Since the very public murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25th and the protests against police brutality that it sparked, white people around the world are finally reckoning with their role in systemic racism around the world.

And since many white folks aren’t sure where to start, they’ve looked to books on racism to help them out.

That’s why sociologist Robin DiAngelo’s 2018 book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism has been sold out at Amazon for weeks.

It’s certainly not the only (or necessarily the best book) on the topic – for our money, we like Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist – but it’s certainly popular and it’s common to see being carrying it around airports and parks (at least, when people can actually go outside).

JacqueRae Hill has been frustrated by the online conversation over Floyd’s death and trying to explain to people that this was a common occurrence for Black people, especially in the U.S. So when she spotted a passenger carrying a copy of White Fragility on her flight in early June, she asked him about it.

“Because he had that book, I felt like he wanted the conversation,” she told WFAA.

That passenger turned out the be American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, who had been bumped from his previous flight (apparently no one is exempt from this snafu!). But Hill didn’t know that at the time – and Parker didn’t let on until after the conversation was done.

The book had certainly taught him one thing – that we all really do need to talk about race.

“He was like, ‘oh yeah, I’m halfway through it. It just talks about you know, how we need to talk about these things and it’s up to us. It’s our fault,'” she recalled.

Their productive conversation led to her post about the encounter on Facebook. It’s now been shared thousands of times and covered by all the major media outlets.

Part of it read:

“As I began to respond the tears just start falling. I have been so sad every day and I just want to understand and be understood so we can began to fix it. I’m pretty sure I startled him by seemingly dumping all my emotions on him but his reply was “I’m so sorry. And it’s our fault that this is like this.'”

Hill saw the encounter as a sign from God and an answer to the prayer she said on her way to work that day to alleviate some of the burden of all the negative energy she had been feeling. His response even prompted her to give him a hug – though she was quick to say they were both masked at the time.

As Parker stepped off the plane, he handed Hill a handwritten note that she shared with her followers. He thanked her for the conversation and gave her his personal e-mail address so they could continue the conversation.

Her mom, who also works for American Airlines, thanked Parker for his willingness to have a conversation with her daughter.

And he wrote back to tell her just how special her daughter is.

“I cannot stress enough, if you form a relationship with somebody, how that changes your view on them,” Hill said in her Facebook post. “Just getting rid of the distance between us as a society, stop making us so self-centered and open our eyes to the things that are going on with other people.”

We can’t help but think she’s right about that.

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Source: WFAA, JacqueRae Hill via Facebook, WFAA via YouTube