018, saying AA had made “substantial” progress in addressing the concerns it had raised. American Airlines has introduced a number of improvements, including implicit bias training for staffers and the creation of an advisory panel.
The NAACP now wants AA to reconvene its advisory panel in order to “devise a path forward that ensures equitable experiences for all American Airlines customers.”
The group is the oldest civil rights organisation in the United States, having been founded in Springfield, Illinois in 1909 and has over 500,000 members in the United States.
Apparently AA is indiscriminate with their discrimination: https://www.dansdeals.com/more/news/airline-news/outrageous-american-airlines-ejects-17-year-old-orthodox-jew-flight-due-actions-unrelated-orthodox-jewish-passenger/
I guess their approach whenever anyone does anything wrong is “let’s find out what minority this person is a part of and eject every member of that minority from the plane.”
This was a bad scene for sure but the NAACP is making an equally ridiculous charade against the company for no reason at all. Why run a “danger flag” up the pole when there is no dangers. This is just a mere smear campaign that the group needs to grow up and refrain from using. Moves like this is what calls the integrity and legitimacy of the organization into question over rash decisions to act that only rebrand hate in a different cloak.
Reactionaries are only supposed to be just in MAGA and trump-world. American said it was going to settle with the gentlemen it admitted it harmed and I am sure the attendant who committed this disgusting offense has certainly been terminated by now. Grow up NAACP this is not 1950s Georgia, it’s 2024 America and yes dumb people make dumb mistakes that doesn’t make their employers Racist.
Are we sure they didn’t have offensive body odor? Maybe they came in as a group and all were slobs?
If there were only say, 6 male blacks on board, all traveling together and were returning from a hunting trip and hadn’t showered for a week, that would not have been a case of race discrimination, would it?
This is not an isolated with American Airlines. NACCP should not threaten to reinstate a travel band against this airline, just do it. Business of this nature should learn they will not be allowed to take black peoples money and discriminate against them. This day in time you have to teach people how to treat you. If you are going to discriminate against me then I am not patronizing your business.
What do you mean it’s not 1950. Why did they take all the black patrons off the plane because of a complaint about body odor? They didn’t remove anyone else! In the end they returned the patrons back to the same plane. Why did they return them to the same plane. After being around them alone they realized the smell didn’t come from them! Why didn’t they try to find out where the smell came from?