According to the Los Angeles Times, United Airlines is facing a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against two employees, adding to the long list of racial discrimination complaints against US airlines.
According to the Los Angeles Times, two flight attendants recently filed a lawsuit against United Airlines, alleging that the company discriminated against them when looking for flight attendants to work on flights chartered by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The pair claim they were replaced with flight attendants who did not have to go through the same extensive interview process they did because of their race and age—Dawn Todd is Black and 50 years old, and Darby Quezada is of Black, Mexican, and Jewish descent and 44 years old.
Todd and Quezada claim they were kicked off highly sought-after chartered flights for the Dodgers—which isn’t named as a defendant in the suit—for women who fit a specific look of “white, young, thin,” and “predominantly blond and blue-eyed,” according to the Times.
Quezada, who, like Todd, has worked for United for a long time, told Los Angeles news station KCAL News that she has also faced discrimination from other United employees, such as being told she was only onboard a flight because they “need a Mexican to clean bathrooms.
In 2022, the Department of Transportation received 81 racial discrimination complaints against airlines, with United accounting for nearly 15% of those complaints.
According to Data USA, which used Census Bureau data, over 68% of flight attendants in 2021 were white, while 14% were black, 6.75% were Asian, and 7% were mixed race.
IMPORTANT QUOTE
“Major America corporations like United Airlines must understand that it is illegal to make staffing decisions based on an employee’s race and looks, even if it is meant to please major clients like the Los Angeles Dodgers,” said Sam Yebri, Quezada and Todd’s lawyer, in a statement, calling the alleged decision to staff the plane with “young white thin women” an act of “blatant discrimination.”
CONTRA
“United fosters an environment of inclusion and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” United said in a statement to Forbes. “We believe this lawsuit is without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously.”
IMPORTANT BACKGROUND
This isn’t the first time United has been sued for racial discrimination. In a 2020 suit, two flight attendants of color over the age of 39 claimed that major sports teams such as the New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Rams, and Kansas City Chiefs only staffed chartered flights with crew members who fit a certain image. According to the lawsuit, United allegedly encouraged teams to choose their “dedicated crews,” which are staffed primarily with young, white, blond, and blue-eyed women, over their “open time crews,” which are more diverse. Other airlines have been accused of racial discrimination: After receiving several complaints of discrimination, the NAACP issued a nine-month travel advisory against American Airlines in October 2017. According to data from the Department of Transportation, American Airlines faced 29 racial discrimination lawsuits in the 20-month period preceding the NAACP’s travel advisory. In August, a white mother filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines after an employee accused her of trafficking her biracial daughter in 2021. In 2022, two Black and Muslim men sued Alaska Airlines for racial discrimination after they were allegedly kicked off a flight for texting in Arabic.
TANGENT
Between the 1950s and the 1970s, airlines had specific image requirements for flight attendants, also known as stewardesses at the time. According to sociologist Kathleen Barry’s book, some airlines only recruited white women in their twenties weighing between 100 and 135 pounds, and used specific marketing messages like “Fly Me” to sexualize them. Although airlines became more diverse after the passage of Title VII, which prohibited employment discrimination, in 1964, a Southern Methodist University report claims that they still sexualize flight attendants through their “highly regulated” dress codes and appearance standards. Almost 70% of flight attendants reported sexual harassment in 2018, but 68% said their employers made no effort to address the issue.
