Southwest Microaggressions

My classmate Andrew brought up a microaggression he had to deal with on a flight where he works as a flight attendant. He said someone came in and said, “why don’t you hire any pretty ladies anymore.”

Whenever I think of microaggressions and airlines I think of Southwest Airlines. I believe that in order to lighten the mood a flight attendant used a nursery rhyme to try to motivate and amuse the passengers to get underway. The problem was that the nursery rhyme has negative and racist overtones that the flight attendant was unaware of (see link here). The airline was subsequently sued, and I’m sure that Southwest and the flight attendant have been re-trained on how to use humor to motivate passengers. The story has always resonated with me however, if only because I identified with the flight attendant. I remember an interview she did in which she said all her life she had no idea that there were any racial undertones. Like her, I’ve heard that nursery rhyme and also like her I had no clue there were racial undertones. 

It brings up some interesting thoughts about intentionality and humor (as well as litigiousness in our society). I know that I used humor to deflect and to motivate and inspire in the work place. I always wonder if there are undertones that I’m not aware of that could come back and haunt me just as what happened with the flight attendant. 

I know too that this ability to deflect with humor has actually helped me defer and deal with micro insults, both covert and overt. There’s what I mention below about my name in the discussion below, and more. In Andrew’s case I would imagine I would have told that gentlemen “The reason we don’t have so many attractive females flight attendants is that they found so many more attractive male flight attendants like me! Thanks for noticing!”