American Airlines Faces New Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

American Airlines is, to put it mildly, having a rough time of it in 2024. Yesterday, the company announced that it was firing its CCO after a dismal Q2 2024 forecast. Just a few hours later, three Black men went public with their racial discrimination lawsuit against the airline.

The BBC reports that Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph, and Xavier Veal filed a suit against American Airlines after the men allege they were discriminated against on a flight to New York from Phoenix in January.

The three men, who did not know each other prior to the lawsuit being filed and were not traveling together, claim that they were all seated and ready to depart when a flight attendant allegedly approached the three of them separately and asked them to leave the flight. The flight attendant approached five other men — who were also Black but did not join in the lawsuit — and asked them to disembark as well.

The flight attendant claimed that another flight attendant, a white man, was complaining about the men’s “body odor.”

American Airlines then tried to book another flight to New York for the eight men, but there were no other flights available. The men were then allowed to reboard the flight they’d been previously removed from.

“There is no explanation other than the color of our skin,” the three men said in a statement released on Wednesday, May 29. “Clearly this was racial discrimination. American Airlines singled us out for being Black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us.”

“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,” reads their lawsuit. “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 three men are seeking unspecified damages against the airline for the “trauma” they endured.

American Airlines, meanwhile, claims that it is investigating the matter.

“We take all claims of discrimination very seriously and want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to fly with us,” the Texas-based airline said in a statement in response to the lawsuit. “Our teams are currently investigating the matter, as the claims do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people.”