Former Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson 'downgrades' first class seat over racial micro-aggressions

Highlights

• Karefa-Johnson said she moved from first class to business class to protect her "emotional and mental well being" after alleged micro-aggressions.
• The post went viral on social media, drawing both support and mockery from users online .
• Karefa-Johnson was the first Black woman to style a cover shoot for American Vogue.

She described a male flight attendant who "thought I'd be okay with substandard service and persistent micro-aggression from the moment I sat down.

He was…wrong." Without specifying the nature of the micro-aggression, she said she would rather "sacrifice physical comfort to protect my emotional and mental well being any day." It was not immediately clear which airline she was travelling with.

Post goes viral

The post quickly went viral on social media, drawing sharply divided reactions. Some users expressed solidarity while others mocked her, with users on X comparing her to civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

The satirical newspaper The Sunday Sport wrote on X "The microaggression: 'Would you like a glass of champagne, madam?'" The swift mockery highlighted the polarising nature of conversations around micro-aggressions and race in public spaces

Karefa-Johnson is a trailblazing figure in fashion, having been the first Black woman to style a cover shoot for American Vogue.

She made headlines in 2023 after resigning from the publication in protest of Israel's invasion of Gaza, telling The New York Times "I resigned as kind of a material action of solidarity and because it was just time for me to move on."

She also worked on the iconic 2021 Vogue cover featuring Vice President Kamala Harris, which drew widespread attention after showing Harris in a black pantsuit and her signature Converse trainers , a shoot completed in just 25 minutes.

More recently she styled New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's wife Rama Duwaji for his inauguration in January.