New York – ColorofChange today expressed outrage at the vastly different treatment of two airline passengers – one white and one black – who both were removed from flights because they were wearing “saggy pants.”
Green Day singer Billy Joe Armstrong was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight on September 1 and sent home for his “sagging pants.” On June 15th of this year, University of New Mexico student Deshon Marmon was removed from his US Airways flight, shackled, arrested and charged with a felony for “sagging” his pants. Southwest Airlines has apologized, while US Airways has refused to do so.
The double standard faced by Deshon is connected to a larger problem Black youth face with a legal system that punishes and criminalizes them at higher rates, even when there is no difference in behavior.
“The differences in treatment between Billy Joe Armstrong and Deshon Marmon is yet another example of the America black people experience every day,” said Rashad Robinson executive director of ColorOfChange. “An America where harsher punishments and unequal treatment greet black folks everywhere from the school house to the courthouse. The vastly different treatment of these two passengers underscores the need for greater oversight and training by the airlines to ensure that discretionary policies are implemented uniformly, regardless of one’s race.”
US Airways admittedly does not have a dress code for their passengers and has allowed an older white male passenger to fly in underwear — without outer garments — as recently as a week prior to Deshon’s arrest.
After US Airways’ mistreatment of Deshon Marmon, nearly 40,000 ColorOfChange members signed a petition calling on the airline to apologize and explain steps it would take to ensure that a similar discriminatory incident wouldn’t happen in the future. A copy of the petition can be found here: http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/usairways/.
However you feel about sagging pants, it’s clear that US Airways’ response to Marman’s clothing was inappropriate and discriminatory. While prosecutors have decided not to file charges against Marman, leadership at US Airways is still defending the way their employees treated him.
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With more than 750,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest Black online political organization.