A white woman who was traveling with her 10-year-old daughter is suing Southwest Airlines after she claims she and her child — who she describes as mixed-race Black — were victims of racial profiling.
An airline employee reportedly saw the two together and became suspicious that the child was being trafficked. The employee then called the police.
Mary MacCarthy filed a suit on Thursday in Colorado, according to Newsweek.
Police arrived at the Denver International Airport to investigate the trafficking claims on 22 October 2021.
The mother and daughter were eventually allowed to leave, but not before they experienced "extreme emotional distress," according to the lawsuit. The litigation is requesting economic damages, compensatory damages, as well as punative and exemplary damages.
Ms MacCarthy told Newsweek that she felt the need to be "hyperaware" of any interaction between her and her daughter due to fears that someone else might call the police on them.
She said being "on alert" about her "most basic behaviours" is "exhausting."
Mary MacCarthy and her daughter Moira— (Mary MacCarthy)
Her attorney, David Lane, told the outlet that the lawsuit was intended to bring accountability to Southwest Airlines and force it to re-examine its training policies.
"Just as the police are constitutionally not permitted to stop-and-frisk young men of color based upon their race, corporate America is similarly not permitted to resort to such profiling to use law enforcement to stop and question racially diverse families simply based upon their divergent races, which is what Southwest did," Mr Lane told the outlet.
Southwest Airlines said it did not have further comment on pending litigation.
In November 2021, the airline said it would conduct an internal review of the incident.
"We were disheartened to learn of this mother's account when traveling with her daughter," Southwest said at the time. "We are conducting a review of the situation internally, and we will be reaching out to the customer to address her concerns and offer our apologies for her experience traveling with us."
