Dem
51
GOP
49
As if Taylor Swift isn't causing enough aggravation in the rightosphere, another bête noire is the DEI policy adopted by some airlines (and the FAA). The fear is not so much being handed a small bag of pretzels by a Black flight attendant who ostensibly got her job despite her inability to hand out bags of pretzels properly. It is (the nutty fear) that the pilot was hired due to his race rather than his ability to fly airplanes.
How did this start? On Fox Business, some random FAA employee said that DEI programs could compromise aviation safety. For example, a door plug blew out on a recent Alaska Airlines flight. The former FAA employee suggested that maybe it was installed by an affirmative action employee at Boeing who got hired based on his race and who knew nothing about door plug installation. Of course, maybe it was installed by a churchgoing white Christian nationalist man who was too busy praying to install the door plug properly. Anything is possible. All that the employee knows is that Boeing has a DEI program, and in his (not-so-) humble opinion, that could compromise safety.
Just for the record, neither Boeing nor the FAA has changed their DEI policies recently. The ones in force now are the same ones that were in force during the Trump administration. The big difference between now and then is not the DEI policies of any organization, but who is president. When a wheel fell off a jet in Atlanta last week, Donald Trump Jr. said it must be due to DEI. Anything that goes wrong anywhere in the country now is obviously due to DEI. Truth be told we are surprised that right-wingers have not realized that Taylor Swift isn't the reason the Ravens lost to the Chiefs (see above)—DEI is.
Junior isn't alone. Podcaster Charlie Kirk said he has no choice but to be prejudiced against Black pilots because they benefited from a DEI program. He said: "I'm sorry, if I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like: 'Boy, I hope he is qualified.'" Of course, other people might think: "The pilot is wearing a small cross on a necklace. Maybe he doesn't know how to fly a plane and is just assuming God will handle it."
The fraction of pilots and flight engineers who are Black grew from 2.7% in 2017 to 3.6% in 2023, Asians fell from 4.2% to 2.7%. Latinos rose from 6.8% to 10.7%. Women went from 9% to 8.3%. These numbers go up and down over time just due to turnover in a high-pressure job.
Jessica Muench, chief DEI officer at United Airlines, said: "We are talking about fishing for talent in new ponds." She also noted that United is putting money into academies that train pilots and mechanics to offer scholarships to applicants who are qualified to be admitted but who can't afford the steep tuition. Students at flight academies are years from being hired by any airline. They first have to graduate. They take the same tests as everyone else. The Air Line Pilots Association, a union for 77,000 pilots in the U.S. and Canada, said "Flying is the safest mode of transportation in the world thanks in large part to airline pilots, professionals that are all held to the highest training and qualification standards." (V)