By now everyone should be familiar with the saga of David Dao, the Chinese doctor who was forcibly removed from a United flight due to overbooking (when it was not overbooked, it was learned later).
Setting aside the egregious and baffling “policy” that the cops were carrying out, and the big lawsuit Dao is likely to win – oh, and let’s not forget how some media outlets are digging up dirt on him, y’know, to provide that “he’s no angel” storyline – the issue of his race is salient.
China is a key market for United, both for Chinese nationals, and for Chinese-Americans. Well, it turns out United has done itself a world of damage among those demographics. Chinese travelers are boycotting United, and it’s based on this quote:
The outrage is China appears to have come from a media quote from a passenger onboard the flight, Tyler Bridges.
“He said, more or less, ‘I’m being selected because I’m Chinese’,” Bridges had told the Washington Post.
It was learned that Dao was chosen at random by computer for his ejection (and beating and dragging). But isn’t it easy to believe, based on the stereotype, that cops took a look around the cabin and thought, ‘hmmm, older Asian man, he shouldn’t put up a fight.’ Whether they did that or not, consider this another stereotype smashed. That might be the only good thing to come out of this incident. Except maybe for the lawsuit Dao could win.