American Airlines will permit its employees to wear Black Lives Matter pins while on the job, a spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Sarah Jantz told The Hill that several Black employees of American Airlines asked if they could wear Black Lives Matter pins after seeing workers at other airlines wearing them.
“In light of the appropriate attention to lives of Black Americans, we will allow team members who wish to wear a Black Lives Matter pin to do so if they choose,” Jantz said.
“Fundamentally, we believe Black Lives Matter is an expression of equality, not a political statement,” she added. “It doesn’t mean other lives don’t matter, rather that in our society Black lives should matter and be valued the same as others.”
The airline will work with Black employees to design the pin.
American Airlines permits its employees to wear up to three pins, including a single Employee Business Resource Groups pin. The airline has developed pins for different groups, including Christian, veteran and LGBTQ groups, among others.
The airline joins several other companies including Delta Air Lines and Starbucks in allowing workers to wear a pin backing the movement.
Starbucks initially banned employees from wearing anything in support of Black Lives Matter in June, shortly after protests erupted over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May.
But the corporation backtracked on its decision within a week and developed a T-shirt for its employees to wear.
There was a mixed reaction on the American Airlines’ decision on social media, with several people labeling Black Lives Matter as a “Marxist” or a “terrorist organization.”
President Trump called Black Lives Matter a “Marxist organization” during an interview last week with Fox News host Laura Ingraham and said the movement is “bad for Black people.”
The president had encouraged a boycott against Goodyear Tire after a local NBC News affiliate in Topeka, Kan., reported that the company named “Black Lives Matter” and “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender pride” as an acceptable slogan to wear, while listing “Blue Lives Matter,” “All Lives Matter” and “MAGA attire” as “unacceptable.”