Three Black men have filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against American Airlines, alleging they were removed from a flight due to a complaint about body odor, which they claim was a false pretext for racial discrimination.
Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph, and Xavier Veal, who were not seated together and did not know each other, say that every Black passenger was asked to exit the flight from Phoenix, Arizona to New York on January 5th. The men had already boarded the plane and were preparing for takeoff when a flight attendant approached each of them and requested that they deplane.
According to the federal lawsuit filed by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, while the men waited outside the aircraft, the pilot announced that there was a delay due to an issue with “body odor.” However, the plaintiffs assert that this claim was false, and they had not received any complaints prior to boarding.
The lawsuit states that the experience left the men feeling “profound feelings of embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety, anger, and distress.” It adds that as they returned to their seats, they had to navigate past the predominantly white passengers, some of whom “eyed them with anger and undue suspicion,” further compounding their humiliation.
At the flight gate, the three men, along with five others, were informed by an airline agent that they had been removed due to a white male flight attendant’s complaint about an unidentified passenger’s body odor.
“American Airlines singled us out for being Black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us. There is no explanation other than the color of our skin. Clearly, this was racial discrimination,” the men said in a joint statement.
In response, American Airlines stated that it is investigating the matter and that the claims do not reflect the airline’s core values or its purpose of caring for people.
