A veteran Black flight attendant for United Airlines claims the Chicago-based carrier used ‘tone policing’ to retaliate against her and discriminated against her based on her age and race, resulting in her being demoted from a senior role as an international purser.
Joyce Knight filed a lawsuit against United Airlines in a Chicago district court earlier this week, alleging racial discrimination, retaliation, and age discrimination at the hands of her employer, asking the court to force United to reinstate her to her senior position as a purser.
‘Tone policing’ is sometimes caused by cultural bias towards different communication styles, often manifesting itself in a way that sees non-White communication styles as wrong or inappropriate.
Knight says in her lawsuit against United that ‘tone policing’ portrays Black women as being angry or aggressive which resulted in two ‘thinly veiled’ racist complaints being made against her.
In the first incident, Knight says she received a complaint from a colleague who was traveling as a passenger on an international flight from Paris which labeled her as having a bad tone and attitude.
Knight says she had been laughing and joking with the passenger throughout the flight.
In the second incident, United took a second-hand report from a fellow flight attendant who reported a passenger had complained about Knight’s tone as a problem.
“Instead of believing Ms. Knight, an employee of nearly 30 years, United credited the complaint of a white male employee who wanted to be catered to in First Class, and a second-hand report from an unknown fluer, that her ‘tone’ was wrong,” the complaint alleges.
“Further, Ms. Knigt is only one of many older flight attendants who are being made to feel unwelcome on the job,” the lawsuit continues.
“For example, junior flight attendants routinely give negative reports on senior flight attendants during their monthly check-ins with their supervisors in order to damage the reputation of the senior flight attendants.”
Problems started for Knight when she was injured on the job and had to take some time off before returning to work in April 2023. Just four months later, she was stripped of her title as international purser.
Knight believes United deliberately retaliated against her because she had successfully obtained workers compensation during her time off sick.
Last October, two veteran United flight attendants sued the carrier over allegations that it only wants “white, young and thin” female crew members who are “predominantly blond and blue-eyed” to work on special charter flights for the LA Dodgers baseball team.
The lawsuit came just over three years after two other United flight attendants sued the airline over allegations that it was picking “youthful, white flight attendants – most of whom are blonde” to work NFL charter flights.
At the time, the airline said flight attendants who work in its sports team charter program “are largely representative of our overall flight attendant population in regards to age and race.”
Can’t the people who book the charters decide who they want as flight attendants?
No. They need to be told what’s best for them.
Why is the term “Black” capitalized, but “white” is not? Another nod to the George Floyd era?
United is the airline that sued and won many years ago to eliminate weight requirements. It resulted in flight attendants being able to weigh as much as they want, as long as they can still get their seatbelt on.
Flight attendants working the charter flights are not young and blonde . You have to have lots of seniority to work these flights
Sounds like this flight attendant has an attitude problem.
Yes, I am an airline employee
You don’t need seniority at UA to work these flights. Yeah I work for UA too. And, whoever is this girl is BS. She probably did have an attitude. We are tired of people like her
“Attitude problem” appears to be code for “we don’t like you speaking up for yourself and your rights as an employee.” I know because I worked for United Airlines for over thirty years and frequently saw and experienced vindictive and inappropriate behavior by managers and supervisors and coworkers in a misogynistic and racist environment working as a ramp service employee. I created a great deal of value for the United Airlines brand but was not valued because I as an individual I would not be bullied into violating safety rules to get an aircraft dispatched on time. I am proud of the work that I did, but can’t say that I am proud of United Airlines.
sigh… i wish being rude was part of my culture and anyone who called me out was just a racist. work would be so much easier
Her name was on personal Do Not Fly lists for a lot of people.