A Massachusetts family who was targeted by racist remarks on a United Airlines bus wants to press charges against the woman who made the remarks against them.
Professional photographer Pervez Taufiq, whose work has been featured in publications such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, recorded the now popular incident with his cell phone. He told WBZ in an article published Tuesday, Dec. 3, that he wants the unidentified woman to face consequences.
I would certainly like for someone to find her, if we can sue her and then realistically get a very loud message that she is one of the few and that there are many more people like us, he said.
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Taufiq, his wife Nicole and their three children were on a flight from Mexico to California when a woman sitting next to their 11-year-old son in business class allegedly started yelling at their younger son, who is 4.
“She’s yelling at him, the four-year-old, and she’s saying ‘shut up, just shut up,'” he told WBZ. “I snapped and said, ‘Don’t ever talk to my son like that. You have no right.’ ”
The woman also allegedly called his family “tandoori” and “stinky,” Taufiq told NBC News.
His son told him the woman “asked if I was Indian, and I said yes, I am Indian,” Taufiq told WBZ.
The family and other passengers then boarded a United bus that took them to the airport.
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Once on the bus, Taufiq said the woman, who is white, allegedly made racist comments to his family, leading to a heated argument. He announced the consequences on his Instagram page on November 24. In the video, she can be seen raising her middle fingers as she tells Taufiq: “Your family is from India. You have no respect,” adding: “I’m an American,” and calling them “lunatics.”
Although Taufiq tells her that he and his family are also American, she replies, “No, you’re not.”
A member of staff can be heard trying to intervene and Taufiq asks to be removed from the bus. Although the employee says that they cannot remove her, the woman voluntarily gets out of the vehicle to talk to the workers who were standing in front of the door. The passenger also speaks to the staff from the bus and tells them that the woman made him uncomfortable with her foul language and “racist” comments, demanding that she not be allowed back.
Taufiq explains at the end of her video that the police wanted to arrest her on the spot and that she was put on a no-fly list.
“This is not acceptable and if you see this, stand up, say something, be with the person going through this,” he told WBZ.
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Nicole, who also works as a wedding photographer, told WBZ that their family has been to 34 countries and they have never had to discuss racism with their children until now.
“He deals with it in different ways,” she told the paper about how the 11-year-old copes. “Like, every day is a new question, a new angle. I think he’s still trying to process this whole experience in his own way, and I think it’s just hard to watch.”
Taufiq told NBC News that United has not yet reached out to his family.
“We don’t really know where things are,” he continued. “I haven’t heard anything from United.”
When reached by PEOPLE, United Airlines declined to comment.
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Source: HIS Education