An African-American woman who flew Delta from her home city of Minneapolis to Washington D.C. on August 27, says she will “only fly Delta Air Lines” after the carrier and its representatives worked to right an unjust encounter with another passenger during her flight, Fox News reported.
Demetria Poe detailed the story on Facebook, explaining that, “a white woman who I helped with her bags sat next to me on the plane. She left her [seat] and came back with a blue lives matter mask on and a pin to match.”
Her seatmate remained silent until after takeoff, but then initiated a conversation on the subject of her own choice of accessories by saying, “I support blue lives because I support our officers.” As Poe tells it, “I explained to her blue lives do not exist. The life of an officer exist but there is no such thing as a blue life and that statement is nothing but a rebuttal to the fact that [Black Lives Matter] has been disregarded time after time after time.”
Allegedly, the white woman then continued with a litany of deflective and offensive remarks, including, “Africans from the west sold the most slaves,” and “The reason Blacks were 3/4th was because the South would have too many votes,” plus “Having Blacks in America has been the best thing for them because they can work [their] way up.”
Overhearing this woman’s rude and ignorant comments directed at Poe, some other passengers around Poe (who happened to be white), “snapped on this lady in my defense. The flight attendants came over to check on me and offered to move her.”
After the plane had landed in D.C., “they told me that she would not be flying with Delta anymore because they do not personally or as a company stand for racism and discrimination.”
In an extra effort to make up for the harassment to which she was exposed during her flight to D.C., Poe discovered that Delta had upgraded her return flight, unasked, and prepared her a small gift bag.
A handwritten note from the Delta staff at Reagan National Airport read: “We sincerely apologize for the poor flight experience you encountered on your flight from MSP [to] DCA on 8/27. We hope your flight today is much better.”
The bag was filled with Delta-branded swag, including an enamel pin emblazoned with ‘Black Lives Matter’ and the airline’s logo. In a statement provided to Fox News, Delta explained that employees are provided the option of wearing this BLM pin as part of their own uniforms, and applauded the actions of Poe’s flight crew and its D.C. staff.
“The actions of our people in the air and on the ground are what really sets us apart as a company bringing humanity to air travel,” the airline wrote in its statement. “We have a lot of work to do for true equity to be within reach for the Black community, and it’s part of our culture to represent efforts our customers and our employees care about.” Delta had publicly shown its support for the BLM movement back in June by raising a ‘Black Lives Matter’ flag above the company’s Atlanta headquarters.
