A feisty, conservative, union-busting, award-winning Delta flight attendant has left the company after mounting outrage over a series of incendiary tweets.
Kevin Lee Jennings, who also goes by Lee Gross, was a long-time Delta flight attendant. Well-known from within, she coordinated flight attendant efforts to oppose unionization and was never one to shy away from controversy. Known as the “culture keeper”, she was well-liked by management and customers and received the Delta Chariman’s Club Award, a prestigious honor.
But a series of recent tweets shared by Jetiquette were used as a lynchpin to call for her ouster.
For example, Jennings responded to a tweet that said:
“Black lives only matter to black people when a white person kills one of them.”
Her response:
“This is the part I agree with and don’t understand.”
Another tweet asked:
Can someone help me?
So Trump’s tweet about Baltimore was racist because Baltimore is infested with….Black people???
Are Black people synonymous with rats and roaches?
How are we making that correlation?
— Shemeka Michelle (@ShemekaMichelle) July 28, 2019
Jennings responded in a now-deleted tweet:
“I’m not black, I’m white, and I saw a rat running along my back fence…I’m just saying”
She also mocked NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem and downplayed COVID-19. On March 19, 2020 she tweeted:
“My employer, Atlanta’s hometown airline is in a massive crises because of a virus that has taken the lives of 40 people. How many were killed in Chicago during the same time frame?”
More examples below:
@CNN @maddow @CBSNews @BBCWorld @ABC @washingtonpost @Delta @ed_bastian a Delta flight attendant. pic.twitter.com/5tcFZ5bHVd
— AMI (@leaublue) June 8, 2020
Jennings No Longer Employed At Delta
While the circumstances of her departure have not been made public, Jennings has left the company. Delta CEO Ed Bastian issued a memo to employees similar to one issued by United Airlines, which I covered earlier today. It said:
“I want to make it clear that Delta’s workplace must remain safe and welcoming for all Delta people. We will not tolerate racist, bigoted or hateful acts or statements in our workspaces or directed at our people…
“This includes racial and other bigoted, hateful and offensive comments on social media by Delta people, which hurts our culture and our people.”
Specifically referring to Jennings, a Delta spokesperson confirmed:
“Delta has zero tolerance for racism, bigotry and hateful acts. The employee no longer works at Delta.”
Is This A Stealth Hit Job By Union Targeting Conservative Delta Flight Attendant?
The Jetiquette article called for her termination, citing many anonymous employees that she was a bully and racist. A follow-up article speculated she departed amicably and with an early retirement package and called for those retirement benefits to be rescinded as “consequences of hateful behavior.”
For years the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) has been attempting to unionize Delta flight attendants. Thus far, all efforts have failed, in part thanks to the efforts of Jennings.
As a constant foil to unionization efforts, organizers gleefully reacted to news of her demise. Is she really being targeted for her incendiary right wing opinions or was she singled out because of her anti-union views?
And could it be that she was just a troll? She went by Kevin after all…
CONCLUSION
This story is another reminder that companies are growing increasingly impatient with employees who make incendiary remarks on social media. I’d love to speak to Jennings about all of this, but she has disappeared offline…perhaps that was a condition of her exit package.
image: @KevinTheFlyGirl / Twitter
I can only suggest to employees and owners of small companies to stop posting on Twitter, Facebook etc. It can only bite you in the butt. And let’s face it, your tweets will never convince the other side that they are wrong.
When I sued an airline (not DL) they brought up posts I made about Avis. These activists dig deep.
Yes, honestly there’s no good that can come from venting your frustrations on social media. Not that she even posted anything *that bad*. It was opinion and I’ve seen far worse. Still, if your social media account can be connected with your employer in any way you do run the risk of having the mob demand they cut off your head.
This is a dangerous time.
not that bad???? wow…
Democrats used to support free speech. No more. The “party of diversity” only allows what they agree with. They can’t see that free speech is the linchpin to our prosperity. Besides, how else can you really hear where people stand if they’re afraid to make a statement? It’s the new McCarthyism.
