Black United Pilots Claim Discrimination

Not that anyone asked, here is my point of view on diversity in the workplace and why it's important.

Racism and other kinds of bigotry are born out of ignorance. Whether you go to klan meetings on a regular basis or if it's a little more below the surface, these feelings are the result of a lack of shared experiences with whatever group of people it is that makes you feel uncomfortable.

Here's an example from my own life. Growing up like most teenagers I thought "the gays" were gross. Not knowing any made it easy to make lots of jokes and derogatory remarks about them. Towards the tail end of high school, it turned out that one of my close friends came out of the closet. Then it dawned on me, for all those years that I knew him, any time I'd make a remark, I was really insulting my friend. I also realized that despite being gay, he was still a great friend and my preconceived notions on the whole subject changed because now it was personal. I was never hit on or made uncomfortable.

It's the same with race and gender. When someone makes a joke about how women can't drive, they're talking about my wife, my mom, and my sister. When the captain I'm flying with says "why do we want to let in more refugees, the (n words) we have in this country already don't want to work" they're talking about very close friends of mine.

This is not a diverse industry at all. It absolute is an old white guy's club. I think even if they have to "massage" the hiring numbers a bit to make it a bit more diverse, only good things can come from that over time.
 
MikeD said:
Agreed. I mean, you're scrambling along with the bombers, and that's assuming you don't crash on takeoff because there's only a few seconds interval between you and the preceding jet and their wake turbulence. Then you pass off all your fuel to the bombers leaving you with about 10K or so, thus leaving you with extremely limited options of where you can divert to and land. And where you land, will likely get nuked in short order.

Here's a vid of the takeoff...in and of itself a flight safety nightmare. But when Soviet ICBMs are inbound, flushing aircraft the hell off the ground, is paramount. Order is 3 bombers, 3 tankers, 3 bombers, 3 tankers, until everyone is gone. By the 2nd jet off the ground, you're IMC on takeoff. Still badass to see, with such heavy aircraft.

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What airport is that?
 
Derg said:
I do hear "stories" from pilots at a particular carrier, which I will not name, but man, that's the next one to hit the headlines I think. Slightly different environment there which may foster certain personality types. Those stories lead me to want to walk into their crew room and ask, "How can you have EFIS, but still speak like it's the Jim Crowe era?" :)
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Are their aircraft colors fabulous?
 
Avgirl said:
Yes, I read the initial article, not the press release you posted until now obviously, but I still think the harassment claims have more traction than discrimination. JMHO.
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As an HR professional, I can tell you they are both powerful and more powerful is retaliation, which is also claimed.
 
MikeD said:
Agreed. I mean, you're scrambling along with the bombers, and that's assuming you don't crash on takeoff because there's only a few seconds interval between you and the preceding jet and their wake turbulence. Then you pass off all your fuel to the bombers leaving you with about 10K or so, thus leaving you with extremely limited options of where you can divert to and land. And where you land, will likely get nuked in short order.

Here's a vid of the takeoff...in and of itself a flight safety nightmare. But when Soviet ICBMs are inbound, flushing aircraft the hell off the ground, is paramount. Order is 3 bombers, 3 tankers, 3 bombers, 3 tankers, until everyone is gone. By the 2nd jet off the ground, you're IMC on takeoff. Still badass to see, with such heavy aircraft.

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That is just holy hell badass.
 
Derg said:
Wow, man.

At some point we (the COLLECTIVE we) have to police ourselves.

Obviously I'm not going to be exposed to "those dark people" comments, but I have heard the "Wimminz" and the "gays" on very, very rare occasion and I'll correct it on the spot, at that moment, from any seat I'm in.

That's not political correctness, that's just being a responsible professional.
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This. This. This. A thousand times this.

Richman
 
Avgirl said:
Fair with the seniority thing. But, they don't really seem to mention that as the reason for this lawsuit. It seems like the issue is harassment. They mention that there is discrimination where they won't even hire black pilots. Like so many lawsuits out there, I think they are trying to embellish things on that front...because how many applicants are there? What percentage of those are hired, and why aren't they hired? It is easy to say that there is discrimination when your applicant pool to choose from isn't very diverse in the first place.
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The moment anyone figures out a definitive answer for why legacy airlines hire certain people and not others.... please share that knowledge. Most of us spend a decade or so trying to crack that code, and then when we do we have no idea how it happened so we still can't do any better than "well this is what I did, but you've done the same and I don't know why they're not calling..."
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
This is horrible. I don't look Jewish and have had to sit through some long winded cockpit talk about how awful "teh jewz" are. I can't imagine going through anything like this:
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Honest question, but how does one "look" jewish? In terms of clothes (you're in a uniform) or is there something physical that would denote that? For that matter, how does one look christian/hindu/etc, etc? I'm just curious what the judging factor(s) is/are.

The Coalition pilots allege that white pilots have disparagingly referred to African-American pilots as "consent decree hires" and "equal opportunity hires." In addition, in one pilot's case, currently pending in federal court in Houston, TX (Case No. 15-cv-00474-VC), a photograph of a black man being lynched by a group of white supremacists was placed in the black United pilot's United Airlines Flight Office mailbox, in Houston, with a note, "How to Move Up in Seniority at United Airlines." In another case (1:13-cv-01125-LMB-TRJ), a paper was left in the mailbox of an African American Flight Attendant. This paper was called a "N**ger Tag – Federal N**ger Hunting License," declaring that the holder was "licensed to hunt & kill N**GERS during the open search hereof in the U.S." and purported to give "the holder permission to hunt day or night, with or without dogs." A hand-drawn image of a person hanging from a pole or a tree appeared on one corner of the document, along with the words "this is for you."
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I would think that in this day and age of technology, much less surveillance, that it should be pretty easy to find perpetrators of these actions.
 
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