Three black men have filed a discrimination lawsuit against American Airlines, citing a complaint of body odour lodged by the airline against them.
The men were not seated together and did not know each other at the time of the complaint; nonetheless, every black man was removed from the January 5 flight from Phoenix, Arizona, to New York.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday 29th June, the men said “American Airlines singled us out for being Black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us”.
Meanwhile, American Airlines responded by indicating an investigation is going into these allegations as they don’t correspond to their values. According to the lawsuit filed by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, the men were already seated in preparation for departure to Phoenix when a flight attendant advanced toward each of them and instructed them to leave the plane.
The three Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Xavier Veal claims that, as they left, it dawn on them that “every Black man on the flight was being removed”. Five other men along Alvin, Emmanuel and Xavier while at the flight gate were informed by a flight agent that they had been removed “removed because a white male flight attendant had complained about an unidentified passenger’s body odour”. “There is no explanation other than the color of our skin,” the men said in a statement on Wednesday, adding: “Clearly this was racial discrimination.”
In a statement released by American Airlines, it says, “We take all claims of discrimination very seriously and want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to fly with us.” “Our teams are currently investigating the matter, as the claims do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people.” The pilot, according to the lawsuit, made an announcement to the passengers stating there was a delay as a result of an issue with “body odour”.
The plaintiffs reject and deny the allegations of body odour, they claim they’re false. “Throughout the flight – from the moment of their reboarding, in each interaction with the white male flight attendant, and continuing until landing – Plaintiffs experienced profound feelings of embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety, anger, and distress,” the lawsuit states. “The act of returning to their seats after the unwarranted delay, navigating past the predominantly white passengers, several of whom eyed them with anger and undue suspicion, compounded their humiliation.”
The men endured “trauma,” according to the lawsuit, and therefore demand that American Airlines to forces pay unspecified damages. One of the plaintiff’s, Mr. Joseph, told the BBC that the alienating” encounter cast his thoughts back to the era of Civil Rights hero Rosa Parks being mandatory asked to move to the back of an Alabama bus in 1955 due to state-sanctioned racial discrimination.
Mr. Joseph said, “It’s a strange, crazy story that in 2024 we are still going through stuff like this”. His expectation of the outcome of the lawsuit is very vital to ensuring American Airlines does not end up “with a slap on the wrist”.
A travel advisory issued in 2017 by the NCAACP, a civil rights group, issued a travel advisory informing black Americans to avoid American Airlines due to discrimination. The advisory was lifted the following year prior to the carrier announcing it has made changes to operations.