The 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech doesn’t apply to private enterprise, only to the interaction between the government and its citizens. Private companies, which Republicans love to support (you know, big business and small government) are free to do as they please with regard to employee speech so long as its within the confines of the law.
She wasn’t arrested. Nor do you know the terms of her removal or if she resigned herself. A company has every right to protect itself from an employee inciting controversy. Especially when those comments are clearly racist. I would have removed her as well.
Good news, she can go on Reddit or 4Chan and have all the racist “free speech” she wants. Doesn’t mean she can freely work for any company while doing so publically.
Is it your job to do China’s bidding on frequent flier-blogs, UA-NYC? Everything you comment does Beijing’s bidding regarding splitting Americans apart.
@Matt – you know Ben loves this sh*t, but I kinda trust you to not provide space for these trolls.
China’s bidding? WTF does this have to do with China? I’m calling a racist a racist…if you don’t like that, piss off. I support non-racist leadership of the US (as a majority of Americans do right now), maybe you don’t like that.
Uh so can anyone refute what she said? Do blacks care about the number of blacks abortion kills every year? What about black on black crime? When will that be acknowledged and addressed? Are facts now considered racist? Asking for a friend….
Some of those tweets are not conservative, they are literally racist. Let’s call a spade a spade. I don’t know her as a person, but the fence/rat comment in that context is a racist comment.
I agree. I’m strongly conservative, and I don’t agree that conservative describes her tweets. Try offensive, inappropriate, controversial, racist, etc.
Please defame her troll POV, not conservatives.
The great purge is underway in this country, founding fathers rolling over in their graves.
@rowyourboat Why do you connect rats with blacks? Isn’t that racist in itself? Doesn’t that make YOU racist?
If I hear a rat comment, I think about somebody who is sharing secrets. Not a black person.
@Tyrone Willingham – The tweet above her was rhetorically asking “Are black people synonymous with rats and roaches?” She replied to that, thus the context.
I do not think that at all. To me a rat is a snitch or someone who leaks secrets like you said.
It was re. Baltimore. They tried to claim there wasn’t a rat infestation to somehow prove conservatives wrong. Then Baltimore residents started showing pics of their rat-infested city.
As much as I don’t think she should have been fired, she does look like a Karen to me.
LOL, “she does look like a Karen to me”. Is this the new catch phrase? Understand Karen was given custody of her dog back. My opinion (and everyone has one) Delta made the right call. Goodbye Karen!
This has nothing to do with her political stances, it’s about her blatant racism. If one of my people said similar things, they’d be gone as well.
–Christian, check your facts & law. “Blatant racism” IS a “political stance”. And it is “free speech”, as much as some misguided individuals would like to draw a politically correct line around free speech.
–I agree an employer has a right to fire, and to not hire, an employer based on their political views. Now please let Colin Kaepernick know that.*
—
* This flight attendant’s political views were expressed under a pseudonym, off the job. Kaepernick’s views were expressed in uniform, on the job, facing the public customer base. The ONLY difference favoring Delta here is that many liberals want your freedom of speech to depend on how “politically correct” it is.
So you think that conservative automatically equals racist?
Actually her real name *IS* Kevin Lee Jennings. It is NOT a pseudonym. The author got her maiden name wrong–she used to go by Lee and her maiden name, Goss, thus Lee Goss.
O.k. Matthew, I applauded you when you wrote the piece on racism a few days ago. But this headline “WAS FEISTY DELTA FLIGHT ATTENDANT FORCED OUT FOR CONSERVATIVE TWEETS?” Part of the problem is not calling out racism when we see it. Her tweets were racist!! Period!! Not incendiary right wing. Not conservative. Let’s call a spade a spade if we are going to achieve this long overdue perfect union.
Her tweet on rats was bit cryptic, but in the context provided I also read it as racist. I’d love to see the whole chain. The other tweets are just standard right wing arguments.
