We live in a race-conscious time in a race-conscious world. And a story about a woman thrown off an American Airlines’ flight due to her cello has me thinking about race.
I want to be a peacemaker in this world, encouraging unity and not division. Speculation and race-bating are generally counterproductive. I also believe that people can be insensitive and even prejudicial without being racist. So I have to apologize in advance for sharing my thoughts on this incident, but I do think my retrospective is a helpful example of why we should not jump to conclusions.
Here’s the story in a nutshell. A Chicago woman traveled to Florida with her $30,000 cello, which she considers priceless. She paid for a second seat for the cello, since it cannot fit in the overhead bin and it too delicate to be checked. She had no trouble on the way out, but on the way back she ran into an issue. After arriving at the airport three hours early, checking in, bringing the cello through security, boarding the plane, and taking her seat, she was told the cello was too big. She was flying on a 737.
Understandably, she was not happy. I’m not sure what she said, but the police were called and she was removed from the flight with her cello. AA agents offered her a flight an hour later, which she eventually accepted…only to be told that aircraft was also too small (another 737). One agent allegedly told her she could travel if she bought two first class seats, but the economy class seats were too small.
AA’s legroom is so tight in economy class that I do not doubt the cello did not fit. AA claimed the cello could not fly because it could not be strapped into the extra seat and was touching the floor.
The V Sign
Here’s where the story gets fuzzy. On the way out, the passenger’s cello apparently brushed against the captain, who cried out in pain. He claimed that was bleeding due to the bump, though no one seemed to witness any blood. As he grimaced in pain, he loudly stated, “This is why we need to get her out!” While doing so, he flashed the V sign.
image: Jay Tang / Facebook
Now when I saw that and learned the passenger was a Chinese immigrant, Jingjing Hu, my mind drifted immediately to race. Did the captain think “they all look alike” and assume it was a Japanese traveler, prompting the WWII Victory sign? Did he poke fun at the penchant of many Asians to make the peace sign when posing for pictures? If he did, was this even wrong?
My mind kept returning to the assumption that the captain had no patience for her because she was Chinese.
It took me some time to realize that such an assumption was not fair to the captain. Perhaps he was flashing the peace sign as a gesture of goodwill, wishing the passenger good luck. Perhaps he was just saying goodbye. Maybe he was indicating two seats were now available. I don’t know…and that’s the point. Our minds are too quick too assume. I was wrong.
What I Do Know: AA Botched This One
But here’s what I do know. AA really screwed this one up. She should not have been allowed to board in the first place if cellos are prohibited on a 737. Nor should she have been promised a seat on the next flight when it was also a 737. And while it is not inherently suspicious that two standbys were seated immediately after she was ejected, I can see why she would have questions about whether this was all a ploy because two seats were needed.
AA booked her a hotel room, provided her meal vouchers, and flew her home the next day on a 757. The airline has also apologized to her. AA should have moved two of the bulkhead passengers instead and re-seated Ms. Hu. Her husband claims he called to book her flights, specifically mentioning the second passengers would be a cello. If that is the case, I think AA should also refund her ticket and offer some additional miles or travel credit.
You can read the full passenger account here.
CONCLUSION
Humans have a tendency to either deny racism or exist or see racism even when it is not there. While there is circumstantial evidence for racism here, I am using this as another lesson not to jump to conclusions. We don’t know what was going through the captain’s mind.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in your world. Now, flashing the peace sign is racist and that’s where your thoughts naturally go? Good grief. We are doomed.
The situation is a bit more complex than that. My thoughts may have darted to race first, but were quickly more measured. I’m not proud of it, but I don’t think this means society is doomed…
Like Matthew, I find the captain’s hand gesture to be confusing. It isn’t something that is often done, and it is certainly open to interpretation as to its meaning. To suggest that Matthew’s “world” is goofy is completely unfair. It is particularly interesting to consider that the captain probably realized he was being photographed, so it was apparently his intent that the hand gesture would be immortalized in a photo. It’s too bad that nobody is sure what he meant, and, as Matthew points out, it could have meant various things, pleasant or not. My take is that the captain was suggesting a victory had just occurred. The most obvious “victory” is that he got a passenger kicked off his airplane. That doesn’t seem so nice spirited to me. The sad truth is that “service” is frequently lacking with United States airlines.
So now the peace sign as well as the American flag can be considered racist? I appreciate that you say you don’t believe he was doing so with ill intent but really people get butt hurt about the smallest stuff. While everyone wants to fight things at the lowest level, it’s always easiest that when you are wronged. Which I believe she was, fight it at the corporate level and you will have much better results.
