*Former Vogue contributing editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson sparked conversation this week after going public with an unusual in-flight decision.
According to the Daily Mail, the Brooklyn-based journalist took to Threads to announce that she had voluntarily switched cabins on a Milan-bound flight due to white men sitting in first class. In her post, Karefa-Johnson described finding herself as the only Black woman among the six passengers. “I just downgraded myself from first class to business class on my flight to Milan,” she wrote.
“In a cabin of six, five of the passengers were white middle-aged men… then there was me, a 30-something black woman who travels in that cabin often, and a male flight attendant who thought I’d be okay with substandard service and persistent micro-aggression from the moment I sat down,” she added.
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Rather than remain in the premium cabin, she made the call to relocate. “I don’t suffer fools, and I would sacrifice physical comfort to protect my emotional and mental well-being any day,” Karefa-Johnson continued.
The specific microaggressions she referenced nor the nature of the service she described as substandard were not explained in her post. The airline involved has not been identified, though only two carriers — Emirates and American Airlines — run nonstop service between JFK and Milan across both cabin tiers.
The post gained traction quickly, with followers rallying behind Karefa-Johnson’s account of events. One commenter suggested the white male passengers “belong in economy,” a position Karefa-Johnson did not push back on. “Hard agree!” she replied, going on to say, “It’s just such a bummer that humiliation is part of gratification for racists. Protecting my peace felt like letting him win and I hate that.”
Karefa-Johnson’s time at Vogue came to an end in 2023 after she shared a controversial anti-Israel statement regarding the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
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