Black males sue American Airlines for ‘racial discrimination’ | EUROtoday

Three black males have filed a lawsuit towards American Airlines, alleging that the provider briefly eliminated them from a flight after a grievance about physique odour.

The males, who weren’t seated collectively and didn’t know one another, say that each black man was faraway from the 5 January flight from Phoenix, Arizona, to New York.

“American Airlines singled us out for being Black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us,” the lads stated in a joint assertion on Wednesday.

The Texas-based airline stated it was investigating the matter because the allegations didn’t align with its values.

According to a federal lawsuit filed by client advocacy group Public Citizen, the lads had already taken their seats and have been getting ready to depart Phoenix when a flight attendant approached every of them and requested them to exit the aircraft.

Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph, and Xavier Veal allege that, as they have been leaving, they realised that “every Black man on the flight was being removed”.

Each of the lads had flown from Los Angeles earlier that day, with no challenge.

At the flight gate, the three males, together with 5 others, have been advised by an airline agent that that they had been “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 lads stated in a press release on Wednesday, including: “Clearly this was racial discrimination.”

American Airlines workers tried to re-book the lads on different flights, however there have been no different companies to New York that evening. The group was at that time allowed to re-take their seats on their authentic flight.

American Airlines stated in a press release: “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 groups are at present investigating the matter, because the claims don’t mirror our core values or our objective of caring for folks.”

The lawsuit adds that while the men waited outside the plane, the pilot made an announcement telling passengers that there was a delay due to an issue with “physique odour”. The plaintiffs say the claim about odour was false.

“Throughout the flight – from the second of their reboarding, in every interplay with the white male flight attendant, and persevering with till touchdown – Plaintiffs skilled profound emotions of embarrassment, humiliation, nervousness, anger, and misery,” the lawsuit states.

“The act of returning to their seats after the unwarranted delay, navigating previous the predominantly white passengers, a number of of whom eyed them with anger and undue suspicion, compounded their humiliation.”

The lawsuit says that the airline should be forced to pay unspecified damages for the “trauma” the men endured.

One of the men suing, Mr Joseph, told the BBC that the “alienating” experience reminded him of Civil Rights hero Rosa Parks being forced to move to the back of an Alabama bus in 1955 due to state-sanctioned racial discrimination.

“It’s a strange, crazy story that in 2024 we are still going through stuff like this,” said Mr Joseph.

He added that the lawsuit is necessary to make sure American Airlines does not end up “with a slap on the wrist”.

In 2017, the NAACP, a civil rights group, issued a travel advisory telling black Americans to avoid American Airlines due to discrimination.

They lifted the advisory the next 12 months after the provider introduced it had made adjustments to its operations.