A new lawsuit filed by three Black passengers against American Airlines says the men were racially discriminated against while traveling on a flight in January when they, and other Black men, were kicked off the plane because of a complaint about “body odor.”
According to a lawsuit filed in the eastern district of New York on Wednesday, plaintiffs Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Xavier Veal, all from New York, were traveling on American flight 832 from Phoenix to JFK International Airport when they were removed from the flight, alongside five other Black men, without any reason given at the moment.
“What happened to us was wrong,” the three passengers said in a joint statement. “Imagine a flight attendant ordering every white person off a plane because of a complaint about one white person. That would never happen. But that is what happened to us. There is no explanation other than the color of our skin. American Airlines singled us out for being Black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us. Clearly, this was discrimination.”
Just a little bit before takeoff, one by one, each Black man on the flight was ordered off the plane by an American Airlines worker, the lawsuit alleges. The three plaintiffs in the suit did not know each other prior to the flight and were not seated together.
The plaintiffs and other men asked for an explanation, and representatives of American told them they were “ordered off the plane because of a complaint about body odor.” The plaintiffs then pointed out that it appeared as though they were singled out because they were Black and at least one American representative there said, “I agree. I agree.”
While talking to the representatives for American, the men asked for their names, but the employees refused to give them, the lawsuit said.
“We take all claims of discrimination very seriously and want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to fly with us,” an American Airlines spokesperson said in a statement. “Our teams are currently investigating the matter, as the claims do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people.”
The men were told they could be rebooked on another flight. However, after many complaints and discussion with American, they were told there were no available flights so they reboarded the same flight they were kicked off. It departed almost an hour late.
While on the plane, the lawsuit alleges, white passengers were staring at them because of the substantial delay. The lawsuit said the incident was “traumatic, upsetting, scary, humiliating and degrading.”
The men are seeking declaratory relief, just compensation for their pain and suffering, a punitive damage award sufficient to deter American from discriminating against Black passengers in the future and an award of attorneys’ fees and costs.
It’s just the latest in a long list of racial discrimination incidents aboard American Airlines flights and aboard other carriers.
In October, a Black musician flying to Los Angeles with his two biracial sons was accused of human trafficking on American. A California mother sued Southwest Airlines for accusing her of child trafficking her biracial daughter, an incident that took place on Oct. 22, 2021.
American also faced accusations of racial discrimination after removing two Black celebrities, Dallas track star Sha’Carri Richardson and New York rapper Talib Kweli, from different flights. In 2017, the NAACP issued a travel advisory to Black passengers to avoid flying the airline after a series of complaints about interactions between the carrier and Black individuals. The NAACP dropped the travel advisory in 2018 and American Airlines has instituted implicit bias training and reviewed its complaint system to try to address racial discrimination.
