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You may have heard of ‘driving while black’ but you may not be as familiar with ‘flying while black’. According to Imani Cezanne, she was racially profiled on an American Airlines flight because of her Black Lives Matter t-shirt.

At least ten African American male fatalities including Emmett Till, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant and Trayvon Martin are listed on Imani’s shirt. In a series of tweets the World Poetry Slam Champion claims the she was “…unnecessarily ejected” from the aircraft because the flight attendant felt “threatened.”

Upon the virality of Imani’s tweets, American Airlines has since released a statement which says in part, “…an unruly passenger was removed from American Eagle Flight 5192, operated by PSA Airlines, from CLT to ATL due to failure to comply with crew member instructions. The passenger refused to exit aircraft when asked, so local law enforcement was called.”

Imani says she plans to seek legal representation. According to Ebony, “…the airline has plans to “work with the customer to resolve the issue. The company also said it “values diversity and we do not discriminate for any reason.”

Check out Imani’s tweets below and let us know what you think about her situation.

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