NYC Taxi Driver Fined $25,000 for Snubbing Black Family to Pick Up White Passengers
An alleged racist New York City cab driver was ordered to pay $25,000 in fines for rejecting two Black passengers and instead giving two white passengers a ride.
The incident occurred two years ago when Cynthia Jordan, 57, and her daughters were hailing a taxi in Manhattan's Herald Square in order to get to a birthday party 10 blocks away. However, they said that driver Baqir Razam, 24, locked his cab doors and told them he was off duty. Moments later, Jordan says she saw two white women get into his cab, just 25 feet away from her.
"Are you kidding me?" Jordan screamed at the driver after racing over to confront him, according to a Human Rights Commission report, reports The New York Daily News. "You picked up these two ... white b-----s ... instead of me and my family. I'm going to report you."
She then reported Raza to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). Raza pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined Raza $200 back in 2013. The Commission on Human Rights then took up the racial discrimination case.
Administrative Law Judge Raymond Kramer ruled that Raza showed "willful discrimination" against Jordan and her family. In his ruling, Kramer wrote, "Baqir Raza refused to transport Ms. Jordan and her daughters on the basis of their race and color."
The judge then recommended that Raza be ordered to pay $10,000 to Jordan and a $15,000 civil penalty, in addition to receive anti-discrimination training.
"Discrimination against a taxi rider due to his or her race is unacceptable and a clear violation of the human rights law," a commission spokeswoman said in a statement.
"I was supposed to be dealing only with TLC," Raza told the New York Times. "Why does it go to human rights? There is nothing fair in this case."
Despite his guilty plea, Raza denies turning Jordan and her daughters away. Rather, he argues that the white women jumped in his cab.
He added that Jordan is "the one being racist. She called me a lowlife cabbie and those women white b-----s. She was using inappropriate language. I just drove off. I didn't want anything to do with this. She kicked my car."
Jordan, on the other hand, said being snubbed by a NYC taxi driver is a common occurrence for Black people.
"I'm a black woman," Jordan said. "I've lived in New York all my life. A cab passing you by, it happens all the time, It's not anything new."
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