A resurfaced clip of a Delta Air Lines DEI officer effectively banning the use of the term “ladies and gentlemen” has sparked fury on social media.
Chief Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Social Impact Officer Keyra Lynn Johnson made the comments on a February 2021 Zoom call as she sought to introduce a more “inclusive” experience for staff and passengers.
“So, we’re beginning to take a hard look at things like our gatehouse announcements. You know, we welcome ‘ladies and gentlemen.’ And we’ve asked ourselves, ‘Is that as gender inclusive as we want to be?’” Johnson said in the call with other DEI officers. “You know, we’re looking at some legacy language that exists in some of our employee manuals. And getting to the root of the way some things are described and saying, ‘Does that actually send a message of inclusivity?’”
It has not been the strongest year for woke-avoidance aviation following a scandal earlier this year in which the term “cockpit” was deemed to be non-inclusive.
Delta itself has struggled away from wokeism, with the company in a major dispute with CrowdStrike following the global outage on Friday, July 19.
Many on social media wondered whether Delta had its priorities correct.
Others shared their thoughts that job roles should be filled based on qualifications.
