Indian-American family to press charges over racist slurs

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

Taufiq recalled that barring one man, nobody on the bus came out in support of the family. But as the video went viral, Taufiq and his family received outpouring support on and off social media, he claimed. “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.

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. However, soon the woman’s own family and friends reached out to apologise. “Now her own family and friends have reached out to us and said ‘we want to apologise to you’... ‘We need to share her name with you and tell you what’s going on’,” Taufiq said.

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.”