What United Airlines Can Teach Us About Change

No one stood up for a nearly 70-year old Asian old man who was bloodied and bruised while being forcibly removed from his paid-for airplane seat. However, I’m pretty sure that if the same exact situation happens tomorrow, others on the flight will take a stand. Why is that?

Power Trip

When a behavior that isn’t quite right is allowed to happen, there’s a power component that normalizes it. There’s also the ease that comes with doing nothing if you’re merely a witness to the injustice. If it’s not your problem, just keep your mouth shut and look the other way. That’s usually a good plan, right?

Unfortunately, bullsh** situations have a tendency to rinse, repeat and remain until some kind of groundswell challenges the power component at play.

A lot has to happen before a bulls** situation can result in actual change.

Change of command

Kudos to to the folks on the plane who raised their voices a bit. Kudos to the people who held up their cell phones and made the footage public for the world to see. Kudos to nearby witnesses who corroborated facts for journalists or even did interviews that shed light on the injustice. Those are important things to do.

Here’s the big question on my mind: Why didn’t anyone do the right thing in terms of being effective right there on the spot, right there in the moment? Why didn’t other passengers block the aisle before he was dragged down it? Why didn’t other flight attendants step in to advocate for common decency or at least a de-escalation of the situation?

Not surprisingly, a woman of color wrote the first piece I saw that raised these questions. Funny how “otherness” comes with an ability to see things the status quo is blind to. What if others had stood up for the guy getting his face bloodied? Just imagine if that now-famous cell phone video would’ve shown everyone on that flight, or even a single white person, standing up and saying, “Hold it right there — this isn’t right.” That could’ve resulted in an immediate groundswell, in the moment, on the actual plane.

That didn’t happen, but at least the groundswell on the overreaching airline problem has started.

Touch and Go

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz initially defended the airline’s inexcusable behavior and even called the injured passenger “disruptive and belligerent.” As the groundswell picked up momentum he eventually walked back those failures at being a good human/company. Munoz eventually apologized and even removed himself from a United Airlines board chairmanship that was slated to take effect in 2018.

Days later, a passenger literally stood up and challenged an American Airlines flight attendant who appeared to be way out of line in a frenzied situation involving a Latina passenger in need of care and understanding after the flight attendant nearly hurt her child. The flight attendant was in defend-the-carry-on-rules-to-the-death mode. Watch the video — a brave samaritan’s words and actions completely changed the power dynamic of that situation in the moment, as it was happening.

Not surprisingly, American Airlines knew better than to snap-judge against the passenger. The airline removed the flight attendant from duty and upgraded the passenger’s family to first-class for the duration of their trip. You could say that American is more PR savvy. I think their approach was somewhat shaped by the groundswell in motion.

Flight or fight?

No excuse can justify the airlines or their worst employees for treating anyone with disrespect. I hate that it’s even necessary to use the word “brave” to describe a person willing to stand up to an air-ragey flight attendant. Being a bad human is being a bad human, whether that involves a flight attendant, a cop or the president.

Regardless of the rules of command in a transporation vessel, a legal confrontation or a governing body, there are times when we must forget the puffed up power in front of our faces and insist on what’s right. In the end, being a good human stands for something — it stands for everything. Stand up for the voiceless, small or different. Call shenanigans when what you see is not what you’re supposed to see or not what you were promised you’d see. Refuse to accept an explanation that is weaker than the rhetoric or burden of proof you’d accept from a child.

A quick word about the state of sky-high customer service and the turbulent situation that flight attendants find themselves in these days — let’s not forget that significant variables completely out of their control have these service workers with their backs against the curved wall. In an effort to maximize profits, the airlines continue to charge us for additional services that used to be free. The overall experience is less reliable and enjoyable. For decades, the FAA used easily disproven, phony science as an excuse to prevent us from escaping into our devices to ease the pain. Passenger frustrations with war-time safety regulations have been steeping for 16 years now. Everyone in the fuselage has a short fuse.

Don’t just stand there…

I view the cabin of United flight 3411 as just another lunch counter with folks minding their own business because they’re the ones being served. It’s just just another bus where those allowed to sit in the front choose not to look into the eyes of those sitting in the back. Would cell phone camera technology have sped up the pace of change back then?

Flight 3411 is just another chain of approvals for a woman’s promotion with a subpar benefits package. It’s just another church full of worshippers following leaders who promote candidates and policies that are 180 degrees from doing what Jesus would do. Would better ringleaders speed up the pace of change on these issues?

That United flight is no different from the gendermandering of the right to vote 100 years ago or the gerrymandering of voting districts today. Change doesn’t happen on its own.

Let’s keep an eye out for opportunities to take a stand as the moments happen. Let’s take action and actually do something because, well, being a good human just isn’t enough.

A lot has to happen before a being a good human can result in actual change.