Twerking Flight Attendant Says Alaska Airlines’ Decision to Terminate Her Was Discrimitory Because Her Dance Was ‘Geared Towards the Urban Community’

A twerking flight attendant claims she has suffered discrimination at the hands of Alaska Airlines after the Seattle-based carrier fired her when a 15-second video of her dancing at the back of a Boeing 737 went viral.

Speaking out in detail for the first time about how she lost her dream job as a flight attendant, Nelle Diala alleges that Alaska Airlines only decided to terminate her because her dance routine was “geared towards the urban community.”

In contrast, Nelle claims that two other Alaska Airlines flight attendants who posted videos of themselves twerking in uniform onboard an airplane were not fired because one of them is of ‘Eurocentric’ descent and the other is part of the LGBTQ+ community.

“The company did discriminate against me because my video was geared towards the urban community,” Nelle wrote in a lengthy post about how she lost her job. “So, of course, the company would like to embrace ‘all cultures’ but leave the minority girl from the ghetto OUT,” Nelle continued.

After the video went viral in December 2024, Nelle claims that no one from Alaska Airlines ever asked her to remove the clip from the internet, but she voluntarily took it down after realizing it was garnering so much attention.

Nelle was, however, pulled into a meeting with her managers to discuss the video before being made to wait an agonizing two weeks before the airline made a decision about her fate.

That decision came on the very last day of her probation when crew scheduling pulled her from a trip and sent her to a management meeting. Later the same day, Nelle was unemployed.

In response to being terminated, Nelle decided that the world should see her twerking dance, but when she reposted the video, she added the hashtag #discriminationisreal.

Nelle has previously explained how she came to record the “harmless” video in the first place, saying that it was shot at 6 am one morning when she was waiting for the pilots to arrive at the aircraft.

As a result, Nelle and the other crew were stuck on the plane and idling away their time for two hours without any passengers onboard the plane, as they waited for the pilots to show up.

“The video went viral overnight, but instead of love and support, it brought unexpected scrutiny. Although it was a poor decision on my behalf, I didn’t think it would cost me my dream job,” Nelle explained earlier this year.

Unfortunately, the incident has put Nelle off ever wanting to become a flight attendant again, and she says she turned down the opportunity to work as crew for two major airlines after she came to that realization.

Nelle says she is now considering taking legal action against Alaska Airlines. In response to a request for comment, Alaska Airlines says that it does not comment on personnel matters.

Last week, it emerged that Alaska Airlines was using popular social media platforms like TikTok to identify flight attendants breaking the company’s strict uniform and grooming rules to start disciplinary action against them.

According to a memo sent to flight attendants by the official crew union, the airline had even discovered some flight attendants wearing yoga pants in lieu of their official uniform.

Flight attendants have been warned that uniform spot checks are to be increased and anyone flouting the rules could face being slapped with disciplinary action, including the possibility of termination.