Pervez Taufiq and his young family had just landed at LAX and were almost at the end of a long travel week when a fellow passenger began berating them with racist comments.
Taufiq, a well-known photographer, recorded the encounter as it took place on their United Airlines shuttle bus.
“Your family is from India,” the woman says to him. “You have no respect. You have no rules. Do you think you can push everyone, push push. That’s what you think you are.”
In an interview with KTLA’s John Fenoglio, Taufiq says the woman in the video was on their flight and at one point had started asking their 11-year-old son whether he was from India.
“She looked at our sons – that’s two younger ones which are four and eight – and basically started saying shut up to them, just shut up, and so, to say that really made me snap and I said you can’t talk to my sons that way,” explains Taufiq.
Later on, on the bus, Taufiq says the situation escalated.
“You guys are f***ing crazy,” the woman says to Taufiq while holding up both her middle fingers.
“Indian people are crazy?” Taufiq responds.
“You guys are gross man,” says the woman.
Taufiq says he and his family have never been treated this way.
“At the time my hands were shaking,” says the photographer. “I was so so upset, but also just floored.”
Taufiq believes the woman was drunk during and after the flight.
“You are racist towards me,” the woman also says in the video. “I’m American.”
“So are we,” responded Taufiq.
“You are not American,” she says.
In his interview with KTLA, Taufiq says again, “We are American. Because I was born here and she was naturalized. Our sons are American. We are proud of our country.”
He also says he’s bothered by the fact that only one bystander spoke up for his family, before United employees arrived and asked the woman to get off the bus.
“The takeaway for us is definitely if you see something say something, try to stop it,” says Taufiq. “Do your best because you could be next and you want everyone to be in your corner right when it happens.”
KTLA has reached out to United Airlines for comment on the incident but did not immediately hear back.
