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.
It appears that only governmental entities and large corporations have the money to spend on this DEI stuff. Small businesses, which are the foundational base of the economy, don’t have the money, time or inclination to spend on this. They’re too busy trying to survive in this world.
You’re saying small companies can save money by hiring indignant, homophobic, exclusionists?
Far-right politics inside the SW pilot union (SWAPA), which happens to have a “strike vote” coming up on May 1; biting the hand that feeds them, again.
They should take their own advice and, “shut up and fly”.
We’d appreciate you following that advice as well. Thanking you in advance.
Used to be a fun airline to fly on. We sure miss Herb.
We just wait for planes to start crashing and then Biden and his media cronies will downplay it and not recognize the pilot error…or ignorance and inexperience. Ho-hum, just one of those things. (Waiting for him to hire a woke pilot for Air Force One…purple hair, claws for nails and dressed like a mermaid with high heels. “Take a lick, JB and introduce me to your grandchildren.)
Some of these people posting here have their heads stuck up their rear. Explain to me how diversity automatically means less qualified or less skilled.
I’ll drive rather than fly Southwoke…don’t trust my life to firm hiring pilots on DEI rather than qualifications and experience.
wow you people have really drank the Florida cool aid
No we just don’t have your “wokeness” and your’re an exclusionary bigot for not accepting conservative diversity.
Stop talking and start walking; AA, United, Delta and Boeing all have DEI strategies. Your car might even be from a DEI company (Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan).
For those of you that fly
SouthwokeSouthwest look into JSX.JSX may not be the best choice for wokeaphobics, as they are strong believers in DEI; also a member of the National Gay Pilots Association, the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Women in Aviation International, the Latino Pilots Association, Sisters of the Skies, Professional Pilots of Tomorrow, the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance…and the list is growing!