She was bumped up to Delta Air Lines business class. Then a stranger asked her what she does for a living: ‘Do you work for Delta?’
It was her "first time" in commercial.
Tenicka B (@tenickab), a Black woman from New York City, was bumped up to business class at Delta Air Lines. But during the short domestic flight, she allegedly dealt with a microaggression from another passenger.
“One of my favorite things to do is to fight a microaggression with a macroaggression,” Tenicka told TikTok. She explained that in Delta Air Lines’ SkyMiles loyalty program, she was in the Delta Diamond bracket. It’s Delta’s highest loyalty tier. But then, Tenicka alleged that a man came over shortly after and looked her up and down. He sized her up like this woman’s Hinge date from hell.
“What do you do for work? What do you do for a living?” the man allegedly asked Tenicka. The man hadn’t even introduced himself to Tenicka yet. She looked at him and gave him a dumbfounded response.
“Do you work for Delta? Do you work here?” she replied. The man awkwardly said no. Tenicka continued, “Oh, okay, because this is my first time flying commercial. And you see, on private, only the staff talk to you.” She asked what he was doing next to her, and he explained that he was her seatmate for the trip.
An awkward Delta flight
“Oh, okay, is that what they do on commercial flights? They sit next to you and talk to you?” She asked. Essentially, Tenicka didn’t want a stranger to speak to her, much like this woman from a Miami gym. The man allegedly started to excuse himself when Tenicka said this was her first time on a commercial flight.
“It’s my first time flying commercial. I don’t know what’s going on here,” she said, pulling her Hermes 30 Birkin bag into the frame to prove a point. The bag, in rouge grenat color, can cost upwards of $24,000.
“I thought maybe all you girls were on this flight to assist me, okay?” she feigned, talking about the other passengers on the plane. In the end, Tenicka even asked the man to put her bag in the cabin. The clip went viral, and others started sharing their snappy responses to microaggressions in Tenicka’s comment section.
How other people are handling microaggressions
One said, “I told one once I don’t participate in public surveys.” Meanwhile, another woman recalled her honeymoon with her husband. She alleged an old, white couple kept grilling them about their jobs during dinner. When asked if it pays well, she replied, “It must considering we’re here in our early 30s sitting next to you.”
Another commenter said, “I don’t even waste time saying all that. I say, I don’t do anything. I won the lottery and now I travel the world and meet hard workers like yourself.”
But others may have out-trolled Tenicka. During a flight to Ontario, this commenter was allegedly asked how he could afford his first-class tickets. He replied, “I told them I’m a weapons contractor with the US Government.” These replies are quick comebacks, but they may not necessarily be true. However, these can be effective in shutting down awkward and racially charged assumptions. But while some microaggressions are buried beneath polite questions, others are brazenly spoken in another language, as this man from Toronto experienced with a group of tourists.
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