A White mother who said she was questioned about human trafficking while traveling with her biracial daughter has filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines, accusing the company of “blatant racism.”
To add insult to injury, the mom was flying to her brother’s funeral when, upon deboarding the plane plane, they were stopped by cops and questioned under suspicion of human trafficking. Can’t imagine how rough the whole trip was for her.
Had the same when travelling with my ex-girlfriend who was small and East Asian. Yeah, kind of racist of them, but whatever.
If I’m honest, I’m kinda okay if that happened to me, because if their methods are helping to stop actual human trafficking, then it’s worth it.
I remember me at the beach with my girlfriend once. She was 22 at the time, but looked younger than that - 16 or 17. I looked like, well, the 23 year old dude I was. She fell at some point and I crouched to assist her. A lifeguard walked up to us and the whole time he was addressing her: “are you okay? do you feel safe?” Etc. My girlfriend answered all his questions and then he went away. He probably thought I was some pervert trying to take advantage of the situation. And I was like “I get it.” If she was an actual minor and I was some pervert stranger, I’m glad someone was paying attention to the situation.
If stopping Arabic-looking people stopped actual terrorist attacks, would it be worth it?
I gave this question far more thought than it probably deserves and the answer is no.
The only world in which this is possible is one where you define terrorism by appearance (which already hits pretty damn close to home). So I’d want the same mechanism applied to all people to catch the violent extremists of all appearances.
Fair point, but that’s a different context, and I agree with you with that sentiment.
The 9/11 terrorists didn’t even have beards. They tried to blend in as much as possible. So, you’re right. Harassing people with, say, beards and turbans is bullshit.
Most terrorists in the states are usually white and Christian.
Curious what the argument for “no” might be.
I hope this is a bad attempt at a joke, because I feel like it should be obvious.
But let’s imagine you’re one of those Arabic-looking people. Would you okay with being strip-searched every time you went through airport security if it was in the name of stopping terrorism, while people of other races went through relatively unmolested?
I think you’re forgetting that the premise was “stopping” Arabic people (not ‘strip searching’), and that it “stopped actual terrorist attacks.”
I take “stopping” #1 as the familiar, “please step aside” + thorough search of belongings, and “stopping” #2 as…actually stopping attacks.
Okay. How about, you, an Arabic-looking person, get pulled aside at the airport, EVERY time you travel. Your whole family does, and your children, by people carrying guns. While a stream of white people walks through unmolested.
Every time, for your whole life, you and everyone else that merely resembles you in some way are singled out for your appearance - regardless of who you are, what you’ve done, the danger you actually pose to society. Just because somewhere, sometime, it might catch a bad person.
And let’s not pretend that random strip searches don’t exist. If you travel a lot, the likelihood of one happening to you increases.
Most of us these days wouldn’t think that kind of racist fascism was okay. Because world history has shown the danger of profiling by race for human rights. But, whatever, I’m not you I guess.
How often would it stop terrorist attacks for each person stopped? We are talking about saving lives versus saving people from being offended correct?
You’re talking about formalising the concept of treating an entire demographic of people as 2nd class citizens who experience additional social barriers that others do not have to.
“I racially profiled every Mohammed in the US and 128,000 improper searches and surveillances down the list I discovered a terrorist. Mission accomplished.”
Thank you for providing a ratio. No I would not be okay with that.
I’m sure I wouldn’t be okay with racially profiling based on the real world numbers either. But I would be okay being questioned because I matched a statistically significant group of people who commit a crime that impacts the safety of others.
But I think the point is that race and gender are most often not statistically significant identifiers and shouldn’t be used. And if they are indicative, then it better not be used for any of amount of time longer than needed.
If we had intelligence that suggested we should expect a terrorist attack from a specific country during a specific time period at a specific airport then it might make sense on a temporary basis. I don’t know, I’m not a professional at preventing terrorist attacks.
If there were rules against race on a more permanent basis because of events in the past or something then that would be stupid, ineffective, and would needlessly offend people.
My only real issue with threads like these is the over generalization and trying to say that something should never happen or always happen. I don’t think life is like that.
The TSA can’t even prevent weapons from going through security checkpoints, and they have real equipment and guidelines for their security checks and still fail to find contraband over 80-90% of the time when they do internal audits of TSA security checkpoints.
The TSA is a joke as is, and the last thing we need is to give them more of a reason to harass people while failing to do their actual job.
How many times would it have to happen to you before it got old and you stopped being okay with it?
I don’t know. That was 20 years ago. We only lasted about a year, and that happened just once. I can see how it could be annoying, but again, it’s not like they’re pulling me over for “driving while brown.” There’s a genuine concern about human trafficking.
If my annoyance helps innocent people from being trafficked, I’m reluctantly okay with it.
Let’s cross that bride when we get there?
You do not want to cross the bride. Don’t do that. Though, seriously, that’s no good for anyone who it has already gotten very old for and that people are explaining away the feelings of.
Bridge?
I stand by what I said
Honestly, good for them for doing what they can against human trafficking. It’s worth offending a person here and there to save people from that terrible fate. Unfortunately, differing skin tones/ethnicities are probably the easiest indicator of human trafficking to watch for.
Edit: I assume race isn’t the only thing they consider. If it is the only criteria necessary to confront someone, that’s obviously a problem.
Edit 2: I’m sick and my brain isn’t working right. Maybe I am just being stupid – it wouldn’t be the first time.
differing skin tones/ethnicities are probably the laziest indicator of human trafficking to watch for.
FTFY.
This is the same attitude that gets minorities killed all the time, for “looking suspicious” while occupying their skin in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yes, easiest and laziest are basically synonyms in this instance. I assume they have other criteria before confronting people, and if not, that’s obviously problematic.
