DALLAS (AP/WHDH) — The NAACP is warning African-Americans that if they fly on American Airlines, they may face discrimination or even safety issues.
American’s CEO said Wednesday that he was disappointed by the announcement and that American wants to discuss the matter with the civil rights group.
The NAACP said that for several months it has watched a pattern of disturbing incidents reported by African-American passengers. Among them were separate cases in which an NAACP official and another civil rights activist were kicked off flights.
In an interview with The Associated Press, new NAACP President Derrick Johnson said they are not boycotting American Airlines, but the sheer number of events made them feel like they had to issue a warning.
“We’re not telling people not to fly on American,” Johnson said. “We’re just saying to individuals that here is an advisory note. We have picked up a pattern of a certain behavior of this corporation and until further notice be on alert.”
American Airlines issued a statement saying that it serves customers of all backgrounds and itself has a diverse group of employees.
In a memo to employees, CEO Doug Parker said American endorses the NAACP’s mission statement against racial discrimination.
“We do not and will not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” wrote Parker. “We have reached out to the NAACP and are eager to meet with them to listen to their issues and concerns.”
Harvard Law student Briana Williams said she and her baby daughter had to spend the night at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport after the captain kicked them off their flight in August.
Williams said after sitting on the tarmac for five hours, the passengers were ordered to disembark. When she asked for her baby stroller, a flight attendant left to retrieve it. Ten minutes later, Williams said the flight attendant told her she could not get it. Williams said she was dismayed because she checked the stroller and was told she could retrieve it later. Williams said the police were called and then the captain came to her seat and ordered her to leave.
“He looked at me and he points at me and says, ‘Get her off of my flight. She is a threat to me and she is belligerent. She needs to go,’” said Williams, who said she was “disgusted” by what happened. She said she eventually got the stroller when she asked a gate agent in the airport, who told her no one ever asked him to get a stroller.
“He says, ‘They never even asked me to bring a stroller off the plane, that’s my job when this sort of thing happens. Let me get it right now,’” said Williams. When it was time to reboard, Williams said the pilot told the gate agent not to let her back on. Willams and her daughter spent the night in the airport and she told 7News she feels she would have been treated differently if she were another ace.
Local radio host Morgan White said in June when his connecting flight arrived late, the American Airlines crew changed his first class seat to coach. When White pointed out an empty seat in first class, he said the crew told him their decision had already been made.
“I was very upset,” said White.
The NAACP called its warning a “travel advisory,” and it’s only the second time it has issued one. The first was against Missouri, which the organization announced in August after citing reports that African-Americans were more likely than whites to be stopped by law enforcement officers there, as well as other current and past racial issues in the state.
Derek Klaus, spokesman for Visit KC, Kansas City’s convention and visitors bureau, said the region has not seen any substantial meeting or convention cancellations as a result of the advisory. But he said in an email that Kansas City has been removed from consideration for at least four future meetings.
“Where we’re noticing an impact is in the prospecting for future business, though we maintain that Kansas City is welcoming and inclusive destination,” Klaus said.
The travel advisory is part of a new, more aggressive stance for the civil rights organization, which is in the midst of reimagining itself following the rise of groups like Black Lives Matter, which have been drawing the attention of young millennials. The group ousted its previous president, Cornell William Brooks, earlier this year and hired Johnson, the vice chair of NAACP’s board of directors, as its new president on Saturday.
While the strategy itself is new, the NAACP has employed full boycotts in the past, including most recently in North Carolina where the organization is currently urging religious conferences, athletic events and musicians to avoid the state as part of a national boycott protesting the state’s conservative policies including a law limiting LGBT protections.
This followed a 15-year economic boycott of South Carolina over the flying of the Confederate battle flag on Statehouse grounds. That boycott ended with the flag’s removal in 2015 after a white nationalist killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
Johnson would not say whether his organization would issue more travel advisories in the future.
“Our goal is to advise or warn people when we identify a pattern,” Johnson said. “It is not based on an individual incident. It is truly based on what the potential is when you have a state like Missouri that created public policy that we see as adverse to African-Americans or companies that create an atmosphere that could be adverse.”
The advisory against American comes on top of several complaints of racial discrimination lodged against airlines in recent years, particularly by Muslims, some of whom have said they were booted off flights just because other passengers felt uncomfortable around them.
Last year, a college student said he was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight and subjected to additional questioning by security officers after another passenger overheard him speaking in Arabic before takeoff. Last month, an art instructor forcibly removed from another Southwest flight said she was targeted because she is Muslim; the airline said she had claimed a life-threatening allergy to two dogs that were on the plane, but it quickly apologized for the way the situation was handled.
Airline officials are uncomfortable discussing complaints of bias, even when they believe they are unfounded. American took its time before issuing a cautious, restrained response to the NAACP charge.
Bruce Rubin, a Miami public relations professional experienced in crisis reaction, praised American’s response, including the invitation to NAACP leadership to talk. He said it was wiser than being confrontational.
The goal is “to tamp down the story instead of feeding it,” Rubin said. “There aren’t very many options when the race card gets tossed at you.”
American, based in Fort Worth, Texas, is the world’s largest airline. The NAACP describes itself as the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization.
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