I’m undecided what’s worse — that folks did this within the first place, or that they thought it was a good suggestion to add this on-line for the world to see.
British Airways crew mocks Chinese language passengers throughout layover
Two London Gatwick (LGW) primarily based British Airways cabin crew have been fired, following their conduct on a current layover on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Throughout a night out ingesting between flights, one of many British Airways cabin crew mocked some Chinese language passengers who had reportedly been on the flight, however spoke little English.
She made a “slant-eyed” gesture, after which in a Chinese language accent mentioned “give me wine.” Her colleague will be heard laughing within the background. The video was uploaded to TikTok, with the caption “two weeks in a row with this d*ckhead.” My gosh, these are some elegant women, as a result of I feel that was meant as a time period of endearment? Is {that a} widespread use within the UK that I’m simply not acquainted with, or…?
The video bought greater than one million views on TikTok, and as you’d count on, it will definitely made its strategy to British Airways administration. British Airways administration known as each of the cabin crew concerned to headquarters. One flight attendant was even on a layover in Cancun (CUN) on the time, and was instantly faraway from obligation, and flew again to London as a passenger.
Each flight attendants have been sacked after the assembly. A British Airways spokesperson mentioned the next:
“All types of racism are utterly unacceptable, and we take allegations of this nature very significantly. These two people are not employed by us.”
This exhibits spectacularly dangerous judgment
It goes with out saying that there are two main points right here.
The primary challenge is that these flight attendants assume this fashion, when it’s their job to serve passengers from all types of backgrounds. This stage of racism is disgusting, however I suppose you’ll be able to’t drive some folks to alter the best way they assume. Sadly alcohol usually brings out the reality in how folks really feel about issues.
Arguably what’s equally dangerous is that the cabin crew behaved this fashion, and thought it confirmed logic to add it to social media. I imply, even when this was executed whereas drunk, how little widespread sense are you displaying by sharing this with the world? It’s infuriating.
Final 12 months, we noticed Cathay Pacific hearth some flight attendants for making enjoyable of passengers from mainland China. That was dangerous sufficient, however at the least this occurred as a result of they have been caught, moderately than as a result of they have been boasting about their racism for the world to see.
Airways across the globe have completely different insurance policies in the case of permitting workers to publish on social media. Particularly, many airways will limit workers from stating what airline they work for, from posting photos in uniform, and many others.
In 2023, British Airways launched a strict new social media coverage. With this coverage, workers are not allowed to publish photographs of them being “professionally engaged” of their jobs. In different phrases, pilots and flight attendants might not publish photographs from onboard plane whereas in uniform.
Presumably British Airways felt that some workers have been both getting distracted throughout work within the identify of making social media content material, or there have been another problematic incidents. Nevertheless, arguably what’s a lot worse is how workers are performing out of uniform whereas drunk on layovers, when stuff like this occurs.
Then once more, we’ve seen seen such racist conduct in uniform whereas (presumably) not drunk. In 2017, a British Airways cabin crew member was sacked after she posted a video complaining about working a flight to Nigeria. She defined that each one the passengers can be asking for upgrades as a result of they don’t have sufficient legroom, as “their BBCs are of their approach.” Oy.
Backside line
British Airways has fired two cabin crew over a racist TikTok that they shared on-line throughout a layover within the Caribbean. They have been making enjoyable of some Chinese language passengers, together with a slant-eyed gesture, plus mimicking their accents.
Their first mistake was being so racist. Their second mistake was pondering that it was sensible to add that on-line.