Edit: Or maybe I’m being stupid. I don’t know, and my head is too foggy to think it through right now.
Don’t be stupid.
There are millions, if not billions of dollars in the human trafficking economy. Continuous reports of rich and powerful people all over the planet participating in it. Disgusting human beings willing to treat children like animals for their own gratification.
And you think these people won’t start hiring adults of the same ethnicity as the children they’re trafficking to move them?
It’s such a reductive argument. “Just question any group of people if the children are a different ethnicity than the adults they’re with! Let’s not look at the kids body language, or the way they interact. Race is clearly the indicator!”
Fucking stupid
Yeah. How much human trafficking is actually going on at airports with a “parent” flying “their” child somewhere?
If some sicko is a billionaire with a private jet and is THAT dedicated to getting a kid to them, they’ll fly them on their private jet. You know, like Epstein.
And if they’re the “usual” human chattel that is treated like cattle, they’re probably being transported in some slower, cheaper method than a plane that (1) costs way more and (2) has a dozen security mechanisms designed to catch you.
This is just racism and people buying into Qanon propaganda.
Yeah, and they should totally be stopping people in turbans to prevent terrorism! Who cares if a few people are offended if it means saving lives, right?
This is a bad take. There are so many mixed race families in the world. It is not okay to start harassing all of them just because they might be doing something wrong. It’s literally just racism no matter how you try to dress it up.
That’s the basis of every argument against free speech, Save the Children is more and more a dogwhistle excuse to harass a group someone doesn’t like. Drag queens, lgbtq folks, adults creating and consuming adult content.
It’s a way to intrude on privacy and free speech in a way that is unconscionable.
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Maybe it’s just me, but I would I think a parent would be glad that someone was looking out for their kid. I mean, how difficult was it to prove when they landed that this was her kid? Wouldn’t a drivers license with the same last name suffice, and then everyone just moves on happily ever after? Did they handcuff her or something?
Why would a 10yo have a driver’s license?
because of car centric infrastructure in the US they need to drive to school /s
The airline has a record of the passenger’s full name. Just compare the ticket to the parent’s drivers license.
Not all parents have the same last name as their children.
Good lord you mean they would have to ask a second question?
Depends on how far it goes. Kids aren’t required to carry an ID to fly domestically. And as a parent I wouldn’t carry their birth certificate everywhere. So if the name on the ticket isn’t enough it would be quite the fucking problem.
As far as the lawsuit, it depends if the tsa was being dicks, if mom was being a dick etc. If it was a quick check and mom lost her shit because she thought it was based on race, or if security blatantly said it and mom lost her shit and it turned into a bigger deal.
TSA has nothing to do with this. A flight attendant made a bigoted judgement, and the Denver PD took it further.
It’s the TSA, of course they were being dicks.
But the airline isn’t responsible for what the TSA does with the report. They’re solely responsible for their employees actions. I doubt the lawsuit will go anywhere against the airline; unless they were being particularly offensive as well
You mean like you already have to do to get past security on the way to the gate, and again at the gate to get on the plane?
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Did YOU read the article?
Mary MacCarthy and her then 10-year-old daughter, both California residents, flew to Denver on Oct. 22, 2021, for a funeral after the sudden death of MacCarthy’s older brother, according to the complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. After landing at the airport, MacCarthy said they were greeted by two armed officers from the Denver Police Department.
Morgan Freeman voice: “Turns out, he never read the article.”
I did read the article. Guess I misunderstood. For that I apologize.
Oh Ok. That happens. No worries
Funny, when I do read the article, it very clearly states the mother and daughter were flying together. Here’s the first two paragraphs. I’ve bolded the parts where it’s clearly stated they were travelling together.
A White mother who said she was questioned about human trafficking while traveling with her biracial daughter has filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines, accusing the company of “blatant racism.”
Mary MacCarthy and her then 10-year-old daughter, both California residents, flew to Denver on Oct. 22, 2021, for a funeral after the sudden death of MacCarthy’s older brother, according to the complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. After landing at the airport, MacCarthy said they were greeted by two armed officers from the Denver Police Department.
Read the article.
“The…”
That’s definite-ly an article.
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The very same ticket bought by the hypothetical human trafficker? Airports don’t ID kids, so whatever name is on their ticket is just assumed to be theirs, meaning the name on the ticket matching the adult’s ID isn’t a verification of anything.
The problem is that I’m guessing this mom is getting questions and looks every time she goes out with her daughter.
The SW staff could have just as easily pulled the names on their tickets- which you’d have to have ID to get, anyhow- as checked their ID. The cops could have done that as well. Including pulling up her id in the DMV database they have access to. “yup. that’s her.”
The cops could very easily have just pulled the mom’s ID off DMV, looking at the information supplied to buy her ticket. That’ll get them to her on the DMV. If her ID is valid, it won’t offer any more information than is on the DMV, and there’s really no way to prove they’re your kid at all.
One of the reason I keep old photos (and new) of my niece and nephew- especially photos of me with them- is so to show cops when I get them called on me for being a single man doing “mom”-things at the park. Dealing with cops because you don’t fit some karen’s idea of who should be taking kids to a park gets old very fast.
And to be perfectly blunt, “you should just be grateful we care” is incredibly ignorant; and the staffer was probably just following protocol. but the reason they did it was fundamentally rooted in racism.
My kids are biracial, coming up and accusing me of having abducted them because I’m white passing is not looking out for my kids, it is telling them they are Other.
She was glad and decided to show her gratitude by suing.
Nah, parents hate when people look out for their kids. Check out what’s happening in FL… they’re trying to teach kids history in schools and it’s banned as CRT. They’re trying to teach AP Psychology and it’s banned because there’s a chapter about gender non-conformity in the text book.
