Social Justice
Woman says she was removed from American Airlines flight for ‘flying while black’
A woman claims she was thrown off a flight in an experience she calls discrimination because of her race.
Imani Cezanne claims she was thrown off a flight in an experience she calls discrimination because of her race.
What happened to Imani Cezanne?
Cezanne, a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, took to Twitter to claim that she was removed from an American Airlines flight and banned from flying with the airline in the future for “flying black.”
“Flying while Black”
The series of tweets claim that Cezanne was kicked off the plane because a flight attendant felt “threatened” by the Black Lives Matter shirt she was wearing.
Today I was escorted off of a plane by two armed caucasian male officers. I have never believed so strongly that I could die at any moment.
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 26, 2016
Ejected from an aircraft. Considered a threat to safety. For doing nothing more than existing in this Black body. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
After boarding my flight I sit in an exit row. The couple across the aisle from me does not speak English. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
They are removed from their seats because “If you don’t speak english you can’t sit in an exit row.” I ask why. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
Fligh Attendant says that if she is unable to explain procedure, she must seat someone else in the exit row. Understood. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
While speaking with the woman next to me about my concernsI was *interrupted* by FA and asked “Are you going to be a problem?” @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
Why would she ask me that? Is that an appropriate way to speak to a customer who is calmly having a conversation with someone? @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
What about me seemed potentially problematic? I was seated, legs crossed, hands in lap. Using my “inside voice.” @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
I respond with “Are you going to be a problem? Why would you ask me that?” Then storms off to get a manager. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
The manager comes to escort me off of the plane. I ask why. She says “because my flight attendant feels threatened. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
What I was wearing when I was unnecessarily ejected from my flight because the FA felt “threatened.” Coincidence? pic.twitter.com/j5BDNo3rKf
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 26, 2016
Nothing about my voice, tone, body language etc. communicated “threatening.” Other than, of course, this Black body. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
So now I’m stuck in Charlotte. Banned from AA. And no, I do not have $400-$500 to get back home or to my destination today. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
This is how you can literally be walking away from an officer and be shot dead. Because he “felt threatened.” @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
Oh and btw my stuff was still sent to ATL. So I’m in Charlotte. My things are in ATL and I have no money to get anywhere. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
Just spoke with an @AmericanAir rep on the phone who says “there is nothing we can do for you.”
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
I have done nothing wrong. @AmericanAir
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
To those who have asked, yes I am very serious about getting a lawyer and any contacts would be greatly appreciated.
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 26, 2016
This support is so needed and appreciated. To all the people who offered to buy flights or drop dimes in my paypal, you are love personified
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 26, 2016
Currently on a bus to ATL. Thank so much to everyone for reaching out. I have yet to be contacted by @AmericanAir.
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 25, 2016
The American Airlines Twitter account later contacted Cezanne by direct message.
@imanicezanne Our crew is expected to always provide a friendly and professional service. Please follow and DM us your record locator.
— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) March 25, 2016
But Cezanne complained that the process had taken hours…
@AmericanAir Just got a response from @AmericanAir at 10:57 pm. They were contacted at 5:21 pm.
— Imani Cezanne (@imanicezanne) March 26, 2016
American Airlines have since stated that they have reached out to Cezanne to resolve the issue. In January, American Airlines was sued for $9 million for a different racial discrimination claim when a group of men were kicked off the plane after a flight attendant felt “uneasy.”
Twitter users criticized American Airline with the hashtag #FlyingWhileBlack.
#FlyingWhileBlack I don’t think @AmericanAir is racist, they’re employees and service is just awful.
— Say Say (@smc_1023) March 26, 2016
To think, @AmericanAir used to be my favorite airline…poor customer service and people skills get you NOWHERE. #boycott #flyingwhileblack
— lo-QUI•tâ (@QuiLovaa) March 26, 2016
Crime & Justice
Exonerated man on a mission to rebuild his life
C.J. Rice, a man who served more than 12 years behind bars for an attempted murder he was falsely convicted of, was officially exonerated on March 18, 2024. He is now on a mission to rebuild his life.
Charles “CJ” Rice was just 17 years old when he was convicted of a crime he did not commit.
CJ Rice Exonerated
Now 30 year old Rice is using the injustice of the last 13 years to galvanize the life he almost spent behind bars after being exonerated and declared legally innocent of the crime he was convicted of in 2013 on March 18, 2024.
According to the GoFundMe, CJ wants to “embrace this opportunity” and become a paralegal.
With the help of Dream.org, the GoFundMe aims to help CJ start a new life with everything from a place to stay to clothes to wear as he builds a new future.
The CJ Rice case
CJ Rice, formally known Charles J. Rice, was convicted in a September 2011 shooting for attempted murder and sentenced to 30-60 years behind bars in 2013.
According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the South Philadelphia shooting left a woman identified as Latrice Johnson, a 6-year-old girl and two others injured.
