What’s good, American Airlines?! The airline, whose slogan was once, “You Are Why We Fly,” failed the assignment according to rapper Talib Kweli, and track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson.
In less than a week, both Talib and Sha’Carri have been booted off America Airlines flights after unpleasant encounters with their flight attendants.
Talib Kweli vs. American Airlines
The Black Star rapper took to social media and documented his dispute with a flight attendant over an oversized bag he brought onto the plane.
Despite his calm demeanor and his attempts to explain why the bag wasn’t an issue, a flight attendant stated that he didn’t “feel safe” with Talib Kweli remaining on the flight so he was forced to disembark and was almost arrested.
In a post on his Instagram page, Talib wrote:
Yesterday afternoon @americanair threatened to have me arrested for no reason at all.
-After clearing my bag with the gate agent, flight attendant Sky Seaglass tells me my bag is too big and I must check it. I asked why, so he got annoyed and called his supervisor.
– The supervisor tells me it’s her decision whether I fly or not. That’s an important detail.
– The supervisor sees that the attendant Seaglass was wrong about my bag and walks me to my seat and says l’m good to fly.
– Moments later the supervisor comes back and tells me that if I do not obey the flight attendant while in the air, I will go to jail. The whole time, Seaglass, who l’m not talking to at all, is telling people he feels “unsafe.”
– Moments later the supervisor comes back and tells me I must leave the plane. I tell her I feel like that’s a violation of my human rights and my rights as a customer. She then tells me I must stop recording, even though earlier she said I could record, and was made to sit and wait as everyone exits the plane. I tried to go live 3 times but @instagram kept cutting my audio.
– They then send 3 police officers in.
– Police expressed surprise that @americanair crew threatened me with arrest and said only the police can make that call. Cops then say “we got called out for nothing” and “you didn’t do anything wrong.” It’s right there on video.
My actual luggage is the last screenshot. Clearly, my bag wasn’t the issue.
See Talib’s original post along with video below.
Sha’Carri Richardson vs. American Airlines
Sha’Carri Richardson was booted off of her flight after a dispute with a flight attendant over her cell phone.
Apparently, the U.S. track and field star who was vacation-bound, was told by a flight attendant to put her phone on Airplane Mode.
Sha’Carri says she did as she was asked, but when she attempted to record a video of herself, the flight attendant crashed the video in an effort to make sure the phone was in Airplane Mode.
From there, everything went left! Words were exchanged between Sha’Carri and the flight crew as well as other passengers, who simply wanted her to comply and hush so that they could take flight.
Sha’Carri took to Instagram writing:
Tell me if I’ll be wrong to pursue legal actions against the airline @americanair not only did the man threaten me but also an innocent bystander who simply just wanted a picture with me.
In the beginning of the video you can hear a Caucasian male state that he doesn’t give a f as a man that male flight attendant is intimidating a woman.
Also, the captain not doing anything to help the situation and this flight attendant has the applause when I exited the plane when I’m pretty serious the disrespect I received would not have happened if I was a one of them.
One of them even stated good luck with your ban ( I see he took the time to do some research but not stand up for what’s right) soooo @americanair this flight attendant name was John and he refused to state his last name.
However him and the lady y’all see standing next to him looked me up ☺️💅🏾also if I see videos posted from this flight, watch.
Tag @americanair if I can help just one person not have to deal with a situation like this with an individual like this, I’ll take the heat 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽
When Sha’Carri Richardson disembarked, the other passengers applauded.
Watch both videos she shared via Instagram below.
When Talib Kweli saw what happened with Sha’Carri, he took to Instagram writing:
@americanair is racist. Period. Within a span of a week @americanair flight attendants have called police on not one, not two but three famous Black people, me Odell Beckham Jr and now Sha’Carri Richardson.
If this is how they are treated Black folks with fame privilege imagine how they are treating Black folks without large platforms! 👀 #dontflyaa
This is not a coincidence. Are @americanair flight attendants being trained to profile, target and harass black people? It certainly looks that way.
Flight attendants telling the pilots they feel unsafe in the presence of Black passengers in order to sic police on Black passengers is a strange flex.
Knowing how police disproportionately abuse Black people, imagine how unsafe we feel as Black passengers now.
You may recall that in Odell Beckham, Jr. was booted off of an American Airlines flight in November after a flight attendant claimed he “appeared to be going in and out of consciousness.”
Odell commented on Sha’Carri’s post about her incident writing, “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂. BUTTT IM THE @SSSSHOLE.”
He added, “TELLL ME U GIT KICKED OFFF THE AMERICAN FLIGHT FOR NO REASON 😂😂😂😂”
See his original comments below.
I’m so sorry that Talib Kweli, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Odell Beckham, Jr. had negative experiences with American Airlines.
But, I thought we were done with them after they kicked a couple with a 7-week-old baby off of a flight…
At the moment American Airlines Instagram comments are in shambles as people drag them over these recent incidents.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or join the convo on our socials. (Facebook, Instagram)
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