Mother who was accused by Southwest of trafficking her biracial daughter files federal discriminatio

[Jilly_in_VA]

Mother who was accused by Southwest of trafficking her biracial daughter files federal discrimination suit

A white mother who was suspected of trafficking her biracial daughter in October 2021 by Southwest Airlines employees has filed a racial discrimination suit against the company.

Mary MacCarthy was traveling to Denver from Los Angeles with her 10-year-old daughter to attend her brother's funeral, she told NBC News nearly two years ago. Upon landing in Denver, MacCarthy and her daughter were confronted by police officers because a flight attendant suspected her of potential human trafficking.

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday in the District Court of Colorado accused Southwest Airlines of racial discrimination. MacCarthy accused the airline staff of flagging her as suspicious "based on a racist assumption about a mixed‐race family."

"The officers began questioning Ms. MacCarthy and made it clear that they were given the racially charged information that Ms. MacCarthy’s daughter was possibly being trafficked by her simply because Ms. MacCarthy is White and her daughter is Black," the lawsuit said.

David Lane, the attorney representing MacCarthy, said that the suit is designed to bring accountability and to have the airline re-examine its own training. He said that the use of racial profiling in this case has attempted to address a serious crime with a "stereotypical, easy formula."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mother-was-accused-southwest-trafficking-biracial-daughter-files-feder-rcna98414

The flight attendant's "reasoning" was racist in the extreme. My daughter has a bunch of multiracial kids (Puerto Rican Family) and we would be outraged if this happened to them.

[Joinfortmill]

1. Wow. Huge lawsuit here

[Tanuki]

2. My niece was traveling with her husband and 2 kids from their home

in California to visit relatives in KY. The husband is of Oaxacan Zapotec ancestry and has strongly Indigenous features and complexion. He's a building contractor and they were traveling with the portable "tiny home" he designed and built on a flatbed, that they used as a camper. Niece and kids were riding in it. They stopped for gas in Missouri and their son, age 14, went into the mini-market for snacks and got back in the tiny home. Shortly after they got back on the interstate, there was a police roadblock in both directions, with a swarm of officers and police cars. It turned out someone had called 911 and reported them as suspected "human traffickers". Fortunately it was resolved pretty quickly, but the racism behind it all was certainly unpleasant and upsetting.

[Karadeniz]

3. Yes, racist basis, but I'd be glad about the concern for my child.

[Ms. Toad]

5. Not me.

Concern for children can be expressed in ways that aren't racist. Do you think the flight attendants had the same concern for the white child being trafficked by the white person they were sitting beside? This kind of concern is rarely expressed for similarly situated white folks.

It wasn't concern. It was just racism.

It is ridiculous that being the last to board and asking someone to switch seats so that the mother could sit next to their 10-year old child would translate into an assumption that the child was being trafficked. I'll bet if the flight attendant had offered to help reseat the parent with a minor child that the parent might even have volunteered the information about why they were flying - which might make it even more important to sit mom and child together - and why they were late enough to be in the boarding group that was not guaranteed to be able to sit together.

Concern for children, just like other things that happen to people with brown skin all of the time, aren't really actions done out of concern. They are based on assumptions that the individual must be up to no good.

[malaise]

4. One of my sisters went to pick up her daughter at a salon on the kid's wedding day

When she asked the receptionist if she was still there, the racist told her no one looking like you is here.
Her daughter is the split image of her mother except that she is fairer and taller - they both have identical dimples. Daughter heard her mom’s voice, came out of another area, hugged her mom and blasted the receptionist.
Ignorant racists are everywhere.

[kimbutgar]

6. The daughter looks like her Mother !