AA will claim they weren’t provided exact dimensions on the phone and sweep this under the rug. These types of situations are awful for the passenger as they are always at the mercy of a frontline employee’s interpretation of the rules where HUCA isn’t an option.
Agree AA handled that poorly. My mind never went to race, however. I assumed “peace” as in no hard feelings. The lens we see things through definitely changes our perception. We had race riots in my city a couple of years ago. It was terrible.
probably cost less to pack well and ship as air freight
Virtually all AA PILOTS are TAXI CAB DRIVERS.
I assumed he put up two fingers signalling to somebody further up the jetway that there were now two seats available…
I like this explanation.
That is not at all likely for a pilot to be doing. The flight attendants or a gate person would do this, but not likely for a pilot.
Read on multiple sites/sources that the captain was indicating that two seats were vacant as a result of the removal of the musician and her cello.
“Now when I saw that and learned the passenger was a Chinese immigrant, Jingjing Hu, my mind drifted immediately to race. ”
Wow. You are one triggered dude. The V sign has so many connotations outside of Churchill’s WWII V sign against all WWII enemies, most of whom were not Asian.
That’s what I was going to say, “most of whom were not Asian” … and let’s hope this point isn’t old enough to have flown in WWII to harbor any animosities.
V is for victory and he had prevailed. As to why he was feigning injury and so determined to remove her, that we’ll never know, but I really can’t see him throwing up some “racist only if you fully understand a made-up version of his background” symbol.
Have you thought that the pilot is confirming with the gate agent that there are 2 open seats available for standby passengers. Or should he have used his index finger and small finger so we could debate if he’s a Texas Longhorns fan. Maybe he could have used his thumb and small finger and we could debate if he is making fun of surfers. Why is everything considered racist?
I believe he was asking for 2 more passengers to fill the overbooked flight
Never even though my of that. See, that makes total sense. It’s why I wrote this post. Sometimes we assume the worst and miss the obvious.
Whether or not that’s racist, flashing the sign was rude and unprofessional. As an Asian, I do feel like there is a racial undertone with that sign (would be flash that sign to a black persons?) The whole bleeding thing is so dramatic too. AA should discipline the pilot.
Um, no, it isn’t rude or unprofessional. Nor is there a racial undertone to the message, since he is signaling that there are now 2 empty seats for others to fill.
AA should take the blame although it may not be a race thing. Even if the cello won’t fit, why would they board her in the beginning? Nowadays most AA employees are really rude to customers because the only thing they wanted to do is just to get their work done. They are really like bus drivers. I was in a flight last week and the window by me was totally broken. The window cover was gone. Asked a FA and her response was it’s safe and we are not gonna delay the flight because of a window cover. No apology no nothing. It’s a 3 hour flight with bright sunlight coming in from that window the whole time. Just horrible.
So who cares if he was flashing a peace sign because Asians often do that? I really don’t know how to navigate in this world of liberal snowflake identity politics/cultural appropriation/victimhood anymore. On the one hand people demand that their ethnic/religious identity is acknowledged and factored in to every facet of life, but on the other hand when you do then you open yourself up to be labeled a racist. Some want to have their cake and eat it too, basically. We are moving further and further from a color blind society that MLK dreamed of.
But I seriously doubt that was what was going through his mind. Perhaps he is just an aging hippie, or perhaps he is saying “two”, for that’s two reasons why you are being kicked off. Who knows, but to jump to that as being racist is ridiculous
Wasn’t your conclusion my conclusion as well?
Matthew,
I generally enjoy your posts, but this one was simply absurd. Trying to blame any single incident on “racism” – and then stretching back to the “V” sign to make the point? That sign was rendered obsolete by the peace sign within 25 years of the end of WW II. Besides, he’s telling the gate agent that there are now 2 seats available. Let’s not be ridiculous here.
I think I concluded myself this was absurd. But I wanted to post it. It will keep accountable from making these sorts of snap assumptions in the future.
I’m with Stogieguy7. An absolutely absurd post on all levels.
I work in airport ops. While I can’t claim to known what the captain was indicating with his two fingers, the number of available seats was not it. For one, the gate agent has her back to him (she’s the only one that would need to know the availability of seats on board). Secondly, anyone who has worked directly with pilots outside of the capacity of passenger, knows that most pilots are not concerned with how many seats are available on board. They only care about the weight they have on board which is delivered to them after the door is closed. They “fly airplanes”, anything else is outside their pay grade.
Thanks for your input.
Or, and follow me on this, there was more than one gate agent to whom the captain was motioning – one visible in the picture with her back to him, the other outside the view of the camera but facing the captain. And, again, stick with me on this absurd wild ride I’m taking you on, an FA inside the cabin and also not visible within frame is giving the captain information to relay to the other, non-visible gate agent. Super crazy, right?
