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Upgrade U: Delta Air Lines Praised For Response To ‘Karen’ Who Harassed Black Woman On Flight

This was the right move.

Delta Air Lines is receiving praise after it upgraded the seat of a Black customer after she was reportedly harassed by a white woman during a flight last week.

Demetria Poe says she was seated next to a white woman who purposefully switched up her American flag face mask for a Blue Lives Matter mask once she realized her seat mate would be a Black woman.

"That woman was trying to entice me into an argument because there was no need for her to flip that mask in my presence," Poe told USA Today. "She didn’t do it for anyone else. It was as if she was making a statement and wanted me to know."

RELATED: Black Detroit Woman Says A White Passenger Refused To Sit Next To Her On Spirit Airlines Flight

Poe, who is 25, shared her experience on Facebook on Tuesday (September 1). She says she’s pleased with how Delta handled the situation and says she’ll only fly with the airline from now on. She was also gifted a Black Lives Matter pin along with her seat upgrade on her return flight.

Poe says she didn’t engage with the white woman because she knew she was trying to provoke her. Poe did however say that the woman started a dialogue.

"I support blue lives because I support our officers," Poe claims the woman said. Poe responded that there are no such things as “blue lives.”

"The life of an officer exists, but there is no such thing as a blue life and that statement is nothing but a rebuttal to the fact that BLM has been disregarded time after time," she wrote in her Facebook post. "Us saying Black lives matter don’t mean all other lives don’t matter. We are saying if all lives matter, 'Why is it justifiable for anyone to slaughter Black people?'"

Poe says the whole incident was ironic because she was on a flight from Minnesota to D.C. to participate in the national Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks event where demonstrators demanded long-lasting change to end systemic racism.

"I'm marching for something that my grandparents had to march for, and I’m sitting here in the face of racism once again,” she told USA Today. “I can’t escape it. Now I’m having someone who is trying to test my humanity and my history all in one breath."

 

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