News Notes: Why the United Incident is Infuriating

I’m sitting at a cafe and some guy just passed by wearing a shirt that says, “NOT TODAY”…which aptly describes exactly when I will let United’s fuckery [read: blatant lack of human decency] slide.

I am late to the party because words don’t come to me easily. The United situation has captured the attention of a nation of people appalled, and there are so many angles for outrage.

From the news, this is what appears to have happened (as brought to you by the corporation that wouldn’t let two pre-teens board a flight because they were wearing leggings and thought it would be a good idea for a spokesperson to defend the decision by saying, “We want people to be comfortable when they travel as long as it’s neat and in good taste for that environment.”):

• Passengers were led to believe Flight 3411 had been “overbooked.” They were later told four United Airlines employees (on standby) needed seats on Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville. They were offered $400 and a hotel room — no one took the offer. The offer was upped to $800 — no one took the offer.
• Instead of continuing to increase the compensation, a United Airlines employee said the computer would “randomly select” four passengers. It somehow “randomly selected” for two couples. A young couple begrudgingly got off the flight when selected. A Chinese doctor from Kentucky named David Dao and his wife were also asked to give up their seats. David Dao refused.
• The staff called airport police to remove the passenger. Footage of David Dao being dragged off the plane — during which he is depicted as bleeding and unconscious — made the rounds on social media on April 10.
• The United CEO issued a non-apology on Twitter. A video shows the United CEO saying the incident was “upsetting” to United. April 11, internal communications reveal the United CEO justifying the use of force on the “disruptive and belligerent” passenger and praising employees for following protocol.
• News narratives were initially sympathetic to David Dao, painting him as a doctor eager to return home to treat patients. More recent reports bring up his “troubled past” — drug convictions and restrictions on his license to practice medicine — and his foray into cooking and professional poker. There is currently a dispute as to whether this history belongs to a different David Dao.

I want to note four specific takeaways.

1. Following Protocol is a Common Excuse to Substitute Rules for Integrity

We as a nation don’t know how to handle dissent except for with increasing polarization or with “following protocol,” reflecting a breakdown of interpersonal conflict resolution — this is often supported by the way we have police and judges act as authoritative rulemakers and rule-enforcers for a community, taking away our agency and knowledge of how to follow our own internal moral compasses.

In fact, what is so terrifying is that the recently confirmed judge Neil Gorsuch would probably not award any damages to David Dao if we consider his ruling in the frozen trucker case.

2. A Keen Reminder that Money Cannot Buy Human Decency

Just watching the video should evoke a pretty visceral emotion.

We must never forget that paying for services doesn’t guarantee kindness. Being treated well should be an expectation of every human being, independent of our wealth accumulation — although the wealthier can generally feel more entitled to being treated with dignity because their expenditures might reflect a larger amount of the revenues of a business with which they conduct transactions.

Yet our money will never replace stolen dignity. This serves as a tragic reminder that ultimately corporations hold so much power and so much money, that one’s payment for a service is negligent.

3. The Media Narrative — Victim-Blaming

News narratives were initially sympathetic to David Dao, painting him as a doctor eager to return home to treat patients. More recent reports bring up his “troubled past” — drug convictions and restrictions on his license to practice medicine — and his foray into cooking and professional poker. There is currently a dispute as to whether this history belongs to a different David Dao, because the documents list a different full name.

This is a tired old game that victims of police brutality, people of color, women who call out their harassers, formerly incarcerated individuals, etc. are very familiar with, and depicts very irresponsible journalism to sway public opinion against the doctor, despite the fact that none of his alleged past transgressions have any bearing on the present incident.

4. Shattering the Model Minority Stereotype

Damon Young of Very Smart Brothers writes,

Anyone can, however, have some Black-ass shit happen to them. And David Dao, the Chinese doctor recently dragged off of a United Airlines flight — who we’re sure is in fact Chinese because he reportedly literally said “I’m selected because I’m Chinese” before being dragged — wasn’t quite a nigga for a day, but was definitely treated like one. And then United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz added to the niggafication of this ordeal by describing the doctor as “disruptive and belligerent” and apologized for having to inconvenience the other passengers. (Please re-read those last eight words.) After reading that statement, I was immediately reminded of Henry Davis, the man who was beaten by Ferguson police and then charged with property damage because he bled on their uniforms. Which is just one of countless examples of something like that happening to a Black person; where pain is inflicted on us, and our natural and justifiable response to that pain is treated as some sort of burden and agitation. We’re the insensitive and violent ones for merely reacting to violence; for getting hit and saying “Oww. That hurt. Please stop.”

I don’t want to be that person, pulling out the capital ‘R’ card, but this is reminiscent of Derald Sue Wong’s introduction to his 2007 paper on microaggressions — a paper that popularized today’s use of the term. He describes the experience in which he and his Black colleague had been asked to change their seats to the back of the plane to balance the weight, a seemingly innocuous request that was directed at two people of color, but not the two white passengers in front of them. The insidious nature of racial stereotypes and how they affect the treatment of racialized people runs parallel to the treatment of this 69-year old East Asian man.

We have to consider whether the airport police would have considered dragging the man if he were of another identity. Had a white woman been reluctant to give up her seat— would the staff have called in the airport police as soon? If they called the airport police, would the airport police have continued to drag her out if she was bleeding and unconscious?

East Asians must also take this story as a sign to not buy into the myth of the model minority, which makes us complicit in anti-Blackness.

Alright, bye.