A black doctor claims that when she volunteered to help a man on a Delta flight who needed medical attention, a flight attendant stopped her out of apparent disbelief that the young woman of color was really a medical professional.
“I'm sure many of my fellow young, corporate America working women of color can all understand my frustration when I say I'm sick of being disrespected,” wrote Tamika Cross on Sunday in a now-viral Facebook post.
Cross, whose LinkedIn profile lists her as a resident OB-GYN physician at the University of Texas Health Science Center, wrote that she was on a Delta flight from Detroit to Minneapolis when a passenger two rows ahead started yelling for help because her husband was unresponsive.
According to Cross' post, the flight attendant - who initially dismissed the problem as a “night terror” - ultimately yelled out for a doctor, and Cross raised her hand.
“She said to me, 'Oh no sweetie, put ur hand down, we are looking for actual physicians or nurses or some type of medical personnel, we don't have time to talk to you.' I tried to inform her that I was a physician but I was continually cut off by condescending remarks,” Cross wrote.
Cross claimed in her post that after she insisted she was a doctor, the flight attendant allegedly said, “Oh wow, you're an actual physician?” and asked to see her credentials.
She went on to write that a white male approached and said he was a physician, and the flight attendant immediately told Cross they didn't need her help because they had him to assist.
About 10 minutes after the passenger began to recover, Cross said the flight attendant approached her for further assistance with the man in distress. She also wrote that the flight attendant ultimately apologized and offered her Delta Skymiles, but that wasn't going to cut it.
“I kindly refused. This is going higher than her. I don't want Skymiles in exchange for blatant discrimination. Whether this was race, age, gender discrimination, it's not right,” she wrote.
Cross' post has garnered thousands of supportive comments, some recounting similar instances of racism and/or sexism in the professional world.
Delta said in a statement to The Huffington Post on Thursday that the company is working with Cross and investigating the incident.
“Discrimination of any kind is never acceptable,” said Catherine Sirna, a Delta spokeswoman. “We've been in contact with Dr. Cross and one of our senior leaders is reaching out to assure her that we're completing a full investigation.”
Cross has not replied to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
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