United Passenger Demands His Friend “Prove You’re Not Racist”—Takes His First Class Seat

A United Airlines passenger tells his friend to “prove you’re not racist” by giving up his first class seat. The demand is delivered with a pointing finger and repeated “Right now.” Then he hands over his bag for the man to put away, too. The man actually gets up and heads to coach. “Prove the world that you’re not racist and give me your first class seat right now.” “And take my bag while you at it.” View this post on Instagram The man surrendering the seat appears to be Nemanja Golubovic, the founder of Chicago vegan restaurant Kale My Name. Golubovic is already settled in, wearing headphones and holding his phone. He bargains over how long this proof is supposed to last. He wants this to be the last time, ever. He asks, “Deal?” Then he gets out of the seat, and he’s rewarded with “Good boy.” “Have a good time back there with the poor people.” He turns to the woman beside him and announces, “We just made America great again. You see that?” She gives him a fist bump. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the same man walking from the back of a United aircraft to the front, asking passengers to prove they weren’t racist by letting him off first. That worked, too. Letting someone through an open aisle is pretty low cost. Giving up first class seems like a bigger ask. In a separate video the passenger in first class gets the same demand, says it wasn’t planned and that his friend comes up with these things on the spot. Best comment, it seems to me, was “Lifetime black card for a first class seat. Totally invited to the cookout!” Topics on this page Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary » More articles by Gary Leff »