A black woman has alleged that Delta Air Lines only progressed her application to become a flight attendant with the Atlanta-based carrier after she said she was actually white.
In a now viral TikTok video, Regina De’Chabert said she had been unsuccessfully applying to become a flight attendant with Delta for the last five years but finally got a call back earlier this year when she claimed to be white.
The video has racked up more than 280,000 views since Regina uploaded it on March 13 but her allegations have proven controversial with some claiming her previous knock backs had nothing to do with her race.
Although Regina has now disabled commenting on the video she has replied to some critics in follow up TikTok posts.
“Girl, the hell you talking about. My mon just got hired for delta as a black woman,” one person wrote in response to Regina’s allegations. “Maybe it’s just you they don’t want”.
Someone else said they had made it to the face to face interview with Delta and had won a conditional job offer with another legacy as a black woman.
“What I will say is, I’m so happy for the other black women in this field who have got call backs, jobs, etc etc,” Regina replied. “Just because you got the job doesn’t negate my experience,” she continued.
Regina also called out JetBlue and other airlines in the New York City area. “I’m not saying they don’t hire black women in general, it’s just I’ve been trying five years and I did a white woman application once and I got a call back. Stop!”
The latest allegation comes just weeks after another black woman claimed she was “humiliated” by Delta Air workers who made her move to the back of the plane on a recent flight to make room for two white women.
Camille Henderson was flying from Atlanta to San Francisco on February 3 when she claims a flight attendant asked her to move in order to accommodate the white passengers. Delta apologised for the incident, saying the “allegations run counter to our deeply-held values of respecting and honouring the diversity of our customers”.
Regina has not made any direct claims of discrimination against Delta and there is no evidence to suggest the airline has discriminated against Regina or that Delta’s hiring process could be either be deliberately or unconsciously bias.
What we do know, however, is that Delta is currently on a massive hiring spree for new flight attendants and that the airline is struggling to find enough new recruits.
Delta has just reopened flight attendant hiring for the third time in just seven months – a move that would have been unheard of before the pandemic. The carriers hopes to train 4,500 new hire flight attendants by the end of the year and sources claim recruiters are calling back some candidates who failed the initial screening just a few months ago.
In February, Delta said it was partnering with a former flight attendant to designate February 16 as International Black Aviation Professionals Day.
