by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 4:07 PM ET, Fri December 1, 2017
American Airlines has pledged to improve its handling of passenger complaints tied to racially biased treatment and revise the way it trains staff on such matters.
The announcement comes after a meeting this week between the airline's CEO Doug Parker and NAACP President Derrick Johnson, the Associated Press reported.
Earlier this year, the civil-rights group had taken the unprecedented move of issuing a travel advisory for African-Americans, pointing out that they could face discrimination on the airline.
That alert came on the heels of a variety of incidents that made headlines including one instance when the organizer of the Women's March was removed from a flight after a dispute over her seat.
The airline has promised hiring an outside firm to review its diversity in hiring and promotion, Associated Press reported. In addition, American will train all 120,000 of its employees regarding counteracting implicit bias. A special team will also be created to review discrimination complaints lodged by passengers. Finally, American will step up its efforts with regard to resolution of employee complaints tied to bias.
This was the second meeting between Parker and Johnson. Women's March organizer Tamika Mallory and others were also in attendance at the meeting, which took place at the airline's headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.
In October, Mallory-a New York resident, prominent activist and co-chair of the Women's March on Washington-accused a pilot with the airline of racial discrimination after he removed her from a flight after a disagreement with a gate agent about her seat assignment.
Mallory later posted a tearful video about the incident on Facebook, which has been viewed more than half a million times. Not long after the video was posted, the NAACP issued its warning.
The airline has been the subject of 29 racial discrimination complaints by passengers since the start of 2016 through September of this year, according to the Associated Press.
Dartmouth University professor of corporate communications, Paul Argenti, told the news organization that American's newly announced measures are not enough. He called them a good first step but inadequate to truly bring about change.
"This is the kind of thing you do to get by," said Argenti.
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