An Indian-American photographer is speaking out over a video he captured of a woman verbally attacking her family with racial slurs on a United Airlines shuttle bus.
Pervez Tawfik, 50, was traveling from Mexico to Los Angeles with his wife and three children the week before Thanksgiving when a woman accosted him and told him his family was “not American.” He called it “tandoori” and “stinky.”
Tawfik is a well-known wedding photographer whose work has been featured in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, among others.
He told NBC News that the woman’s harassment began when she approached her 11-year-old son, who was sitting apart from his family, and asked him questions about his race, asking if he was Indian and where he was from. spoke. NBC News could not independently confirm the encounter on the plane.
The harassment continued even after the passengers deplaned and boarded the shuttle bus to the main airport. Tawfik said that as the children were playing and talking, the woman started yelling at them to “shut up” without asking her to do so.
“Certainly at that point I lost. I said, ‘Never tell a child to shut up.’ “She immediately started talking about racial issues. At that point we were like, ‘Oh, something’s going to happen.’
He said the abuse towards the children turned into a racist rant directed at Tawfik, who began filming during the rant. In the video, she can be seen giving her family the middle finger and mocking their background.
“Your family is from India. You have no respect, you have no rules,” she said in the video. She then reached for her phone and said she was going to record him while derogatorily calling him “Tandori.”
Mr. Tawfik, who was born in the United States, insisted to her that he was American. “You’re not American,” she said. “You’re from India, aren’t you?”
He posted a video on Instagram last week that rallied thousands of followers to support him. South Asian influencers defended him in the comments, and celebrities like journalist Katie Couric also commented on the post and shared the clip on X (formerly Twitter).
The woman, who has not been identified on Tawfik or social media, is seen on video getting off the bus and talking to a United employee, and another passenger can be heard vouching for her family. Later, Tawfik said he saw the woman again glaring at them at baggage claim, but that was the last time he saw or heard her.
She said she had not heard from United Airlines since the incident, and was hoping that United Airlines would take action against her or make an offer to remedy the situation in some way. He said the family is considering calling the FBI because the harassment began while the plane was in flight, but he does not have the woman’s name.
“We have no idea what’s where,” he says. “I’ve never heard a peep from United.”
United declined to comment on the video. “We have no additional information to share,” the team said in an email.
Tawfik said the most difficult part of the experience was explaining racism to her children for the first time. He said his 11-year-old son, who was the original target, was the most upset, but his sons, ages 8 and 4, were not able to fully process their anger.
However, he said he was heartened by the outpouring of support he had received from the South Asian region and beyond.
“He couldn’t understand why people hated Indians. … There’s just no way to understand it,” he said, referring to his eldest son. “It’s very overwhelming, but I have to say our community came together very quickly. Celebrities shared. They really stepped up to bat for us. The world. I know there are more good people than there aren’t.”
