NAACP May Reinstate Travel Warning Against American Airlines

by Gary Leff on June 5, 2024

Seven years ago the NAACP issued a ‘travel advisory’ against American Airlines, lifted in July 2018. The civil rights organization says a “troubling pattern of a failure to address harmful behaviors” at the airline has it considering reinstating the warning.

The NAACP is proud to champion efforts to hold corporations accountable. The removal of our travel advisory in 2018 came as a result of a commitment to deliver on key stipulations that would prevent future discriminatory acts, one of which was a diversity, equity, and inclusion advisory council. Amidst the resurgence of attacks on DEI, American Airlines disbanded the panel in 2023.

Recent discriminatory actions from company employees prove that there is a dire need for continued accountability and resolution to this clear pattern. We encourage American Airlines to come revive the advisory panel and reconvene with the NAACP to devise a path forward that ensures equitable experiences for all American Airlines customers. Without a swift and decisive response, the NAACP will be forced to reinstate an advisory against the airline.

In response, American Airlines offers,

At American, every customer should feel valued and represented and have a positive experience while traveling with us. We have worked with the NAACP to institute education and training programs to address issues of bias on our aircraft and within our hiring practices to eliminate bias and create a workforce and customer experience that represents the customers we serve.

There are several things that are true,

• There are over 130,000 employees of American Airlines. With any company that size there will be a few who create bad experiences, and there will be misunderstandings, as well. That’s true of other airlines and in other industries, too.
• There isn’t always consistency across behavior and service standards at the airline. In that context, some prejudices and miscommunications may come out more.
• The NAACP has never alleged anything specific systematically wrong at American Airlines which would suggest that racial discrimination is more prevalent or likely there than elsewhere.

The original NAACP travel warning was issued after Tamika Mallory, the Women’s March co-founder, was kicked off of an American flight enroute to Al Sharpton’s daughter’s wedding. She had been “screaming f-bombs…in front of kids” on the flight after her seat was changed.

Mallory left the Womens March organization over her antisemitism, pushing Jewish women out of the organization and support for Louis Farrakhan. She subsequently opposed the existence of the State of Israel, calling its founding a human rights crime.

They didn’t name Mallory in their warning because though she was influential (enough to prompt the advisory!) she also didn’t make a great front person for the campaign. But it wasn’t only Mallory they used in making their case.

• One of the other examples given by the NAACP in support of its travel warning was an African American woman moved to coach on a paid first class ticket while her white companion flew up front. Except that wasn’t true. Both passengers bought coach tickets and received free operational upgrades. The flight on which they were upgraded was cancelled, and they were both rebooked to travel the next day – onto a flight with only one first class seat available.
• Another example cited was a passenger refusing to disembark a delayed flight without access to checked luggage, as though the airline’s refusal to retrieve it was because of the passenger’s race. (I doubt they would have retrieved it for me, even when I was a ConciergeKey.)

As now, when this travel advisory was first issued American did not get defensive. They leaned into learning and being better. They did diversity trainings and their CEO made race a personal cause. None of that actually changed the passenger experience, of course.

American Airlines has diverse employees who bring those experiences with them to work. And those run headlong into modern air travel which is very small-d democratic, bringing even more passengers on planes from a variety of walks of life. These can collide. And, especially since 9/11, flying while Muslim (or writing math problems that could look like Arabic) has been challenging (as much the result of government policy as anything else).

So it’s not that there are no racists among an airline’s staff or passengers! Recently American was sued after removing 8 black men – who say they did not know each other – over a body odor complaint, and in the fall the airline falsely accused a black man of trafficking his own children. It’s the lawsuit that’s cited as the proximate cause of the NAACP’s statement.

I do think there are blind spots. American hasn’t been a place that’s consistently seemed to promote minorities into senior airline roles. One year they put out a newsletter for African American History Month with a graphic of airline employees that did not include a single one who was black!

However – fully recognizing that I might not experience it directly myself if it were a significant issue – I don’t think of American Airlines has fundamentally have race problems to a greater extent on average than other airlines and other companies though there will always be issues with individual employees.

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