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American Airlines #pratt #racist charlotteobserver.com

Kyetra Bryant says after taking an American Airlines flight out of Charlotte, North Carolina, with her boyfriend, she soon noticed an unusual fee on her bank statement: “African American African Service Charge.”

Despite using separate debit cards to pay for their luggage fees, Bryant’s boyfriend received the same statement, she said in a social media post.

Upset and confused, Bryant said she has been trying to get an explanation, and an apology from the airline, since seeing the charges the weekend after Thanksgiving. She hasn’t had much luck.

After being passed from department to department, she said she was eventually told the incident was being investigated, but she’s never received an answer as to how it happened.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect a response but I’m not stupid and no I don’t think it was a mistake. Never flying with them again,” Bryant said.

Whatever the reason, “there’s really no justification,” she told Fox 46. “We definitely felt targeted. That’s an instance of racial bias.”

North Carolina Conservative activists #fundie charlotteobserver.com

The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group is calling for the FBI to look into death threats made against the Muslim community at a meeting of conservative activists in Kernersville on Thursday.

“My only recommendation is to start killing the hell out of them,” one participant said, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington, D.C. “I’m ready to start taking people out.”

The meeting at a restaurant included a presentation on “a supposed Muslim plot to conquer the United States,” the council said, citing local media reports of the meeting.

“Shed some blood, too,” the same participant said in response to the presenter’s call to “shed some light” on the issue, according to the council.

The meeting included Tea Party members, patriot groups and other conservative activists, the Triad City Beat alternative newspaper reported.

Kernersville is in Forsyth County, about 90 miles northeast of Charlotte.

In response to the reported call to kill Muslims, according to CAIR, a member of the hate group ACT for America said, “I can understand that. But we’re not there yet.”

In reaction to the threats made at the meeting, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said: “Calls to violence against members of any minority group warrant a criminal investigation by state law enforcement authorities and the FBI. We call on President Trump to repudiate the growing bigotry in our nation targeting Muslims, Hispanics, immigrants, refugees and other minority groups.”

He said the council has noted an “unprecedented spike” in hate rhetoric and bias-motivated incidents targeting American Muslims and other minorities since the presidential election.

Clarence Henderson #fundie charlotteobserver.com

Let us be clear: HB2 cannot be compared to the injustice of Jim Crow. In fact, it is insulting to liken African Americans’ continuing struggle for equality in America to the liberals’ attempt to alter society’s accepted norms.

Recently, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch compared HB2 to Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws were put into place to keep an entire race positioned as second-class citizens. HB2 simply says that men and women should use the restroom of their biological sex in government buildings and schools. This comparison is highly offensive and utterly disrespectful to those families and individuals who have shed blood and lost lives to advance the cause of civil rights. I take this as a personal slap in the face because I was an active participant in the civil rights movement.

In 1960, I participated in the sit-in at the Woolworth Diner in Greensboro. As a student attending North Carolina A&T University, I experienced the cruel, vicious reality of segregation first hand.

During the Jim Crow Era, we stared down the nozzle of firehoses, felt the piercing bite of police dogs, dangled from trees after being strung up by an angry mob, all because of the color of our skin. Our businesses were burned, churches bombed, communities destroyed, all because of the color of our skin. We had to drink at separate water fountains, shop at different stores and even had to sit at the back of the bus, all because of the color of our skin. All this and more took place after enduring 400 years of arguably the most heinous crime in history – slavery.

In comparison, transgender individuals do not have to fight dogs, can shop anywhere and can use any water fountain. They are free to work, shop and ride the bus. And to my knowledge, they have not experienced 400 years of slavery and the ongoing fight for parity 151 years after emancipation.

It is a further insult that the left chooses to ignore the continued absence of African Americans at the top levels of corporate America including the companies that took a public stand against HB2. Look at their boards of directors and executive teams. Where are the African Americans? Women? Transgender people? To them, I say fix these problems in your own house.

Loretta Lynch’s political pandering to arouse African American interest in what has been proven to be lukewarm support for the supposed Democratic presidential candidate is an obvious attempt to elicit an emotional response. You cannot pimp the civil rights movement.

Throughout my life, I have noticed that even smart people say dumb things. And you, Ms. Lynch, have once again proven me right. Well done.