Faux News and the DEI Airline

This is a Schnell Post: short and to the point.

A recent news feed pointed me to an article on the FoxBusiness website decrying what appeared to be the latest DEI nonsense in the skies. The headline proclaimed: “Delta’s top DEI officer jettisons ‘ladies and gentlemen’ gate announcements as part of equity push.”

click image for the full article

Now, I was brought up to believe that it was simply polite and respectful to refer to women as “ladies” and men as “gentlemen.” It wasn’t a matter of gender assignment, it was good manners. Something of a lost art these days.

So naturally I got all tooled up to rip into Delta for this latest attempt at cultural erosion when I noticed something: the quote on which the article was based was three years old.

Three years ago was the height of cultural inversion: “criminals” were the ones who weren’t wearing a mask, Blacks were rioting for new televisions, and the more piercings and hair-color one had, the more credible a source the Main-Stream-Media® considered you to be.

It would have been news if Delta didn’t offer-up some DEI bone to the neo-communist dogs.

However, the bone being offered, I found no evidence the policy was actually implemented.

Clearly, this article was little more than Faux News offering click-bait to its readers in the hope of ginning up outrage and presumably, given the timing, an effort to counter the DEI narrative so front-and-center at the Democratic National Convention.

But it is disingenuous and unnecessary when there are many current examples to be found in our schools, our Secret Service, and our military. It is a disservice to reality and a great example of how the Legacy Media® tries to manipulate its audience.

And yet…the continuing emphasis on DEI in positions and industries that are, literally, a matter of life-and-death, including the airline industry, is a matter for real concern. So I thought I would look into a bit:

Delta proudly boasts of its DEI hiring practices, pilot training, and ever growing minority representation in its workforce.

source: https://www.delta.com/us/en/about-delta/diversity

At the same time, a cursory look at recent Delta mishaps gives one pause:

  • January 14, 2020: After a compressor stall and given the option to dump fuel over the Pacific ocean, the flight crew decided to return to LAX and dumped the fuel over a 5-mile stretch of Los Angeles, including five elementary schools and a high school.
  • June 23, 2023: Suicide by Delta: an airport ramp worker at San Antonio International was ingested by the right engine of the aircraft. Something similar happened in January of this year at Salt Lake International.
  • July 3, 2024: On a flight from Detroit to Amsterdam, several passengers became sick after spoiled food was served.
  • July 13, 2024: Loss of cabin pressure on flight from Jackson, WY to Atlanta, GA.
  • July 25, 2024: Engine shutdown in flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
  • August 2, 2024: Flight aborted from Minneapolis to Houston when smoke reported in the cabin after takeoff.
  • August 7, 2024: Flight to Paris aborted while climbing out of Boston when fumes were reported in the cabin and several crew became ill.

Many more examples can be found at: aeroinside.com. Indeed, there seems to be an incident every week. Certainly every two weeks.

“Non-binary Gender Identifiers Now Available in Delta Travel Systems   

As part of Delta’s ongoing efforts to reflect inclusivity and ensure an equitable travel experience for all customers, we are launching non-binary gender options for customers to select during the booking process. Delta customers will now be able to select X (Unspecified) or U (Undisclosed) in addition to M (Male) and F (Female) to identify their gender in Delta’s travel systems.” source: Delta Professional

Granted, there is not necessarily a direct correlational between Delta’s DEI practices and these incidents. There is, however, a real question of priorities. Instead of spending millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours focused on the color of a person’s skin and a comprehensive list of pronouns, perhaps they should be working to make the average passenger as comfortable and as safe as possible. After all, if Joey can’t wear a skirt down the isle, his/her/they/them/its feelings might get hurt. But if Joey’s plane falls from the sky…

Amerika Erwache!