'Stand up for yourself': Indian-American Family to press charges against woman over racist abuse

NEW YORK: An Indian-American family plans to press charges against the woman who hurled racist slurs at them on an airline shuttle bus, saying their generation is different from that of their parents and they won’t just put their head down and keep quiet.

The incident took place in November onboard a United Airlines shuttle when photographer Pervez Taufiq, 50, was travelling with his wife and three kids from Mexico to Los Angeles.

Taufiq posted online a video of his family’s ordeal that shows the woman racially abusing them, using expletives and making derogatory gestures at them. “Your family is from India, you have no respect. You have no rules,” the woman says.

In an interview to PTI Sunday, he recalled that barring one man, nobody on the bus came out in support of the family. “It was pretty brutal to have nobody. And the silences, as they say, was incredibly deafening.”

But as the video went viral, Taufiq said he is grateful for the outpouring of support that he and his family have received on and off social media.

“We have had calls and text messages from people in China, France, UK, Australia, all over the world who have seen this video... and have reached out to say, ‘we just want you to know we're with you.’ That is the most touching thing that could ever happen,” he said.

Taufiq, whose work constantly takes him to destinations across the world, recalled that on a United flight over the weekend from New York to his home in Boston, an airline staff member recognised him, stopped him and said, “Is it okay if I give you a hug?”

“And gave me the tightest hug ever, and said, ‘we just want you to know that we really stand by you, and we are so sorry that happened.’ To me, that speaks to the humanity in people,” he said.

“There are, of course, going to be a minority of people who are hateful, who want to spread division. But I think they're the minority, really. And there are more of us than of them,” he said.

In the video, when Taufiq says he is an American, the woman hurls back, using an expletive, “You are not American... You are from... India.”

The photographer was born in America, he had told her.

“Our thought process is we need to take her and hold her accountable in the court of law. United, unfortunately, was not able to help us with anything,” Taufiq said.

He said there has been no sense of accountability or introspection forthcoming from the woman.

“We're going to press charges," he told PTI. "We're heavily considering pushing it forward. We have legal people who have consulted with us and told us as much that it would be the smart move and to not let this just die into the night."

“Our generation is very different from my parents' generation. I think in my parents' time, they would have put their head down, kept quiet, that type of thing. I think those times are over. And I think that it's up to our generation to really make sure that this is not the type of thing that you can do without consequence," he told PTI.

He said initially he didn't have the name of the woman and that made it difficult to go ahead with any legal action against her.

In the aftermath of the incident, Taufiq said he feels it is his “duty and responsibility" to make sure that “people know that, yes this happens. No, it's not okay.”

“Stand up for yourself, and to put a spotlight on the fact that... if you're on the bus with someone who's being racially harassed, a family that's being racially harassed, you stand up. You say something.”

He voiced gratitude for the sole person on the bus who stood up for his family during the entire incident.

“I'm so grateful for that one gentleman who did stand by us. But I really wish there were more. And going forward, I'm going to make a personal note -- if I see something like this, I'm going to personally get involved. I won't let them (be) isolated,” Taufiq said.

He said the woman’s family have now reached out to him.

“Now her own family and her friends have come forward to us, reached out to us and said ‘we want to apologise to you’... ‘We need to share her name with you, and we need to tell you what's going on’. That was enormous, obviously for us,” Taufiq said.

He learnt that “this is a habit in her hometown and that people have known her to do this type of thing, and she has this type of behaviour, even her friends and family, half of them, don't speak to her anymore because of this”.

The woman has been identified as Arlene Consuela, Taufiq said, adding that “this is the irony of it all”, given that her name is of Mexican descent. “So, one immigrant is basically telling another immigrant that they are not American.”

Taufiq said his eldest son, who is 11, was sitting in the business class next to the woman, who was asking him questions about whether his family was from India. In the bus, she even told Taufiq’s younger kids to “shut up” as they were talking excitedly about other planes at the tarmac.

In an interview to a news outlet, the woman attributed her behaviour to a brain injury. Taufiq said brain injuries may cause speech impediments “but they certainly don't make you racist”.

The photographer said anyone who goes through an incident like this, should know that there's support out there, that the right people will support them, and “that so many of us would stand by their side”.

“And for people who are racist, I think they should learn a lesson from this as well, that maybe they're on the wrong side of this,” he said.