So what part of airport ops? Concessions? Security?
“On the way out, the passenger’s cello apparently brushed against the captain, who cried out in pain.”
The captain has now been confirmed as Neymar.
Best comment ever! That is it!
And yes racism is ever-persisting these days. Don’t go crazy on Matthew, it happens every day.
I’m a violinist that plays in a touring string quartet, so I’ve flown countless times with my cellist colleague in the United States and internationally. The claim that the cello doesn’t fit in an extra economy seat is false; even the smallest regional jets can fit a cello. In fact, some airlines require that the cello sits on the floor, while other airlines require it resting fully on the seat (both are possible — sometimes taking the seat cushion out helps). Nonetheless, a 737 is more than large enough, even with reduced legroom. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, Sec. 403 (https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/658/text) even protects musical instruments assuming they are carried on early enough in the boarding process and/or an extra seat is bought for this sole purpose, but unfortunately an unfriendly FA can simply ignore this reminder and still kick people off, which seems to happen every month or so.
In the music business, though, musicians often avoid Frontier and Spirit, as they charge fees for instruments, and most tend to prefer Delta, jetBlue, and Southwest over United and AA.
this was a nuanced post. Seems like a lot of comments missed that. any mention of race triggers people. can we not discuss something, admit a mistake, and move on? so soft.
So I had a little trouble following the point you were trying to make. After reading it a couple of times and some of the comments, it looks like you were trying to say that a) your initially thought race might be a factor, but b) later realized you jumped the gun in coming to that conclusion. That’s fair enough; we all struggle at times to resolve difficult questions. However, I will take issue with one thing you said in a reply to one of your comments:
“I’m not proud of it, but I don’t think this means society is doomed…”
I gotta be honest, while “doomed” might be a stretch, our current hyper-sensitivity when it comes to “inclusiveness”, which you struggled to resolve personally, is a serious problem. I’m sorry, but when we’ve arrived at the point where Mark Twain requires “trigger warnings” and my mother and I worry that someone will overhear my 2-year old saying “black daddy car” and “white daddy car” and accuse us of racism, our society is headed in a very, very wrong direction.
I don’t think our current “hyper-sensitivity” is a sign of society being doomed or headed in a very, very wrong direction. It’s an inevitable occurrence when society tries to deal with the latent racism that still exists (whether or not it’s applicable in this case). Nothing ever happens in a straight line; there are always course corrections.
I’d much rather society head in this direction then back to the days of nooses, bedsheets and burning crosses…or is that being too hyperbolic?
Your reply kind of proves my point. It’s either “fire this guy and make sure he never works again for using a hand gesture that might be offensive to someone” or “we’re going back to the days of bedsheets and nooses”. If you start from there, the other side is going to reflexively dig in and ignore whatever you have to say. It makes it impossible to have honest conversations about bias, because both sides only want to make hyperbolic political points to “own” the other side.
@Matthew, my understanding (from other articles/posts) is that the captain’s gesture was to indicate he was fine after being “hit” (riiight) by the cello. But, it certainly can be seen as though he’s happy to have kicked off the passenger.
As for AA’s 737s being too tight in Economy Class, that seems like BS to me. How many airlines operate 737s? And of those, how many prohibit musical instruments as cabin seat baggage? Probably very few, if any.
Regardless, AA really screwed up on this one. Their musical instrument page is so vague: “…must meet seat size restrictions based on airplane type.” What does that even mean? If large instruments are prohibited on 737s/other aircraft, they should make that clear. The couple did everything they were supposed to do, from booking until boarding, and the wife was still treated like crap and kicked off.
@Ken, thanks for sharing your experience with musical instruments.
“Racist” = click bait. Now lots of you clicked and commented. Mission accomplished. Some times bloggers use giveaways other times they “ponder” if there could be racism. It’s all for attention, clicks, and activity.
I wrote about it because it was the first thing that came to mind when I read the story.
I think it would have been racist if the cellist was black.
“AA should have moved two of the bulkhead passengers instead and re-seated Ms. Hu”
And then we would have had another issue on our hands. Imagine getting moved for an instrument?
I really, really hate to weigh in; however, this society is frigged. First, I was going to say he was saying “good riddance” with his gesture of the peace sign. (It hasn’t been thought of as victory sign for decades. In fact, watch the new film: Darkest Hour.) Good riddance as in “peace be with you,” or via con dios. Then, from the photograph, his expression is half questioning and half signalling . . . like “table for two?,” “do I hear 2?” Then again, it may be him implying too, two, to “stay thirsty my friends.” We’ve entered the year of the cat; it’s the age of pouncing.