@All: The reason I labelled her a conservative (in the lower case sense) is because her posting history suggests she is on the political right and wants to conserve things the way they are:
1.) No unions
2.) No recognition of implied racism in statements of some political figures
3.) No dishonoring the flag by kneeling during National Anthem
She also makes a standard conservative argument highlighting black-on-black crime.
Is Delta going to fire employees who support Black Lives Matter which is a racist organization that pushes an anti white agenda? Is talking about white people in a negative way not the same as white people talking about black people in a negative way? We have millions of people who have publicly announced they seek to support black owned businesses and encourage discrimination in favor of blacks in hiring and academic admissions. What about if some people publicly announced they seek to support white owned businesses and encourage discrimination in favor of whites in hiring and academic admissions? Are they going to be treated the same way? If it is ok to celebrate black pride and gay pride, then it is ok to celebrate white pride and straight pride?
When businesses say they are against racism they are really saying it is ok to criticize white people but not to criticize black people. Delta is really pushing a culture of intolerance that has a double standard based on if the speaker is white or black. Welcome to modern corporate America.
Hi Kevin!
Amy – darlin dearest… when you are the in theory majority – Straight / White / CIS gendered – you don’t need a “Pride Celebration” to help you feel better about the shitty Straight White CIS gendered world in which you exist.
Where you do not need to be careful about referring to your same gendered spouse as your Husband.
So some neanderthal who hasn’t any tolerance of someone different from their world experience, doesn’t decide to find 4 or 5 of his good ole boys to come beat the living S from that “Ni**er faggot”…
Or God forbid that “Ni**er faggot” has a spouse who is “white” or in My case actually Native American – who presents as a White CIS Gendered Male.
Yeah sure have your effing “straight pride” … your “white pride”.
It will make it substantially easier for the balance of the world to identify people who – We don’t want to know, the Karen’s of the world who think its right to be a racist.
Honestly Amy – with your outlook on this I am shocked that you were able to type out your little racist intolerant screed…
I am more accustomed to seeing the lil woman makin the meals nursin them babies and being barefoot pregnant and ready to skin a possum.
Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Look away! Look away! Look away!
I thought she was referring to an actual rat, the 4-legged kind. Lol! I guess I need some refresher liberalism classes. 🙂
I wonder how many of the uppers followed her on social media and quietly looked away while she was posting her racist fits, purely because she was so effective at union-busting. Her posts attacking people on the NoWayAFA facebook page were public. How many “likes” can people dig up from twitter and facebook? How does one go from attacking a black football player to winning chairmans club two years later? This could get interesting.
So, just to explain this to everyone to have a clearer sense of how this happened…
There was most likely a flight attendant who did not like this particular flight attendant. They saw her posts, saw an opportunity to turn her into management, and seized the moment to do so.
This happens at every airline. All it takes is one opinionated post and the wrong (or perhaps right) person to see it, and it is curtains for the posters career.
Make no mistake about it: Flight attendants are petty and cutthroat, and any chance they have to get rid of a fellow FA they don’t like, they will seize the moment.
You really think management wasn’t well aware of her racist tweets all these years? Ok…..
I’m sure she was on the radar. But like I said, all it takes is one (or maybe even several) flight attendant writing an email with a boatload of screenshots from her social media, and it’s curtains.
Managers followed her on social media…….
@Flight Attendant X: This.
While it may have been a fellow FA who brought this to the companies notice, a lot of what she wrote was racist. Please dont attempt to turn this into a Conservative thing. Unless you mean conservative = racist
@747always: I certainly would never make that blanket comparison.
Union organizers organized this campaign to get her fired, that we know. Some of these tweets are years old. Why are some of them out-of context and incomplete? For instance: when she is replying to Mark Lutchman in Twitter (who is himself a black man for what it’s worth) they only provide half his statement that she reply’s to.
Mark Lutchman writes: “Black lives only matter to black people when a white person kills one of them.
