Airline kicks passenger off plane for wearing Black Panther hat
Freelance e-sports journalist Amanda Stephens boarded a United Airlines flight on Wednesday to cover a tournament in Chicago, but never got off the ground -- at least, not on her original flight.
Her trouble began with the pilot.
Stephens was wearing a hat emblazoned with the logo of Marvel Comics' Black Panther and a t-shirt sporting an upside-down American flag, and flight staff told her that both these articles of clothing made the pilot "uncomfortable."
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Then she was told the hat would have to go, too.
United staff soon booted Stevens off the flight, according to Stevens' tweets, but its Twitter team tried to intervene.
Stevens was booked on a separate flight and got to Chicago just fine, but not before the world was beginning to see what had happened to her.
Many tweeted in support.
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But plenty of folks attacked her for what she wore, too.
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In the end, though, Stevens got a tweet from Ta-Nehisi Coates, who writes for The Atlantic, recently won a National Book Award for "Between the World and Me," and authored a new series of Black Panther comics.
That tweet, Stephens said, made the whole thing alright.
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Topics Marvel
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
