A black passenger was accused of racism and kicked out of the first class cabin (4 photos + 1 video)

On December 29, a passenger named Erica said in a video that she and her friend were kicked off an American Airlines flight. The women boarded the plane from Chicago to Austin, Texas, and were seated in first class when an argument broke out.





"I put my backpack under the seat in front of me, but the flight attendant asked me to put my carry-on away," the American woman said. "I said, 'I can put my backpack in the overhead bin if there's room.'"

Erica says she was trying to adjust her bags in the overhead compartment when a white man sitting next to her yelled, "Don't touch my bag. Don't touch my stuff."

"I said, 'Okay. Sorry. I did it.' I can put my bag somewhere else."



A flight attendant suggested that Erica put her bags in another compartment.

"I don't know anyone here, and I have a MacBook and an iPad in my bag," she said. "This is first class, and I paid over $1,000 for these tickets."





When the flight attendant left, the man started whispering to his wife and then yelled, "I'm being threatened."

"He yelled at the staff, told them he felt threatened because of my backpack. Said it was a 'race issue' and that he felt threatened because he was white and I was black and that I had said something racist to him. I didn't even say anything out loud other than I didn't want my valuables around strangers," the passenger shared.



After that, Erica and her friend were escorted off the plane.

"The flight attendant said, 'It's a racial issue.' What racial issue? Explain it to me because I don't understand."

Also, the flight attendant pushed her, and when she asked to call the police, she was told that it was not necessary.