Another day, another complaint about racist treatment from United Airlines…
After a Muslim woman said she encountered negative treatment back in May, rising singer Kehlani has some complains of her own about the airline. Yesterday (June 6), the singer aired out her frustrations on Twitter accusing the flight attendants of negative, racially-charged treatment she and her dancers received.
According to the tweets (which along with her Twitter account has now been deleted), the flight attendants called them the n-word, then kicked them off the flight after saying she tried to harm one of the attendants.
“Fuck United Airlines you’re racist, you condone disrespectful flight attendants and racial slurs,” she tweeted. “They just kicked me and my dancers off for asking to be talked to like a human being… then lied and said I tried to trip a flight attendant..” Another tweet read, “God give me the strength to not beat the fuck out of these racist flight attendants.” Even disclosed the names of the flight attendants in her next tweet, “JAMES DARBY MICHELE RUBINO RYAN NUTSCH PEGGY RIESSEN @united YOUR RACIST FLIGHT ATTENDANTS.”
The singer then deleted her Twitter account, and posted an explanation as to why on Instagram: “Due to constantly being misunderstood..Having my words constantly used against me… And for the sake of my mental health… I deactivated my Twitter account. From now on I’ll just let my music speak,” she wrote.
United Airlines replied via Twitter to Kehlani’s complaints, tweeting, “@kehlanimusic We would like to hear more details so we can look into this further. Please follow & DM us your flight details. ^ML”
The airline company replied to feminist blog Jezebel, who reached out to them for comment. They say Kehlani and her crew failed to follow instructions, and the racial accusations are false:
“Ms. Parrish was traveling with a group of passengers, several of whom ignored repeated crew requests to stow their bags and comply with other FAA safety regulations after the plane left the gate. After one of the passengers threatened a flight attendant, the aircraft returned to the gate. The group chose to fly on the next United flight after agreeing to comply with FAA regulations. Claims that the passengers were removed for any reason other than not following instructions are entirely inaccurate.”
