American Airlines Hit With Backlash For Allowing Flight Attendants To Wear ‘Black Lives Matter’ Pins

American Airlines is being hit with tons of backlash after announcing on Sunday that it would allow flight attendants to wear “Black Lives Matter” pins on their uniform while on duty.

American Airlines Allows Employees To Wear BLM Pins

“Clearly we live in a time where it is so important to have a dialogue about this important issue of racism in our society and try to find common ground,” American Airlines said in a statement, according to Fox News. “American is truly committed to having an inclusive culture that is welcoming to all and a reflection of our country and world.”

“This is why American is so committed to creating a more tolerant and diverse team,” the airline company added. “Through our partnership with American’s office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, we are continuing to work through an overall plan for addressing these issues in our workplace.”

Not stopping there, American Airlines also said that it is working on its own signature pin to show “its symbolic support of a diverse and inclusive work environment.” This pin will reportedly be created by the airline’s Black Professional Network.

American Airlines Hit With Backlash

However, this move quickly backfired on American Airlines when it began getting backlash from its own employees for it.

“I take offense to this,” one AA flight attendant wrote in response to the announcement, according to the New York Post. “Serious offense. My husband is a LEO (Law Enforcement Officer), as was my deceased father and as far as I’m concerned ALL LIVES MATTER.”

“I am completely disgusted at the fact that we can’t show support for our GOD, our COUNTRY, our LEOs but when it comes to BLM organization (which is controversial in itself), American Airlines says that’s obviously different,” the employee added. “How is that right? Well, I don’t feel included.”

Another flight attendant expressed fears for employees who don’t wear the pin, saying they could “be ostracized and labeled as racist.” This employee added that Black Lives Matter is a “a terrorist organization that promotes violence to further their agenda.”

Jill Surdek, the airline’s senior vice president for flight services, responded to the backlash by sending out an email to employees.

“American is truly committed to having an inclusive culture that is welcoming to all and a reflection of our country and world,” she said. “One symbolic way to show our support is through a uniform pin. We are working with our Black Professional Network on designing a specific pin that may be worn with the uniform. In the interim until this pin is produced, to recognize the significance of this moment in history, we are allowing people to wear a Black Lives Matter Pin.”

This piece was written by PoliZette Staff on September 7, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.