Posted by Anonymous
Racial Profiling Incident:
Complaint Letter:
April 28, 2014
Dear: Southwest Airlines Air Tran Airways
My name is Andrew Wyatt and this letter of complaint is in reference to flight 763, which I was slated to take on Sunday, April 27, 2014 from Las Vegas, NV to Baltimore, MD at 10:55pm. My confirmation number for that flight was . On this date, myself along with both my friends, Qadre Jernigan and Stephen Brown boarded flight 763 as business class passengers, which we each had upgraded to on the previous day. About 5 minutes after being seated, our flight attendant whose name was Michelle approached us and stated "I need to check your boarding pass as it is protocol for me to confirm ALL boarding passes." Of course we had no issue with her request initially and quickly obliged and presented our boarding passes; however, the issue is that Michelle did not check any of the other business class passengers boarding passes; all whom were Caucasians. Well, myself, Qadre and Stephen are all African American and therefore we proceeded to inquire why we were singled out and racially profiled as no one else was asked to verify their boarding passes. Additionally, I would like to point out that I completely recognize that the airport system is ran using a checks and balances format. Prior to us boarding the flight as with all flights we had to present our ticket to board and at that point our seats were confirmed by that staff member responsible for checking tickets at the flight gate entrance point; therefore, why were we questioned a second time after being seated? Additionally, why were the (3) of us, all African American the only individuals asked to present their boarding passes? There is no justification here! There was no confusion or mix up between rows, seats, etc as it could not have been for only business class passengers had boarded the plane so I feel based upon the actions exemplified that it was a case of racial profiling.
To continue, this ordeal proceeded on with the Captain of the plane approaching us and stating that he heard that we were being "rowdy," which is 100% ludicrous! Was this the case once again because we questioned the flight attendants as to why we were being racially profiled and single out? Rowdy depicts an individual that is disruptive, unruly, uncontrollably and none of that represented my behavior or my friend's behavior. To further prove this, please ask yourself what is the logic of your airline attendants (1.) asking, (2.) giving alcohol to individuals they consider "rowdy?" That would clearly be a case of adding fuel to a fire so that is my first point of solidifying why we were not "rowdy" as if your flight attendants in anyway felt we were being "rowdy" then they would have not served Stephen alcohol (which he did not consume by the way)? How do myself and my friends laughing and enjoying ourselves get transformed into us being "rowdy?" More so, we were seated in rows (2) and (3) of the plane. The cockpit door was clearly still open at this time and again I reiterate that only business class passengers were aboard the plane, which means that the noise level was not at all high and therefore if we were in anyway "rowdy" then the captain would have heard us himself as the separation between business class and the cockpit is not at all far and again the cockpit doors were open.
Continuing, once the captain started his statement off about us potentially being "rowdy," I spoke up and stated that "the issue at hand is that we are the only individuals being asked to present our boarding passes and we feel like it is racial profiling because we are all African American. Why did the captain just assume we were "rowdy" and not ask us once if we had an issue or what was the problem? At this point, I was extremely upset and I told the captain that he was deflecting from the REAL issue at hand which was that his staff was racially profiling and that he was attempting to use the that we were "rowdy" excuse as a cop out and a deflection of his staff's unwarranted behavior. The captain in turned asked me to step off the plane at this point and I responded that I would not do so and I instructed him to contact authorities. I did this because he totally disregarded my concern and attempted to overshadow me with his rank, I know that my voice matters and my side of the story needs to be heard and my concerns are 100% valid. I was wrongly profiled and no justification was offered and too this day it has still not been offered. I completely understand that it is the captains plane and I had no issues with removing myself once authorities arrived to hear my side of story; however, the bigger issue at hand is to why me and my two friends (being the only African Americans) at the time seated in business class were the only individuals asked to present boarding passes and not one Caucasian was asked; this still baffles me.
Furthermore, I would like to note that per my friend Qadre Jernigan, an African American couple boarded the plane after I was removed and they too were seated in business class. Ironically, they too were asked by the flight attendants to present their boarding pass and yet again no other ethnicities were asked to provide this documentation. This couple names were: Lydell and Medina Nunn
All the individual names mention in this letter can and are prepared to serve as witnesses to what unfolded on the day in question in addition to Michael Berganski who was one of the Caucasian passengers who was never asked to provide a boarding pass.
Neither me nor my friends in addition to the other African American couple did anything wrong in this matter and there I question does your airline racially profile because on April 27, 2014 this was certainly the case.
