Southwest flight attendant’s chat about race with American Airlines CEO boosts morale
JacqueRae Hill was not looking for attention. Far from it.
She had no idea a 10-minute conversation with a complete stranger at work would result in her being hailed as a change-agent for one of the country’s biggest companies.
Hill was beaten down, angry and frustrated by last week’s killing of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officers and emotional over the protests and uprisings that have engulfed cities across the country in the days since videos of the incident have come to light.
She just wanted to have a conversation about race with a person who she thought had a willing ear and an open mind.
Hill, an African American woman who lives in Duncanville, has worked as a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines for the last 14 years.
She was at work last Friday, mentally exhausted and on fumes, getting ready for her flight from Love Field to Panama City, Fla., when she noticed a white male passenger plop down in row 25 and put the best-selling book on racism, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism,’‘ by Robin DiAngelo in the seat-back pocket.
The frustration of the racial unrest gripping the country and an intrigue about the passenger with the book led her to sit down in an aisle seat next to the man and start a conversation that resulted in tears, hugs and possibly a blueprint for racial reconciliation.
Unbeknownst to Hill, the man wasn’t just any passenger. He was Doug Parker CEO of Fort Worth-based American Airlines, who was seemingly divinely forced to book a flight on rival Dallas-based Southwest because all the seats on American to Florida were sold out.
Parker was so moved by his interaction with Hill that he sent an email to other American Airlines executives describing it “as an absolute gift to me” and stressed the importance of listening.
“These are trying times,” Parker said in the email, which has since been made public. “Our people are hurting. I’m not certain what all of the answers are, but I know it involves talking to each other. And listening. And it takes courage and leadership to start the conversation and to stand up for what is right. JacqueRae taught me all that.’‘
Hill shared the encounter on her Facebook page on Saturday but Parker’s email and the resulting media inquiries have given her more attention than she got as former basketball star at Duncanville High School and four-year letterman at Tarleton State University in Stephenville.
Hill has talked to USA Today and ABC in New York. People from Australia and Spain have reached out to her.
“It’s so overwhelming,” Hill said late Monday night from Philadelphia while in the middle of another long work trip that began on Saturday and won’t end until Thursday. “It’s making me cry every day. I have been an emotional wreck. It’s been crazy but it’s been great.”
Her biggest impact may have been on American Airlines as she has received messages from over 100 employees who say her conversation with Parker has changed the morale of the company. Oddly, Hill’s mother works for American Airlines in Washington, D.C., and she too has received emails from countless co-workers saying the same thing.
“It’s been so much,” Hill said. “I thought I had a small influence on the people I have known. But not to this magnitude.”
Hill is still a little sheepish about the attention because that was not her intention. She says people are calling her courageous to talk to Parker. Hill said she didn’t know who he was. She just wanted to talk and she has never been shy about talking to people.
“People think you have to be courageous to have those conversations,” Hill said. “You just have to open your mouth. It’s getting a lot of attention because of who he is. But I didn’t know. I just figured he was open to talk because he had the book.”
Parker had begun reading the book upon the recommendation of an African American friend and American Airlines board member, he said in the email. “The horrific and senseless death of George Floyd reminded me there were bigger issues in our world than coronavirus, so I packed the book for the trip.”
And he had no idea what was to come next when Hill sat down next to him and asked about the book.
“My ego again assumes she has recognized me, mask and all, and wants to know why I’m flying Southwest,’‘ Parker said in his note. “But, no, she has no idea who I am. She is a young, black woman and she points at the book lodged in my seat pocket and asks, ‘How do you like that book?’ I say it’s fantastic and defensively show her how I’m a bit past midway. She says, ‘It’s on my list to read and I saw you bring it onboard and I just wanted to talk to you.”
Hill wasn’t even really emotional when she sat down.
But once she asked Parker about the book and he responded that a lot of the issues with race in the country were the fault of white people, she “started balling.”
Parker provided a shoulder to cry on and a hug.
“I felt wholly inadequate but I knew it was a special moment,” Parker continued in the long email. “The best I could do was tell her that the book talks about how white people are horrible at talking about racism, and that what we need are real conversations. She agreed. I told her I was trying to learn and through tears and a mask, she said, “So am I.”
“We talked for a good ten minutes and it was an absolute gift to me.”
Parker then told Hill who he was, which resulted in more tears from Hill who told him her mother worked for American Airlines.
He was soon exchanging emails with her mother explaining how special Hill was and the impression she left on him.
“Reading a book is one thing — spending time with a kind, strong, young black woman who is hurting and trying to learn from others is another thing altogether,” Parker said in the email.
Parker wrote a note to Hill before deplaning. He said her visit was a gift from God and an inspiration.
“I’m sad that we as a society have progressed so slowly on an issue that has a clear right versus wrong,” Parker continued. “The problem is we don’t talk about it enough. Thank you for talking to me and sharing your emotions. That took courage.”
In between flights and media requests, the courageous Hill has continued her conversations about race with friends and strangers alike. And making similar impacts.
On Sunday, Hill said a comment on Facebook immediately spun into a phone call and an hour-long conversation with a man she did not know. “He was saying ‘All lives matter’ and by the end of the call he was explaining to someone else why ‘Black lives matter.’”
That guy was Scott Nau of Forney who acknowledged the conversation on his Facebook page. He called it “beautiful and enlightening” and “thanked God” for making a new friend.
All because Hill became a change-agent for a company and, perhaps even, for a divided country as well.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 11:37 AM.
