Photo: Stockpile
United Airlines announced a pilot diversity initiative to recruit women and BIPOC people via Twitter. In response, white men shed racist tears because the company dared to challenge the status quo of white supremacy.
The airline stated in the announcement the goal is to have 50% of the 5,000 pilots they plan to train “be women or people of color” over the next decade.
Americans should applaud the fact that United Airlines realizes that the company’s team of pilots is overwhelmingly white and male and that they want to diversify, right? After all, any company’s workforce should resemble the country’s actual population it serves, and people need to see themselves represented in corporations they support.
However, United Airlines’ news was met with scorn, primarily from white men beginning with an article for Fox News written by Tucker Carlson, who referred to “equity” as a “scheme.” Carlson writes, “United Airlines is mandating affirmative action quotas in its flight schools. This is a big change for the country.” We know there are two Americas, one white and one for the rest of us. So which one is he speaking of? Change for whom?
On Twitter, white men like Carlson and some white women, who attempted to sound as if they were concerned for the BIPOC community, gave the “I don’t care what color my pilot is” disclaimer before decrying in coded racist language that they preferred a white pilot by using words like “best,” “qualified,” “not because they have a skin color.”
The responses on Twitter were abominable. There was less focus on gender and an overwhelming focus on race from the very people who always ask, “why is everything always about race?”
BIPOC, specifically Black people, were called “tokens,” “untrustworthy,” “unsafe,” and “unqualified.” For its part, United was declared to be “fake woke” by many who claimed the airline was posing for the “neoliberal,” “neo-racist left” with “affirmative action hires.”