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

New York: An Indian American family subjected to racial harassment last month plans to press charges against the woman who hurled abuses at them, emphasising the need for accountability and speaking out against hate.

The incident took place in November when renowned photographer Pervez Taufiq, 50, was travelling with his wife and three kids from Mexico to Los Angeles in a bus. A fellow female passenger went on a racist diatribe against the family while it was onboard the United Airlines shuttle bus.

Taufiq posted a video online 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.

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 told PTI 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 apologize 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 “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 voices gratitude for the sole person on the shuttle bus who stood up for him and 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.

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. “It was pretty brutal to have nobody. And the silences, as they say, was incredibly deafening.”

The photographer said anyone who goes through or is going 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.”

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.

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, one of the airline’s staff members 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.

“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.