Johnson called 911 after the shooting and described the suspects as two men running away in hoodies and black sweatpants but couldn’t fully identify them.
Through an initial investigation with victims in the hospital, Rice’s co-defendant, Tyler Linder, was identified as one of the shooters. Detectives interviewed Johnson while she was in the hospital and she identified 17-year-old Rice as one of the shooters running away although she hadn’t seen the teen in a few years. Rice had been friends with Johnson’s son when he was younger, according to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
In her description, Johnson said Rice was wearing a hoodie and claimed that she was able to see his full face and long braids poking out the side of the hood. However, Rice’s arrest photo depicted him with shorter cornrows flushed against his head. Despite this, a case against Rice and Linder was built.
According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, among the evidence was a theory that the shooting was retaliatory, which wasn’t proven. That’s because Rice was shot and injured a few days prior. It’s alleged the suspects ran from the scene, and Rice’s counsel never used his medical records as evidence to help Rice’s case.
Rice’s case received national attention after CNN anchor Jake Tapper began reporting on it. His father, Dr. Theodore Tapper, is Rice’s former doctor and treated his injuries.
Although it was alleged that the shooters ran from the 2011 crime scene, this is something that Dr. Tapper believed Rice just physically couldn’t do at the time.
Officials believed the 2011 shooting involved gang affiliations, leading the DA’s Gun Violence Task Force to begin their investigation to see whether or not Rice could be re-tried for the shooting or to dismiss the charges in full.
This suggestion of motive and the sole faulty eyewitness identification of CJ led to his conviction on four counts for attempted murder.
A free man
Rice’s defense counsel filed a habeas petition to get CJ out of prison and have his conviction overturned.
On March 18, 2024, the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas granted the Commonwealth’s motion to dismiss all charges against Rice, officially making CJ a free man.
Social Justice
After more than 60 years, a championship HBCU men’s basketball team visits White House
An all-Black Tennessee A&I men’s basketball team won three back-to-back national championships at the height of the Jim Crow era, but were never recognized or invited to the White House. That changed on Friday.
This past weekend, the Tennessee A&I men’s basketball team, an HBCU squad that won a title more than 60 years ago, got a White House visit.
Tennessee A&I made history
The living members of the Tennessee A&I Tigers basketball team were honored by Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House.
“This is the greatest day of my life,” said George Finley, a player on the Tigers team, said to CBS News.
The Tennessee A&I Tigers men’s basketball team was the first HBCU team to win a national championship in 1957, and made history again by becoming the first college team to win three back-to-back national titles from 1957-1959.
“I thought this would never take place,” said Finley, who was part of the 1959 championship team, told the network. “[Winning] the championship was big, but it wasn’t as big as being here with [Vice President] Harris today.”
The challenges
In a time of segregation and the Jim Crow era, Black teams were often not recognized for their achievements but the team finally got their just due.
Harris hosted six members of the team in a meeting along with their family, friends, and those close to the group of former athletes. Henry Carlton, Robert Clark, Ron Hamilton, Ernie Jones, George Finley, and Dick Barnett joined Finley in the Roosevelt Room at the White House.
Tennessee A&I is now known as Tennessee State University.
Crime & Justice
Detroit man awarded $10 million after wrongful conviction
Alexandre Ansari was wrongfully serving a life sentence over claims that in 2012 he shot and killed Ileana Cuevas, a 15-year-old girl.
A Detroit man who was wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for over six years was awarded $10 million in damages by a jury.
$10 million for man wrongfully convicted
Alexandre Ansari was wrongfully serving a life sentence over claims that in 2012 he shot and killed Ileana Cuevas, a 15-year-old girl, and wounded two others in Detroit, according to a lawsuit filed by Ansari in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division.
“Once I got the verdict back, my heart dropped. And I’m like, ‘Dang, I got to spend the rest of my life in here for something I didn’t do.’ And you know, I tried to kill myself,” Ansari told Linsey Davis on “ABC News Live Prime.”
“It felt like nobody didn’t put all the evidence together to see that I wasn’t the person in the first place. So things started getting overwhelming for me.”
Exonerated
Ansari, 39, was exonerated in 2019 by the Wayne County Circuit Court after it determined that Moises Jimenez, a former Detroit police detective withheld evidence for Ansari’s trial that would have implicated someone else as the shooter, according to the County of Wayne Office of the Prosecuting Attorney.
Jimenez received an anonymous tip that linked the shooter to the Mexican Drug Cartel, according to the complaint that released Ansari.
The officer withheld the evidence from Ansari’s 2013 trial, according to the lawsuit.
Jimenez’s attorneys told ABC News that the former detective claims that he provided all evidence he uncovered during his investigation and plans to appeal the $10 million lawsuit verdict.
There have been no reported arrests connected to the shooting since Ansari’s exoneration. Ansari was wrongfully arrested for the crime when he was 27 years old.
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