Amanda Stevens of Albany, New York, is a black transgendered journalist. She boarded a United Airlines plane to get to Chicago to cover a League of Legends event. Her attire as she boarded the plane was a hat with the logo of Marvel’s Black Panther and an ASAP Rocky shirt with an upside-down American flag. The design of that shirt was actually pulled from Pac Sun last summer. A pilot on the train asked Stevens to take it off due to the fact that it made him uncomfortable.
Stevens turned the shirt inside out. That was just the half of it thought. Once seated on the plane, she was told she had to take her hat off also. Stevens then tweeted,
‘And now I am being told I can’t wear my hat @united this is unreal and fucking racist.’
Stevens then tweeted about being kicked off the plane after a heated exchange with the flight attendant. The attendant asked Stevens to put her bag under the seat in front of her. Stevens said,
“I didn’t know if I was going to be staying on the plane or not and I said that. She was grumbling because I was frustrated.”
Stevens was able to get another flight and got to Chicago in one peace. United released a short statement saying,
“Both United and SkyWest hold our employees to the highest standards of professionalism and have zero tolerance for discrimination.”
Following this incident, a lot of people tweeted how they will no longer use the airline. All over a shirt. Pretty ridiculous.
Source: Complex
