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Airlines in the U.S. have been accusing parents of biracial kids of trafficking their own children on flights.
According to CBS News, American Airlines is under fire after staff accused a Black father of trafficking his own kids during a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles.
Musician David Ryan Harris took to social media this week to tell the world that while he and his two biracial sons, Truman and Hendrix, were on an American Airlines flight, Harris was accused of trafficking the young boys.
Harris, who has worked with famous musicians such as John Mayer and Carlos Santana, said as he and his sons were de-boarding the plane, they were met by an American Airlines employee and four police officers.
“Apparently, a flight attendant had called ahead with some sort of concern that perhaps my mixed children weren’t my children,” Harris said in his video posted to social. “We are met, embarrassingly so, by this AA employee and police officers. They questioned my kids.”
He continued saying, “There were many steps she could have taken before she [flight attendant] lobbed the hand grenade of having the authorities called.”
Harris also said that it took American Airlines officials over a week to contact him after the incident and that he didn’t get any calls until he posted his story online. His attempts to contact their customer service all went unanswered, but after posting the video he says he was offered an apology and 10,000 frequent flyer miles from the airlines.
“I had to go through a ticket counter. I had to go past federal agents. It should stop with the federal agent, once we get past TSA, I don’t want to hear from a flight attendant what kind of hunch they have,” said Harris.
American Airlines also issued an apology in a statement stating that safety and security are the company’s top priorities.
“The safety and security of our customers and team members are our top priorities. We strive to create a positive, welcoming environment for everyone who travels with us and apologize for any misunderstanding that may have occurred. A member of our team reached out to the customer to learn more about their experience and address their concerns,” said American Airlines in a statement.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the only incident where a major airline company accused a parent of a biracial child of trafficking during a flight.
Source: (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) / (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
A Los Angeles woman named Mary MacCarthy is suing Southwest Airlines after she was accused of trafficking her biracial daughter in October 2021.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed August 3 in Colorado, MacCarthy and her then 10-year-old daughter were traveling from San Jose to Denver after the death of MacCarthy’s brother. After de-boarding at Denver International Airport, MacCarthy and her daughter were met by police officers who began questioning the woman and her daughter.
“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 stated. “After significant questioning, during which Ms. MacCarthy’s daughter began to break down in tears, Ms. MacCarthy was eventually allowed to leave by the officers, but not before this display of blatant racism by Southwest Airlines caused Ms. MacCarthy and her daughter extreme emotional distress.”
MacCarthy also said that she’s been told by other parents that similar situations have happened to them as well.
“I hear all the time from parents that this is happening to,” MacCarthy told CBS News. “The only commonality in the families that reach out to me is that the parent has a different skin color than the child who is involved. Clearly, something is wrong with the training flight crews are undergoing.”
In 2022, Jonathan Marcu, who is white, was also falsely accused of trafficking his two Hispanic daughters while on a Spirit Airlines flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale. According to Marcu, he was also approached by airline staff and three County sheriffs after deboarding the plane.
“I said ‘this is a joke right?’” Mr Marcu told The Independent. “It was terrible, it was a horrible experience, it was handled the wrong way, it was racial profiling in my opinion,” he said.
“I understand that human trafficking is a horrible thing, but there has to be some kind of precautions. There’s no rules and regulations on airlines to handle it. You can’t just take a guy who looks different from his children and accuse them of human trafficking.”
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