The incident at the Belizean border

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We know how powerful words can be, and how our name can sometimes make quite an impression. Following the incident at the Belizean border, we wanted to share this story from Fuckup Nights Charlie—this time involving American Airlines:

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In December 2018, I traveled to the United States with my girlfriend to spend Christmas in California.

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We flew from Mexico City to Phoenix, where we had a 2-hour layover, and just before boarding our next flight, I started to feel very warm. I took off my sweatshirt, and a moment later, while standing in line inside the boarding tunnel before getting on the plane, the girl behind me commented on my shirt—“pretty cool, man”—and then showed me a picture of a coffee mug she had bought that had a phrase on it with the word“fuck up.”

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At that moment , I realized I was wearing my Fuckup Nights Anniversary T-shirt. So I explained to her what the shirt was all about—you know, the usual story:Fuckup Nights a project that… blah blah blah.”

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A few minutes later we reached the plane’s door, and as I approached the flight attendants who greet passengers at the entrance, I saw one of them with a serious expression on his face. Without so much as a hello, he said to me,“You’ll need to take off that shirt. It’s offensive.” I must say that in these situations when I’m in the United States, I try to rely on my girlfriend, who is American, to help guide me on how to act so I don’t commit a cultural faux pas. So I turned to her as if to say,“What do I do?”

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At that moment, everyone thought the flight attendant was joking: my girlfriend, the girl behind me (the one with the photo of the cup), a couple sitting in front of us—everyone except me, who could see that the flight attendant’s expression was far too serious. He then repeated in a very aggressive tone that I could either take it off or cover it, to which the other flight attendant added:

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“Don’t you understand? It’s a swear word.”

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That’s when I realized they were actually serious. My girlfriend nudged me to keep walking, and since we were blocking the aisle with this little discussion, we kept moving forward until we reached our seat, which, as it turned out, was in the very last row of the plane. By that point, everyone on the plane had likely already seen my offensive shirt. The interesting thing is that nobody seemed offended—or at least I didn’t see any signs of shock or disgust from anyone. When I reached my seat, I still hadn’t covered my shirt, and that’s when the situation went from being a weird moment of confusion to serious tension.

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The same flight attendant—who appeared to be the leader of the group—walked to the back of the plane to speak to me, or rather to warn me, in a very arrogant manner, wielding all the authority his position afforded him. He told me that he had already spoken with the captain and had been given permission to remove me from the plane if I did not cover up the“blasphemous”slogan.

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At no point did he offer me any explanation for this, so my girlfriend helped me quickly look up the airline’s policies on her cell phone. Indeed, on their website, American Airlines has a section that states you cannot fly in“inappropriate”clothing—whatever that means. Then we looked a little further and found an article stating that AA had kicked two girls off a plane for wearing leggings, as they were considered “offensive.” That’s when I lost hope.

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While the flight attendant was giving me his ultimatum, I tried to explain what my shirt meant—that not only was it not meant to be an offensive message, but that the real goal was to create a better world and change paradigms. At no point did I actually manage to have a conversation with the flight attendant, who seemed increasingly determined to get me off the plane, so that’s when I decided to just give in.

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I did the math and quickly considered the consequences of continuing to refuse: missing the flight, spending money on another one, possibly being banned from the airline or barred from traveling in the U.S., or, in the worst-case scenario, being tackled by an air marshal. So I decided that telling the story of what happened would be a more effective way to get my message across.

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In the end, I just covered my chest with my sweatshirt without actually putting it on, because I was still sweltering.

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This was still a little uncomfortable, so I decided to do something to work around the situation. I remembered that I had a Sharpie in my backpack (I always travel with drawing supplies), so I found the Sharpie, went to the bathroom, and made a small change to the shirt.

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I changed the C in "Fuckup" to an O, so now it didn't really mean anything—it was just a weird word: "FUOKUP." I added a couple of smiley faces and spent the rest of the flight chilling, sweatshirt-free, #fuckupthesystem.

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As I got off the plane, the captain saw me and noticed that I had adjusted my shirt. He grinned, and I winked at him as I walked away with a slightly mocking little smile thatm didn’t go down very well with the flight attendants.

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In the end, it wasn’t a big deal and just became a funny story to tell, but I couldn’t help thinking about it over and over again. I think what affected me most was the fact that I encountered people who were unable or unwilling to engage in dialogue. After all, that’s what we aim to do at Fuckup Inc.: create channels of communication to help us understand one another and improve the world around us through conversation and ideas.

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I don’t mind the airline’s policy all that much, however questionable it may . At the end of the day, they get to set the rules in their business. I recognize that the policy as it stands today is out of step with the modern world, and I don’t consider it 100% fair or right, but in reality, the most worrying thing is that there are large, global companies out there that prefer to build walls rather than bridges.

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As a society, we are constantly evolving. One example of this evolution is language, which changes at a much faster pace than institutions with their rules and dogmas. Today more than ever, we have the opportunity to embrace this evolution and shape our own history.

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So, I hope 2020 brings fewer American Airlines flight attendants and more happy kittens.

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P.S.: We warmly welcome any American Airlines employee who would like to speak at our next Fuckup Night.