“It Definitely Was White Male Aggression” Activist Removed From AA Flight
Flying on airlines isn’t getting any easier. The latest airline drama occurred when an American Airlines pilot kicked New York activist Tamika Mallory off a flight after a seating issue.
Tamika Mallory a co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington, and an activist for gun control and civil rights was on her way from Miami to New York. She had been in the Florida city for the Revolt Music Conference and was headed to NYC as a guest at the wedding of Rev. Al Sharpton’s daughter.
Mallory explains that the pilot singled her out after she had an argument with a gate agent, which had been resolved.
According to Mallory, “It definitely was white male aggression. I was singled out, I was disrespected, and he was trying to intimidate me. I was discriminated against.”
“Our team does not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” American Airlines spokesman Joshua Freed said. “We take these allegations seriously, and we are in the process of reaching out to our colleagues in Miami, as well as Ms. Mallory, to obtain additional information on what transpired during the boarding process.”
Mallory explains that when she arrived at the airport she used a self-help kiosk to change her seat from a middle to an aisle. At the gate, she was issued another ticket for the middle seat and an argument ensued when Mallory asserts that the gate agent was “nasty” and “disrespectful.” Mallory then thought that the incident was over until the pilot, who had overheard part of the exchange, prevented her from getting on the flight.
The pilot explained that the gate agent had nothing to do with the seat change and called Mallory “disrespectful.”
Mallory eventually found her seat before being called to the front of the plane and being booted off. Mallory’s travel companion was also kicked off the flight.
Mallory says that her tweets attracted the attention of American Airlines, who rescheduled her flight but have yet to provide an explanation of why she was kicked off in the first place.
Based on what I'm reading the pilot did the correct thing. Most passengers don't like to see other aggressive or rude passengers on their flight. It's also obvious, from what written, that Tamika is a professional agitator, so she is simply practicing her trade. If I wasn't in polite company I'd call it a shakedown, I'm sure she's looking for a settlement $$$.
If I got into it with every representative that was rude to be, I would be arguing all day long. It seems to me that this woman went out of control and even after the problem was resolved. Imagine if somebody blamed this on “Female Aggression”, “Black Male Aggression”, or “Homosexual Aggression”! There would be an uproar from one end of the planet to the other, Apparently, we see from her background, this lady likes to use “white men”as her punching bag. Furthermore, in all the years of dealing with American Airlines, the employees have be always quite gracious. This is nothing more than an excuse for a cheap PR even from a member of the fanatical fringe of the feminist movement,
Another thing: if I understand the story right, TM is asking the gate agent to do a deep dive (research) as to why her seat was changed, WHILE boarding-that's probably going to annoy the gate agent. Looks like AA is going to MEET with TM in person...you better believe AA will have at least two lawyers there. Whats puzzling is typically your counsel would tell you to keep your mouth shut, no press, no social media. TM is all over social media telling her story how it went down, if it goes to litigation all of that will be used against her. She goes on to say she wants to be involved in changing policy at AA, yea they'll just hand over the HR keys to her, sure. Would love to hear the Captain's story.
Would be interesting to see the video. I was following the above almost agreeing with what was said until I saw that it was MIA where the event happened. I have flown with AA since 1975 and I have had very negative experiences with AA staff in MIA. I transit MIA usually 6 times a year, and see problems on most every trip, where it be over sold flights, baggage problems, equipment changes. broken seat, hostile agents, bossy crews, delay after delay and canceled flights. When I see stuff in the news happening at MIA, I have to wonder how much AA and the ground staff may have contributed to the problem. THEN we have to listen to Doug Parker and his propaganda on Airlines for America on the overhead monitors..... AA clean up your own act in MIA! So I wonder how much AA contributed episode like the above. They set themselves up for this kind of stuff.
By most definitions I'm a pretty staunch liberal. But I side with the pilot...you create public spectacles, especially in airports and airplanes. Take that s*** somewhere else.