This just came across my desk. This is bad at any time, but with Jeff Sessons as Attorney General, it is worse; People are sort of on their own at the national level. This is about white supremacy, and American Airline’s policy, or lack of policy, or culture, or lack of training, supporting it.
NAACP ISSUES NATIONAL TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR AMERICAN AIRLINES
(October 24, 2017) – The NAACP, the nation’s original and largest social justice advocacy organization, has released the following statement today announcing a travel advisory warning African Americans about their safety and well being when patronizing American Airlines or traveling on American Airlines flights:
“The NAACP for several months now has been monitoring a pattern of disturbing incidents reported by African-American passengers, specific to American Airlines. In light of these confrontations, we have today taken the action of issuing national advisory alerting travelers—especially African Americans—to exercise caution, in that booking and boarding flights on American Airlines could subject them disrespectful, discriminatory or unsafe conditions. This travel advisory is in effect beginning today, October 24, 2017, until further notice.
The series of recent incidents involve troublesome conduct by American Airlines and they suggest a corporate culture of racial insensitivity and possible racial bias on the part of American Airlines. Among these incidents:
An African-American man was required to relinquish his purchased seats aboard a flight from Washington, D.C. to Raleigh-Durham, merely because he responded to disrespectful and discriminatory comments directed toward him by two unruly white passengers; Despite having previously booked first-class tickets for herself and a traveling companion, an African-American woman’s seating assignment was switched to the coach section at the ticket counter, while her white companion remained assigned to a first-class seat; On a flight bound for New York from Miami, the pilot directed that an African-American woman be removed from the flight when she complained to the gate agent about having her seating assignment changed without her consent; and An African-American woman and her infant child were removed from a flight from Atlanta to New York City when the woman (incidentally a Harvard Law School student) asked that her stroller be retrieved from checked baggage before she would disembark. The NAACP deplores such alarming behavior on the part of airline personnel, and we are aware of these incidents only because the passengers involved knew their rights, knew to speak up and exercised the courage to do so promptly. Historically, the NAACP has issued travel advisories when conditions on the ground pose a substantial risk of harm to black Americans, and we are concerned today that the examples cited herein may represent only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ when it comes to American Airlines’ documented mistreatment of African-American customers.”
“All travelers must be guaranteed the right to travel without fear of threat, violence or harm,” stated Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “The growing list of incidents suggesting racial bias reflects an unacceptable corporate culture and involves behavior that cannot be dismissed as normal or random. We expect an audience with the leadership of American Airlines to air these grievances and to spur corrective action. Until these and other concerns are addressed, this national travel advisory will stand,”
I will just add that while American Airlines may be exceptionally bad, there are many similar cases distributed across other airlines as well, such as US Air and Spirit, according to recent news reports.
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A note to people who feel justified in mistreating other people, and especially when you do so because of the color of their skin: IMO, your fear of other-color is just that, a fear, a weakness. More likely than not, you are the problem, you are the weak link , your fear is the real cause of the racial problems in society. Your inability to extend basic human courtesy to your fellow human beings who happen to be of a different color than you is a sign of some kind of pathological weakness, some sort of intellectual deficit, some sort of anti-social hormonal imbalance. Learning how to get past your cowardly distrust and extend a courtesy when appropriate, instead of sneering or scowling or worse, would be a big step forward in your lives. Sadly, treating all people with decency, fairness and respect seems to be falling out of favor in our stupid world.
I guess there have been no incidents of whites being treated badly by airlines.
Huh? “Bark, bark, bark” you say?
Have a biscuit, Mike. You’ll feel better.
What do the statistics show?
Oh. Dear. Poor MikeN…. or should we call you ?????N?
Whatever. Poor ?????N has white victim disease. Symptoms include inability to have empathy for other human beings with skin tone different from his own and amnesia about atrocities committed by people of his own skin color.
Russia does not want Americans to unify as a multicultural, multi-ethnic nation because to do so gives the US incredible diplomatic, political, and psychological strength in the world, strength that Russia can only dream of. Funny how MikeN or should we say ?????N also doesn’t seem to want any sort of unity among Americans of different colors. Nor does Trump. So they deride attempts to fight racist behavior, they deride attempts to draw attention to uncivil and unfair behavior. Just as if they were Russian trolls.