Black people kill each other everyday and most of the time don’t even cooperate with law enforcement to help seek justice.
Black lives should matter all the time, not some of the time.
Am I right?”
Kevin Lee Jennings answers: “This is the part I agree with and don’t understand.”
If you reread with an open mind the “rat”comment her explanation makes sense.
Shemeka Michele Writes in Twitter: “Can someone help me?
So Trumps tweet about Baltimore was racist because Baltimore was infested with … Black people???
Are black people synonymous with rats and roaches?
How are we making this correlation?”
To which Kevin Lee Jennings replies: “I’m not black, I’m white, and I saw a rat running along my back fence…. I’m just saying . (Smiley face)”
Ms. Jennings according to friends and people who followed the conversation at the time was trying to say that rats come in all colors. The opposite of what is being implied.
Now, I don’t know Ms. Jennings. I’ve never met her in person and have only had had casual contact with her online (read her views on unionizing the airline). For all I know she dresses up in a cape and hood and burns crosses on her neighbor’s lawns at night. However, this seems unlikely because most racists have a reputation of racism. And flight attendants tend to gossip (understatement alert). Yet, no prior charges of racism nor a reputation of being a racist.
That didn’t stop the online pitchfork brigade from burning her at the stake. They didn’t want her just gone. They wanted her disgraced and erased. Some of the demands: no retirement option. Her CC award withdrawn. Her name taken down from the Atlanta museum. The aircraft that bears her name be “decommissioned”. A public statement by her company leaders disgracing her as a racist. They even mused about digging up dirt on her family members.
I can’t imagine what’s it is like to live with inequality and injustice. It’s an unimaginable cross to bear. I also can’t imagine what it would be like to be falsely disgraced as a racist.
So you think a person who openly attacks a black man for taking a knee and then attacking a Somali’s language skills is representative of Delta’s values on diversity and deserves the chairman’s club award?
Kevin should have been fired a long time ago.
I have no opinion either way on unions, but to blame Kevin’s firing on anything besides Kevin’s behavior is laughable. Kevin’s social media posts weren’t private. Delta knew this whole time. To suggest otherwise is hilarious.
I’m not going to get into the weeds with you. I think people can decide for themselves what light and context they want to put Ms. Jennings comments in. A good lesson here is if you’ve got a strong opinion debate it with family and friends. Anyone can take anything anyone writes online and put it in the worst possible light.
Of course, You’re absolutely right, all employees should exemplify their company’s values. I’m sure you’ll agree that respect is a two way street. What I witnessed online last week was a crusade. The things people were saying we’re absolutely vicious. And why? Leadership had already been contacted and were investigating. Are you calling for them to be fired? Would they only have themselves to blame?
I would argue that leadership already was well aware of Kevin’s racist tweets. Her social media profiles were not private, anyone could see her tweets, and certainly some of them followed her.
So yes, they need to be fired as well.
Okay Jason. Now you’re going to twist my comments? I never implied or said that leadership should be fired. You know full well I was talking about the participants in the online slander fest that occurred last week by union supporters. Yet, you take the liberty to purposely mischaracterize my comments. I truly have no dog in this fight. I simply believe that true social justice should be tempered with mercy. Have the last word.
I said the leadership who followed her on social media and did nothing about it should be fired.
How’s “retired” life Kevin?
It’s rather stupid to think they wasted time worrying about a flight attendant’s social media presence when they had thousands of them.
And how are they supposed to keep up with every single employee’s online behavior? That seems like a gross invasion of privacy.
Kevin, the new Karen.
You clearly aren’t familiar with corporate social media policies. And yes, corporations with thousands of employees do terminate people for violating them. It’s not stupid at all to understand this.
Actually she was not fired after all. Instead was given a sweet heart deal..they just now allowed her to take an enhanced retirement package only available for employees on active payroll. They have given her so many privileges for writing up employees and being the ultimate union buster.