A black music executive who was boarding first class called out a white woman for trying to cut him in line because she didn’t believe he was a priority passenger.
Emmit Walker was traveling to the Dominican Republic from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia on Tuesday for his 37th birthday and was waiting in the priority boarding queue when the unidentified woman behind him tried cutting into his place in line.
Walker posted the interaction he had with the woman along with her photo, but later regretted it, saying he felt bad he put her on blast.
The original Facebook post went viral with over 250,000 shares in two days, and it received considerable coverage
According to Walker’s Facebook post, the exchange with the woman went like this:
‘Her: excuse me I believe you may be in the wrong place you need to let us thru. This line is for priority boarding.
Me: priority meaning first class correct?
Her: Yes…now excuse me they will call y’all after we board.
Me: *shove first class priority boarding pass in her face* you can relax ma’am I’m in the right spot, been here longer, so you can board after me.
Her: *still won’t let It go* he must be military or something, but we paid for our seats so he still should have to wait.
Me: nope to big to ever be in anybodies military. I’m just a n**** with money.
Everybody waiting in line: starts to clap.’
Now, in the moment, it is easy to get tempted in today’s viral age to post something that you feel needs calling out, however, Walker apologized only a day later for putting the still unidentified woman’s face out there.
He wrote: ‘When I posted that post on Facebook i didn’t expect all that to come from it. I can honestly name the four or five people i thought would comment with something funny, and that will be it. This racist stuff is definitely a issue but this is not the solution to that issue.’
Just a day later, Walker conscience weighing on him, he issued an apology to the woman
Walker said to the woman during the exchange that he’s too big to be in anybody’s military, indicating he did buy the first class ticket on his own, without any assistance for anyone
He earnestly adds, ‘It brings me no joy waking up in paradise to for my 37 bday and knowing that woman might be going threw hell. The story was definitely real, just like this issue is definitely real, but I now know that I myself should of handled it another way, or left it how it was, and not shared it publicly.’
‘When dealing with people i always try to stay on the side of Right, so to make sure I never do anybody wrong, I try to always put myself in that persons shoes, and ask how would I feel if that person did this to me, and if I was her this morning I would be a total wreak today, and that doesn’t help this situation, or her…it only makes them more angry, and bring more drama…SO I WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE AGAIN TO THE WOMAN I HAD THIS ENCOUNTER WITH YESTERDAY. NO MATTER HOW WRONG YOUR ACTIONS YOU DON’T DESERVE THIS,’ he continues.
He tagged several people in the post and concluded with: ‘I BELIEVE IF YOU CAN’T HELP NOBODY AT THE VERY LEAST YOU SHOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING TO HURT THEM.’
A lot of people who posted under his apology to the woman, said he had nothing to apologize for, however it was clearly weighing on his conscience.
He said all the people he tagged on Instagram were his biggest followers and he was hoping that he could make his apology go viral as well.