Dr. Tisha Rowe, the Texas doctor who was forced to cover herself with a blanket in order to board an American Airlines flight, has gone on the record with ABC News.
The nine-minute interview demonstrates a calm and collected Rowe who adds more details to the story that unfolded on her recent flight from Kingston, Jamaica to Miami.
Rowe’s insight on the negative effect this incident will have on her son is sobering.
Her Attorney Speaks
Rowe’s attorney, Geoffrey Berg, added:
There was an outpouring on social media. And people posted photos of other travelers on American Airlines wearing a lot less who flew without incident, without a problem. And what was the difference? Well, the pictures we saw were all of white women.
We are waiting for American Airlines to make the next step. They have apologized, which is a good first step, but to simply apologize and hope for credit for apologizing without doing anything is just not acceptable. For American Airlines to tweet out “we are sorry” is it seems to me is the corporate equivalent of “thoughts and prayers”. It is meaningless. They have to change this. They have to make this right, so that other people, particularly women of color, do not have to experience what she experienced.
A couple points. First, I think his “thoughts and prayers” analogy is misplaced. This usually comes up after mass shootings when activists ridicule people, especially politicians, for expressing “thoughts and prayers” in light of the tragedy…versus changing policy. I would love to get guns off the street in the United States, but the Second Amendment stands as quite a barrier to that policy goal. It’s not like politicians even have the legal authority to remove many of the guns that are used when depraved people commit atrocities. This is quite different than American Airlines having full authority to enact dress code policy as it sees fit.
But I strongly agree with his broader point that just saying sorry is unacceptable. American needs to show that it takes this incident seriously. To do so, flight attendants must be trained, over and over again if necessary, that race or weight cannot factor into whether an outfit is appropriate or not. These sorts of incidents have no place in 2019.
CONCLUSION
I think Dr. Rowe does a tremendous job arguing why what happened to her is traumatic. She owes no one an explanation, but this interview offers further evidence that American Airlines mistreated her and must now make amends.
This is an example where there’s not a cascade of bad things. Imagine if the passenger were snippy, blows exchanged, blood on the carpet, and arrest and/or brain injury followed by multi million dollar lawsuits and severely delayed flight and missed connections.
A doctor once told my Dad the recommended flight attire. Long sleeves and pants, shoes for running. Good if an emergency evacuation or some fire on the plane.
I believe the Dr is a very honest, smart and respectable person. She isn’t talking nonsense, The airlines employee was having a bad day and taking out on the Dr. May a public apology is in order.
As a doctor, I find it appalling that these things only go noticed when they happen to a doctor or someone perceived as having stature. It shouldn’t matter who these incidents happen to, they should be reported as they occur; I’m sure they are quite frequent during a days operation and things will only change if they are reported.
fly DELTA
I agree, American Airlines needs to do a lot more. This was pure racism/sexism, I too have seen people traveling with much more revealing clothes than Dr. Rowe.
They need to fire the staff involved in this to make it clear to the rest of AA staff this is not an acceptable way of treating their customers. Unless they do something like that, then the “thoughts and prayers” analogy will be correct. A few nice words, but no real action.
I agree. Everything is racism, and we must create gigantic scenes every time a St. Person of Color, Doctor of the Performing Arts is slighted in the least.
I mean, isn’t it everyone’s right to walk naked around an aircraft? Did you not hear she’s actually a Doctor of some kind?
C’mon people in yhe name of decency and common sense, people would side with this woman.
What os the world really coming up to? And she was travelling with her son.
Im a minority myself, and experienced discrimination myself. How dare she use the race card, not toentipn the gender card also?
Anyone that has seen the photo of her in the romper can easily see it was age inappropriate and way too tight and too short (shorts) on a woman clearly well overweight. Her son should have been “traumatized” by that visual, not the fact that she was asked to cover up. Had absolutely nothing to do with racism or sexism. As well, you would think a women educated to be a physician would have some sophistication and class. Apparently not.
The flight attendant shouldn’t have hassled this woman. Still, my mother would never have worn such an outfit in public. The good doctor’s son is also a crybaby.