Incident happened almost 2 years ago.
AB Wire
NEW YORK: A desi cab driver has been fined $25,000 for refusing to give a ride to two black women, in preference to two white women, in New York City.
Cynthia Jordan, 57, and her daughters were outside Macy’s in Herald Square nearly two years ago, trying to get to a birthday party when Baqir Raza locked his cab doors and insisted he was off duty, reported the Daily News.
But before Jordan could yell, “taxi,†again, Raza was putting out the welcome mat for two white women just 25 feet away, according to a Human Rights Commission report.
“Are you kidding me?†Jordan screamed at the driver after racing over to confront him. “You picked up these two … white b—–s … instead of me and my family. I’m going to report you.â€
And report him she did, first to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, which fined Raza $200 after he pleaded guilty, then to the Commission on Human Rights, which took up the racial discrimination case, the Daily News reported.
Jordan said it wasn’t the first time she had run into discrimination. But what really troubled her was the look on her then 16-year-old daughter Bria’s face.
The fines issued last week were first reported by DNAinfo.com.
Bria told The News she was proud of her mother for not backing down.
“I didn’t know race mattered when it comes to cabs,†the daughter said. “It made me upset to see that.â€
Administrative Law Judge Raymond Kramer said Raza showed “willful discrimination†against Jordan, an accounting executive at a stock transfer firm, and her family.
“Baqir Raza refused to transport Ms. Jordan and her daughters on the basis of their race and color,†Kramer wrote in the July 27 decision.
The judge recommended that Raza be ordered to pay $10,000 to Jordan and a $15,000 civil penalty, plus get 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.
Despite the initial guilty plea, Raza, 24, said he never turned Jordan and her daughters away. He said the white women simply jumped in his cab and he had no idea which passengers got to his cab first.
“She’s the one being racist,†he said. “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.”