Highlighting the need to stand up against hate, an Indian-American family that was the target of racial harassment last month has decided to file charges against the woman who hurled abuses at them.
The incident took place in November when renowned photographer Pervez Taufiq, his wife and three children were travelling in a bus from Mexico to Los Angeles. A fellow woman passenger launched a racial attack against the family when it was on-board the United Airlines shuttle bus.
Taufiq, 50, shared a video on social media of his family’s ordeal in which the woman can be seen 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.
At one point when Taufiq says he is an American, the woman hurls back, using an expletive, “You are not American...You are from...India.”
“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 in an interview on Sunday.
He said there has been no sense of accountability or introspection forthcoming from the woman.
“We're going to press charges...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," Taufiq 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.
“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 further 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 years old, was sitting in the business class cabin next to the woman, who was asking him questions about whether his family was from India. In the shuttle 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”.
In the aftermath of the incident, Taufiq said he feels it is his “duty and responsibility" to make sure that “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.”
The fact that no one on the entire bus came out in support of the family as they were being targeted with racial slurs “was jarring to us,” he said.
As the video of the incident 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.
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