The Implications of Using Race In A Non-Racial Dispute

LINK

The link above is to a Twitter moments involving a woman who says,after the flight attendants made two people who didn't speak English move she asked why they had to move. They explained to her is was for safety reasons. As they continued to go over the safety measures the woman was talking. She claims she was using her "inside voice" when the flight attendants asked "are we going to have a problem?" and the woman replied "are we going to have a problem?" At that point she claims she was escorted off the plane by two caucasian officers. The reason she said she was kicked off and banned from using American Air again is simply because she is black.

While I think we still have some work to do in this country when it comes to race, in this situation, if the media irresponsibly gets behind this woman or there is some type of rally around this woman, would it hurt the reputation of American Airlines? If so, what is there to protect them in a situation someone makes a race issue out of a situation that had nothing to do with race but resulted in loss of profits? Also, can you argue this is similar to defamation of character?