Southwest Airlines was the butt of an April Fool’s Day joke after a billboard popped up in DFW depicting the company’s leadership dressed in drag. The sign appeared to mock the airline’s push for “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI).
Besides a satirical depiction of the company’s CEO and Board of Directors sporting a drag-style makeover, the mock advertisement also derided Southwest for its “woke” policies regarding DEI with a message reading, “Bringing San Francisco’s baggage to Texas nonstop — Southwoke.com.”
The individuals featured on the billboard included Southwest CEO Robert Jordan and Board of Directors members David Biegler, Nancy Loeffler, Gary Kelly, and Veronica Biggins.
The Dallas Express reached out to Jordan and the aforementioned board members for comment on the billboard and its characterization of the company but was told via an email response from Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry that there was “nothing to add from us.”
The group behind the campaign goes by the moniker “Shut Up And Fly,” according to reporting from The Post Millennial. The group’s goal is to convince Southwest and the airline industry to cut down on alleged “woke” agenda-pushing and focus on the core business of flying.
Southwest Airlines has moved steadily toward DEI initiatives in recent years, publishing its first DEI report last year with a roadmap of future DEI goals and objectives.
“The heightened awareness of social injustice prompted [Southwest] to review our internal data and have transparent conversations regarding our path forward as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” the company claimed in the report.
Southwest went on to say, “We gained a better understanding of the work that we needed to do to increase our own efforts — specifically enhancing our workforce representation in Senior Leadership, nurturing more fulfilling career experiences for our Employees, and strengthening our relationships with our diverse Customers and Communities.”
Regardless of the airline’s intentions with DEI, several of Southwest’s initiatives have raised concerns among employees and union members.
In late 2022, Southwest and American Airlines workers spoke with The Epoch Times about their reservations over the airline industry’s DEI policies and the risks they pose to the safety of travelers.
“If you’re looking for a diverse workforce and not a qualified workforce, you’ve got issues,” an American Airlines pilot told the publication. “It’s just like with doctors. If you go to a doctor, you want to go to the best doctor you can.”
Southwest employees alleged that DEI hires have benefited from “special-status hiring” in addition to being a part of a “protected class” whose members received extra chances to pass required skills tests, The Epoch Times reported.
“We are just one step away from hiring pilots based upon mere reviews of their resumes,” said Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, at the time.
Others, such as the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, see real benefits from DEI practices.
In 2020, McKinsey & Company released its DEI report titled “Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters,” in which the firm detailed a strong correlation between diversity in executive leadership teams and the likelihood of financial performance over time.
No major incidents have been reported thus far at Southwest related to DEI policies, but during December’s surprise winter storm, the airline experienced a major operational failure that saw the airline cancel thousands of scheduled flights and misplace hundreds of items of luggage, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
While Southwest has since recovered operationally, its reputation with customers has been hurt.
