New Delhi: In a deplorable incident, an American woman was caught on camera making unpleasant, racist comments at an Indian-American family on a shuttle bus at USA’s Los Angeles International Airport.
The video of the incident went viral on social media. United Airlines acted promptly and put her on its no-fly list.
Pervez Taufiq, a celebrated wedding photographer, and his family were the target of the racist attack in Los Angeles. Taufiq’s two children were also not spared, as the woman, called Karen, asked the kids to ‘shut up’.
“Your family is from India, you have no respect for the rules… Indians are crazy,” she screamed.
As the passengers were being transferred from the aircraft to the airport terminal on a shuttle bus, the woman alleged that members of Taufiq’s family were unruly.
Matters escalated when she told the children to shut up.
Taufiq started recording the episode on his mobile phone as the woman turned hostile. She stuck up both middle fingers and shouted, “Your family is from India, you have no respect for the rules, you think you can push everyone… That’s what you think you are. You guys are f*****g crazy.”
Taufiq retorted: “Indian people are crazy? You told me to have some more curry, right?”
The woman turned even more obnoxious, saying, “I’m going to record your f****g tandoori a… your tandoori stinky a**.”
As securitypersons were called to intervene, the woman claimed she was the victim.
“She (the airline employee) doesn’t care that I’m a racist, you’re racist towards me. I’m American,” she said.
“So are we (Americans),” Taufiq replied.
The woman continued her nasty attack. “You’re not American. Not originally, no. You’re from f*****g India.”
When Taufiq said he was born in the US, she dismissed him and said, “No, you weren’t. That’s not on your passport.”
Taufiq even offered to show her his passport if “that is going to make you happy?”
The woman was asked to deboard the bus and taken away by securitypersons.
Fellow passengers on the shuttle bus spoke out in favour of the photographer’s family.
“She is out of line, she’s drunk, and we need her off the bus,” one person told a United Airlines employee.
“She’s been on the bus cussing and screaming, she started calling racist slurs at this nice family. They didn’t do anything. She doesn’t need to be on this bus,” another added.
Taufiq shared the video on Instagram, expressing his anger and disbelief.
“Mortified we just went through this. This lady was harassing our son on the flight, unbeknownst to us, asking him if he was Indian and making comments. When we landed in LA and got on the transfer bus, she told our son to shut up, I told her she doesn’t have a right to speak to my son that way and her husband got in my face trying to tell me to not speak to his wife. The remainder of this is what happened. I’m thankful United @united got her off the bus ultimately and a few fellow passengers stood up for us. Blown away these types of people still exist. As photographers we have seen a lot of, but this is one we could have done without,” Taufiq wrote alongside the video.
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