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Black women are treated like crap in the skies compared to our white male counterparts, and it’s time we talked about it.

There is a video circulating on Facebook of what looks to be a middle-aged white man sitting in an aisle seat on a flight to an undetermined location. The video, shot by a Black woman whose name on Facebook is Donni Bee, shows the man lighting a cigarette that is already in his mouth once the camera is turned on him. Across the aisle, another man notices these events and, out of only what can be assumed to be shock and confusion, looks around for a several seconds before ringing for the flight attendant. Once the flight attendant arrives in all of his Black, locs-ified glory, he gives the white man a firm tap on the shoulder, informs him that what he is doing is illegal and asks for his boarding pass. The video then cuts off.

The man being recorded is clearly drunk, high or both. This article is not to down anyone dealing with the demons of substance abuse or alcoholism. The man could even simply be on new medications and he didn’t know the side effects would include forgetting a law that has been in place for almost 20 years.

The issue here is that this man, who appears to not be functioning coherently in any way, was allowed through TSA, passed the gate agents and shown to his aisle seat with seemingly zero issues.

In a society where Black women are barred from flights they’ve purchased with their own money because they are wearing leggings or ripped jeans, this man — shirt unbuttoned to the bottom of his ribcage, chest hairs abundant, looking as though soap has not touched his body, hair or clothes in weeks — is allowed to board his flight.

In a society where the standard procedure for Black women going through the TSA checkpoint include having their natural hair, braids and extensions subject to examination, even going as far as making Black women remove their wigs before being allowed to enter the terminal, this seemingly barely functioning man made it passed agents who yell at people to remove all electronics larger than a tablet, remove their shoes and got to his gate just fine. Meanwhile, every time a Black woman wants to go to a conference, visit family or simply “Buss Down Thotianna” in Atlanta for the weekend, they have to get their scalps examined like it’s third grade and there’s a lice outbreak at George Washington Elementary School.

It's not shocking that this man made it to his aisle seat. This is yet another instance of the foundation of our western society: white men are innocent until proven guilty while Black women are guilty until proven innocent. This instance, that may seem small today, in a time when many disadvantaged groups are fighting for their rights, goes to show how deep systematic racism mixed with the patriarchy is etched into the way this country functions. Black women have been barred from aviation for simply living their lives, but no one did anything more than raise an eyebrow to this white man on his way to his flight.

Bee did post another video in the comments showing the man being escorted off of the plane by law enforcement. So as far as the people on the flight are concerned, due diligence has been served. In the grand scheme of things, all I am asking is that Black women stop being demonized for simply living, breathing and being in America — both on the ground and in the air.