[Yahoo] Racist Airlines? Joe Biden Says Charging For Extra Legroom 'Hits People of Color The Most'

Are fees for extra leg room a new thing? Those have costed extra for as long as I can remember.

 

So someone reminding Americans that nickel and diamond disproportionately hurts certain groups of people over other groups is disingenuous for some reason?

 

I agree it's racist and the practice for charging for extra leg room should be banned. Everyone should get 40 inches of leg room.


(Disclaimer: I'm 6'5")

 

That's one way to interpret it because he already mentioned low income people being affected by the fees. Is Biden implying that people of color also have to purchase the extra leg room seats? Probably not, but maybe.

When expressing an opinion that can be debated, it's best to be as technically correct as possible so your arguments can't be misinterpreted, refuted, and you lose credibility to your position. As JV said, Biden should have ended at "low income people".

 

Exactly

 

It's obvious he is saying it's regressive, which it is. But to be honest, as a tall person, while I hate the fact I have to pay more to get a seat with leg room, at least I can get a seat with leg room now. Before it was a crap shot of getting those exit row seats that everyone wanted and a lot of airlines preferred to give them to their ffs. So travel was miserable. Do I think it's fair that I have to pay more just because I have longer legs? No. But the alternative is worse.

 

You can say, "XXX is harder on POC" for pretty much every topic because POC are generally less wealthy.

It can and does turn everything into a conversation about racism even if there is no real nexus.

Whether turning every conversation about everything into "racism" is healthy for our public discourse is up to you. I think it's divisive and cynical.

Why the hell are we talking about how fees for extra leg room is "racist." ? I don't think its good to try and shoe horn race into every topic.

 

I agree with you on this one. It accomplishes nothing. You can say it's a regressive tax on the poor, but to say it's racist...even if you can make a case for it being such...is not helpful.

 

Electric planes are coming.

 

It's a factual statement that minority families on average have less wealth than white families. After that, this fact is equally applicable to every transaction in capitalism. The price of an iPhone hits minority families the hardest. Does that undermine the legitimacy of the price of the iPhone? It's factual and irrelevant. If someone like Biden is going to use this argument, there should be some angle in there where these minority groups are especially disadvantaged because of their race or at least more likely to be impacted because of their race. If he brings it out every time there is a free-market transaction, it makes me feel like he's exploiting my concern for the equitable treatment of minorities to justify whatever change he wants to make. There isn't systemic racism going on in airline fees. We just happen to live in a society in which the legacy of racism is that white families have more wealth than other families. It's relevant all the time, but it doesn't mean anything about whether or not we should tolerate airline fees. And if Biden is going to use that argument carelessly where it has little relevance or persuasive power, it will become a joke by the time it actually is relevant.

 

I think it is obvious that Biden is referring to the lower income people of color being affected mostly. But he shouldn't leave himself open to interpretation like that or his position loses some credibility.

 

What? We definitely should bring it up every time.

How many Americans would assume that the median white family has 10 times more wealth than the median black family. You ask even class conscious people who might never have looked it up and they probably would say something like 2x and they would think that is very bad, let alone 10x.

Too many people just accept the status quo.

We should always explain how process gouging will disproportionately effect people of color.

 

Only people who are insincere would get another meaning out of what Biden said.

 

You’re talking about it because that’s what u want to see. Biden didn’t say anything about this being racist. He simply mentioned the groups that are most affected with POC being the most affected group. Period, that’s it. A harmless statement. But of course that has to be turned into “Biden said planes racist”

look beyond the clickbait

 

Or maybe we, including the President, don't have to bring up race in everything.

President Biden could say, "and this effects POC the hardest" about everything.

"Snickers bars went from 75 cents to 78 cents and this of course hurts POC, who enjoy Snickers, the most"

 

Politics is insincere.

 

but he doesn’t

stop crying over clickbait