21-year-old Lakeyjanay Bailey was traveling from Denver, Colo. to Fort Worth, Texas with her 4-year-old sister. As far Bailey could tell, everything on the Frontier flight seemed to be going well until the plane landed at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and the two travelers were stopped by police officers at the gate.
I should mention here that Lakeyjanay is Black and her adoptive sister, Olivia, is white.
From ABC 7, in Denver:
“There were two police officers, and they came up to me and said, ‘Is it okay if we talk to you?’” Bailey said.
One officer asked Olivia, “if she knows me and what am I to her, and he asked what my mom was to her.” A series of other questions would follow.
According to a DFW Department of Public Safety incident report, the officers responded to a request from Frontier Airlines for law enforcement to meet them at the gate.
According to Bailey, officers spoke with her mom and a social worker to confirm certain pieces of information. Then, they followed the pair to baggage claim before speaking with the person who picked them up.
“The whole time they were talking with us, people kept staring at us, whispering and stuff,” Bailey said.
The incident report said Frontier Airlines requested police to investigate the matter after a passenger on the plane was concerned about a possible human trafficking incident involving a female born in 2001 who was traveling with a female born in 2017.
Bailey believed the event was based on racial profiling.
“If the roles were changed and it was a white person walking off the plane with a Black person, like a Black child, I feel like things would be different,” she said.
In response, Frontier provided the following statement:
“A concern was raised during the flight by another passenger who was sitting near the woman and child and suspected human trafficking,” the correspondence read. “That passenger approached the flight crew with those concerns and subsequently completed a written report during the flight to document her observations.
The captain was notified and felt an obligation to report the matter. Air travel is one of the most common means for human trafficking. Race played no part in the actions of the flight crew who were following established protocols.”
Bailey and her family are considering a lawsuit against Frontier Airlines for targeting her on the basis of race.
Does she have a case? Perhaps. If the 21-year-old and 4-year-old were both Black (or both white, for that matter), I doubt if anyone would have questioned it. If Bailey was white and Olivia was Black, would it have been an issue? Maybe, maybe not.
I guess, if they decide to go through with the lawsuit, the courts will decide on the ending of the incident.
Feature Photo: pxfuel
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
5 comments
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Frontier didn’t raise the concerns, a passenger did so i cant see her being able to sue Frontier. They followed procedure and thank god they did. When it comes to children we should always err on the side of caution. If it was a case of child stealing we would be singing praises.
Of course this situation will be suspicious. Races like all different types of animals are designed to stick to their own. Interracial adoption is a very controversial issue. Whites raising black kids in a white household and blacks raising white kids in a black household robs kids of their true racial heritage and culture. It can be considered a form of genocide. It will appear strange to the average person. Canada has a historical problem with adoptions and schooling of indian-north Americans.
This is an example of why flight attendants shouldn’t be detectives nor should any profession (teachers included). People are perfectly free to scream and ask for help if they are being held against their will. I don’t trust the judgement of flight attendants to scrutinize situations based on what it appears to be. As long as something doesn’t actually legitimately threaten flight safety (a person not wearing a mask in between bites is not a flight safety issue nor is any time someone criticizes flight attendants for poor service performance), flight attendants should stick to serving drinks and opening doors (dearming first hopefully)
I like to think of myself as one to have an open mind, this particular case made me ask, what if, were there a greater reason, for them to be suspicious of her than the next person, what exactly brought attention to the two of them
Because of the rise of “concerned Karen types”, who may have a undisciplined agenda, some kind of penalty should be possible when situations are found to be entirely without reason. Is this public swatting? Is this public trolling? In what world would a black woman fly openly with a white child breaking trafficking laws. Its one of the most visible – unfortunately – situations in existence to know to not be breaking any laws. Its a reminder of when jim crow laws were upheld. In EVERY INSTANCE nobody thought about the black individuals in the center of it all. Those guys – mainly men – knew the probable response of white men with a grudge what could happen if they “bent” any of those expectations. Many – in retrospect – are obscenely fictional, that a black person in those times would do some of the things that was said they did. You wouldnt hand feed a killer pit bull with steak wrapped around your arms and so you wouldn’t say something incendiary to a white woman walking alone. Yet the folks of the times though truth was being told when these minor incidences lead to a lynching. And then believed it again when everyone now knows what could happen when another innocent person was charged. Yet, that false charge lead to a death but the person that started it all gets away with no penalty.
Its gotta change. If someone thinks a innocent person is doing something wrong, to be proven wrong then that person should be penalized. Makes folks have to take responsibility for their actions, and only bring attention to real situations and not the ones in their fictional thoughts.