... "Pick a seat, we gotta go."

This was a version of a rhyme used by a flight attendant of Southwest Airlines to get some passengers to take a seat.

Many children today know the rhyme as being something along the lines of, “"Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; catch a tiger by the toe. If it howls, let it go…," but what some of them may not know is that instead of “tiger,” the infamous “n-word” was used in the original version.

This rhyme is what has the flight attendant in trouble. Two Black women feel that the rhyme was directed at them in reference to the less P.C. version.

The women have since filed a lawsuit against the airlines.

Do you feel it is off base for these women to file a suit?

Source

I think it is soooo ridiculous it needs no further comment.

It saddens me that some people just look for possible prejudice and insults when none are meant.

While I don’t feel that they should jump into a lawsuit, past experience lets me feel for both sides.

I believe the P.C. version of the rhyme has only began to outshine the other more recently in history. Many older Americans may remember the less P.C. version.

When around older African-Americans when I was younger, just so that I didn’t have to get a history lesson, I avoided the rhyme.

Because of the reactions I got when I was younger, I knew there are people who do get offended by any variation of the rhyme, however, this many not be the case of the attendant.

Until now, she may never had known that there are people who take the rhyme offensively.

These women were SO offended it took them TWO YEARS to decide to file this lawsuit.

Yeah, right.

I spent my early childhood living in Apartheid era South Africa, and although the "Tigger" version of the rhyme was very popular I never even heard about the "N-word" version until much later. How do these women expect to prove anything?

If our legal system's track record stays on course, the stupid lawyer who filed the suit will be allowed to proceed by a stupid judge and a stupid jury will award the two wronged women a hundred million dollars. I gotta stay tuned for this one!

If I had to choose a method to pick something in a lighthearted and friendly and personable manner, that is probably the rhyme I would have picked. It's the "eenie, meenie, miney, moe" part that she chose to use, not the last bit.

Isn't there some sort of statue of limitations? If something offended me bad enough to sue, I wouldn't wait 2 years to sue over it. It sounds to me like they might have been thinking of a way to get some money or maybe even a few moments in the spotlight. As they were sitting around talking about ways to do this, one says "Hey! Remember that time on the plane?"

If I was on a flight and heard the flight attendant use a childhood rhyme to get people to take their seats, I would laugh too. I imagine most people would. I think they are reaching for something here. It is hard to say that people were laughing because of a racial implication, when most people would laugh just because of the clever way the attendant was letting people know they needed to be taking their seats.