Actually, the Russian trolls were eager in the last election to push Black Lives Matter and to support Standing Rock.
After some reflection….
It strikes me that IF this company dosnt like people with a certain skin tone and wishes them to feel oppressed, its extraordinaliy bad and inefficent at that goal.
With the resources available to this company, they should easily be able to make people feel waay more oppressed.
If its the case that there is a policy of oppression, i wouldnt hire them to carry a pet from one city to another, so useless do they seem at carrying out such a policy.
So maybe something else is going on eh? Cuz aviation aint usually the field of useless idiots.
LiD-I suppose that what you are saying is that the national racist Murkan culture is simply permeating Murkan Airlines? If so, I would tend to agree. Is Murkan Airlines deficient in striving to create a passenger-employee interaction culture of inclusion? Maybe. Is Murkan deficient in training personnel in how to deal with common passenger stress reactions? Possibly. Is the current Murkan political structure setting up a divisive, them and us mentality that thrives on white victim disease? You betcha!
I reckon you could be pretty close to reality there with them ideas. Nice one.
Id like to see some stats with error bars and whatnot to validate or invalidate stuff.
It could well be a corporate culture of under training staff,
rather than a corporate culture of racism. Dunno, if theres no stats presented . Got any Greg? If ya dont, would it be
reasonable not to draw conclusions without data? I think so….
I just see many agendas ascribed to individuals, corporations, and governments that, if true, then the ascribed person, corporation, or government is absolutely
pathetic at carrying out whatever the agenda is.
If one was to subcontract whatever the agenda might be,
one would never give the subcontract to such entities.
How bloody useless is this airline at oppression.
Like they aint even trying.
Providing millions of people ya dont like the miracle of modern jet travel, dirt cheap, and really, really safe, is not
an efficient thing to do as far as the dont like dept. is concerned.
Head of dont like dept. ” By god, we have had millions and millions of opportunities to carry out our agenda last
financial year and this is the best we can do??? “
NAACP found instances of once per month where American Airlines has mistreated black folks.
The horror!
MikeN appears to act as if he is doing the bidding of his Russian/Racist/AltRight masters. The NAACP cited examples of behavior that are troubling. MikeN, however, belittles the whole concept of having awareness of racial prejudice by his comment, as if genocidal treatment of native peoples or racial enslavement never happened, as if daily life for people of color in a prejudiced land is not more difficult than poor unempathetic MikyN could ever handle if he were in their position. MikeN belittles, through his sarcasm, the concept that there might be such a thing as a standard of civility or decency for our modern age. Instead, he reverts to the school yard bullying behavior of a sociopathic, sadistic lout.
The emotional repetoire of a lout does not encompass empathy, sympathy, care, concern, or other emotions that are critical to healthy human interaction. The lout belittles such emotions, possibly because their primitive, deficient, damaged mind is incapable of feeling them, and possibly because they are terrified of those emotions.
So why don’t we have a discussion about empathy, sympathy, and compassion MikeN. How do you feel about those emotions?
I didn’t ‘belittle the concept of having awareness of racial prejudice’. NAACP did when they produced 4 cases over ‘several months’.
“An African-American woman and her infant child were removed from a flight from Atlanta to New York City when the woman (incidentally a Harvard Law School student) asked that her stroller be retrieved from checked baggage before she would disembark.”
Here’s a clue for Mikhale. The standard universal response of civilized human beings when presented with an opportunity to help a mother with an infant is to help the mother and infant. An airline that fails or appears to fail to make a reasonable effort to accomodate a mother and infant has a serious customer service problem and can be guaranteed to generate seriously bad optics for themselves. . Was the woman in question cranky, rude, or obnoxious? It doesn’t matter. Short of her being a certifiable a threat to the airplane, there was no discernable reason for removing her. Moreover, anyone who strands a woman in an airport with an infant in tow is a low life shit. Similarly, anyone who belittles the NAACP for pointing this out is, IMO, a low life shit. Mikhale.