Community Chat

[sidsmom]

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@MorningLover wrote:

Lindsay Gottlieb, coach for the University of California-

Berkeley women’s basketball team, took to Twitter to claim

she was “appalled” after a Southwest ticket counter agent

asked for additional paperwork that could verify her

relation to the toddler.

Model Chrissy Teigen even chimed in...

In a response to Gottlieb’s tweet, Teigen pointed out that

airlines verifying the identity of children is a common

occurrence when flying and that it isn’t due to racism.

“Airlines have asked this of me, too, with my daughter.

Once I learned it’s a precaution for the very real threat of

child trafficking, I stopped being exasperated with it. Now

I’m kind of worried when they don’t ask,” Teigen said.

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Southwest Airlines ‘admitting’ they were wrong is just taking

the High Road & saving face of their customers.

Chrissy Teigen & John Legend have over 23MILLION Twitter 

followers....they make one phrase & things happen. They have 

that much influence. But yet...we have not heard a peep

out of them when this ‘happened’ to them before now.

It’s a non-event.  Life works like that.  It’s just the way it is.

[Laura14]

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@cherry wrote:

I have lived for years ,with family facing the spectre of racism. I have even had a distant relative, that was nothing but a child lynched because of it.... you bet it matters to me

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@cherry  This had nothing to do with racism and I find it really concerning that we are now finding it acceptable to call people racist when they had an absolute legitimate reason to ask what they did. Whatever happened to benefit of the doubt?

Keep it up and you're going to have that racist world because all this does is teach people that if you interact with a person who is different from you you'll have a bad experience or lose your job. Sound like a world we once had?

This serves nothing but to divide ourselves and stay in our own lanes again like back in the day.  That breeds ignoriance and guess where racism comes from?  Again, congratulations.  You've just created the exact reality you expected to have when it never existed in the first place.

People live up to high expectations or down to low ones.  If we keep lowering the bar we'll all be in the mud.  

And newsflash to all of us:  life isn't easy.  You will be treated unfairly, you will have to put up with nonsense, and you won't always have your expectations and lifestyle choices met the way you think they should be.  Why?  Because we still haven't met the one person important enough to make sure the entire world and how it operates revolves around them.      

[jaxs mom]

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@JaneMarple wrote:

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@sunshine45 wrote:

it was repeated so many other times in that thread, with sources/news reports included but people dont read or dont care. if you dont want to do it for all, then dont do it at all.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/05/30/southwest-airlines-dia-biracial-baby/

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So true @sunshine45 but people have their pre-conceived notions without research and blaming the Mom for overreacting and seeking attention. 

The agent was wrong, plain and simple!

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We have a certain faction of posters that always fall back on claiming everything is about getting attention. No amount of actual facts matter to those people. 

[cherry]

Yes just  more excuses. A white woman traveling at the same time, with a different name than her child, was never questioned

[jaxs mom]

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@shoekitty wrote:

When I traveled with my grandkids, I always took copy of birth cert. And a medical card, lol.  I was never, ever asked, nor did I need either. Many times they would mention to my grands, what a nice mom you have, or could you ask your mom.??..  Of course my grands, the eternal blabbermouths would blurt out, thats my gramma!! 

in this day and age, with so many mixed ethnic children, it surprises me they would ask for birth cert, or even question. Kind of like asking someone you know who has gained a lot of weight since you last saw them if they are pregnant.  Lol.  Personally, it was racially motivated whether the employee thought of it that way or not.  In the employee's mind, thats how she sees things. Jmho

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Yes, I doubt any of us that pointed that out in the other thread were calling her an overt racist. It was the assumption that a child that looks different than it's mother is automatically suspect that was the problem. 

[bonnielu]

Horrible thing to happen to this mother and child.  But what IF there was a problem and they caught it and saved a life.  Or didn't catch it and the life was lost.  

[sidsmom]

Getting on social media to complain: people do it all the time.

Getting on social media to ASSUME:  hummm....not good

Getting on social media to assume RACIAL issues:  really not good

This debacle speaks more about the mother than anyone.  

The 1yr old baby is & always will be ‘different’ in her eyes.

That’s a shame the mother is forcing a child to grow up

in that environment. 

[Tinkrbl44]

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@JaneMarple wrote:

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@sunshine45 wrote:

it was repeated so many other times in that thread, with sources/news reports included but people dont read or dont care. if you dont want to do it for all, then dont do it at all.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/05/30/southwest-airlines-dia-biracial-baby/

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So true @sunshine45 but people have their pre-conceived notions without research and blaming the Mom for overreacting and seeking attention. 

The agent was wrong, plain and simple!

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@JaneMarple

Yes, maybe the agent was wrong, but all people make mistakes all the time.  Maybe that agent had recently heard about a child abduction and felt she should be doing more on the job ... or whatever.   

I hadn't really ever thought about it, but I guess a child's identification is important when travelling ..... nothing wrong with that.

When it comes to passenger safety, even if it's an inconvenience, I prefer airline employees err on the side of caution.  Once that plane gets to 30,000 feet, it's no time to discover a "major problem" of any sort on board.   JMO

[sunshine45]

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@bonnielu wrote:

Horrible thing to happen to this mother and child.  But what IF there was a problem and they caught it and saved a life.  Or didn't catch it and the life was lost.  

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look at it from a slightly different perspective.....

they were questioned by an employee of southwest as to the parentage of the baby. they had documents to provide his age AND last name.

what if the OTHER woman traveling with her young child with a different last  name was an actual child abductor? she was not questioned at all.

AGAIN, if you are going to do it for ONE, then do it for all.....and make it standard procedure for all airlines where people fly domestically.  isnt that safer than "picking and choosing" just who you will do it to? by the way, make sure you have a smart phone and facebook page for further "proof." LOL

[sunshine45]

@Tinkrbl44

there is no MAYBE about it. the agent was wrong and southwest has apologized because she was WRONG and did not follow procedure. Hopefully  southwest is looking into this situation more.