After the NAACP issued a travel advisory in October warning African-Americans about their treatment and safety when flying American Airlines, the airline has responded with a notice that their employees will now undergo mandatory airlines-anti-racism-training/”>anti-racism training.
According to a statement, mandatory implicit bias training will begin in 2018 for all employees at AA. Calling the NAACP public advisory “feedback,” CEO Doug Parker said in the statement that the airline has already put diversity and inclusion initiatives in place and sees the upcoming training as a way to further the airline’s strives to continually improve.
Executives from the airline reportedly had a meeting with NAACP leaders before issuing the statement. The NAACP hadn’t responded to the initiative taken by the airline. In October the NAACP outlined four separate incidents wherein African American passengers were treated differently than other passengers traveling on AA, including having to move seats or being removed from flights.
Currently, the airline is developing the training program, which will include both in-person and online course components. In addition, the AA plans to put better policies into place for reporting discrimination complaints and other issues. The airline also plans to hire an outside consulting firm to help with hiring practices