Three African American men have initiated legal action against American Airlines, alleging racial discrimination following their removal from a flight due to a complaint about body odor.
According to a report by BBC, Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph, and Xavier Veal claimed that although they were not seated together and were strangers to one another, every Black man was removed from the January 5 flight from Phoenix, Arizona, to New York.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the men asserted, “American Airlines singled us out for being Black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us.”
Meanwhile, the Texas-based airline stated that it was investigating the incident, asserting that the allegations did not align with its values.
As per a federal lawsuit filed by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, the men had already taken their seats and were preparing to depart Phoenix when a flight attendant approached each of them and asked them to exit the plane.
Jackson, Joseph, and Veal recounted that as they were leaving, they noticed that “every Black man on the flight was being removed,” adding that each of them had flown from Los Angeles earlier that day without any issue.
At the gate, the three men, along with five others, were informed by an airline agent that they had been “removed because a white male flight attendant had complained about an unidentified passenger’s body odor.”
“There is no explanation other than the color of our skin,” the men stated in a release on Wednesday, asserting, “Clearly this was racial discrimination.”
American Airlines personnel attempted to re-book the men on alternative flights, but there were no available services to New York that evening. Consequently, the group was allowed to re-take their seats on their original flight.
American Airlines commented in a statement: “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 lawsuit further stated that while the men were waiting outside the plane, the pilot announced to passengers that there was a delay due to an issue with “body odor.” The plaintiffs assert that the claim regarding odor was 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 alleges.
“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 lawsuit contends that the airline should be compelled to pay unspecified damages for the “trauma” endured by the men.
One of the plaintiffs, Joseph, informed the BBC that the “alienating” experience reminded him of Civil Rights icon 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,” Joseph remarked.
He added that the lawsuit is necessary to ensure that American Airlines does not receive only a minimal punishment.
In 2017, the NAACP, a civil rights group, issued a travel advisory urging black Americans to avoid American Airlines due to discrimination.
The advisory was lifted the following year after the carrier announced it had made changes to its operations.
