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| Jury denies âracist rymeâ charge | |
| 2004-01-23 | |
| EFL A Southwest Airlines flight attendantâs variation on a rhyme with a racist history did not discriminate against two black passengers, a federal jury decided. The U.S. District Court jury of seven white men and one white woman deliberated less than an hour Wednesday before reaching its verdict. Grace Fuller, 49, and her sister Louise Sawyer, 46, both of suburban Kansas City, filed the suit over comments flight attendant Jennifer Cundiff made after they boarded a Southwest flight to return from a Las Vegas vacation three years ago next month. As the two were trying to find seats on the crowded plane, Cundiff said over the intercom, "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat, we gotta go." (You can just hear the racism!)
(Wow this lady must have had her sensitivty meter oh HIGH! Letâs call out the ACLU, Rainbow Push, NAACP, Muslim Brother on this one.) Cundiff, 25, of Argyle, Texas, testified that she had never heard the racist version and that she was only trying to inject humor to make the flight more enjoyable and memorable. She wanted passengers to take their seats so the plane could leave. (I had one tell the passengers that if they didnât know how to buckle the seat belt âthey shouldnât be flying!â) Fuller said after the verdict that there was enough evidence for jurors to have found she had her sister had been discriminated against. "If we had jurors of our peers then we would have won the case today, and we should have won the case today, with all the evidence shown," she said. "Itâs a shame that the jury pool we had to draw from did not have one black and not one minority," she said. "Something has to be done to make sure there is justice in America for blacks." (Where is Jesse and Al when you need them.) Fuller and her sister testified that they first wrote to Southwest complaining that they felt the rhyme was racially offensive, asking that flight attendants stop using it. They said they decided to sue because they felt the airline did not take their complaints seriously. (I think they are still laughing at you, as are the rest of the civilized world!) This is why we need TORT reform NOW! | |
| Posted by:Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) |
| #13 They are trying to ban 'Huckleberry Finn' now because of the appearance of the 'N-word'. Who gives a shit if, historically, they really talked like that. But then again, they dont teach history in public schools either. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-1-23 10:23:34 PM |
| #12 I remember awhile back people tryin to ban Tom Sawyer from school because of"Inappropriate lanquage"didn't work though. |
| Posted by: raptor 2004-1-23 5:46:09 PM |
| #11 This is why we need TORT reform NOW! :( This was such a stupid lawsuit that I hesitate to comment . . . but the system is working. The stupid lawsuit filed by some stupid lawyer came out just like you would hope -- they lost. Even if there is not cost-shifting statute at work (and there might not be, since this looks like a case brought under federal law), I would guess that -- at a minimum -- the stupid attorney lost at least 200 hours of work (ouch! thatâs got to hurt) and his clientsâ had to pay 20 to 35K in expenses, unless the stupid attorney was so stupid that he fronted the money (ouch! that would really hurt). If a case like this was brought in Colorado under Colorado law, not only would the attorney lose that time and money, but the clients would probably be stuck with the costs of the defending party -- and maybe the attorney fees for the defending party, as well. Please, reconsider the whole idea of tort reform. At least in Colorado, the system is already pretty defense oriented. |
| Posted by: cingold 2004-1-23 4:17:58 PM |
| #10 What I try to explain to folks is that the 'n'-word was the word everybody used there at the time, just as they used other terms for their Hungarian, Russian, Greek, and Italian neighbors that we now consider equally uncomplimentary. When I was in Australia last year, I observed a man casually fishing take a fish he had just caught, and snap it's head back. I wondered aloud why he did that, and some lady nearby said something about the fish's meat being dark ("you know, nigger", as she put it), and that the guy was "bleeding the fish" - she said something further about this helping to keep the taste and appearance of the meat from degrading. I, being somewhat dark myself, didn't see mention of the n-word as any slight. She wasn't blind, and could obviously see that I wasn't white nor Australian, but still said it anyway, in a matter-of-fact sort of way. Wasn't any big deal, as far as I was concerned. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-1-23 1:55:01 PM |
| #9 ...Now, I'm old enough to remember the 'racist' version - heck, I learned it from my blessed grandmother, who learned it in Cleveland in the nineteen-teens. What I try to explain to folks is that the 'n'-word was the word everybody used there at the time, just as they used other terms for their Hungarian, Russian, Greek, and Italian neighbors that we now consider equally uncomplimentary. And my parents, who came from a slightly more enlightened age, simply took me aside the first time they heard me say it (IIRC, I was about 6 or 7) and said, "We don't use that word." No long dissertations on race, pride, 400 years of slavery, etc. - just "We don't use that word." Better part of 40 years downrange, I still don't and won't. And the sad part is that even here in SC, whenever I do hear that word, it's usually from the same people it's supposedly aimed at. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2004-1-23 1:06:18 PM |
| #8 Just retrain all the school kids to use hymie instead of tiger and the ACLU, Rainbow Push and Nation of Islam will leave us all alone. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-23 12:41:21 PM |
| #7 two stupid idiots abusing the system thus marginalizing anyone who ever truly was discriminated against for their skin color, etc. Someone needs to stomp their asses. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-1-23 12:23:05 PM |
| #6 Well, she hollered. I guess we gotta let her go... |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-1-23 12:12:22 PM |
| #5 Hmmm, I've never heard the racist version before this. When I was a kid we always said, "...catch a tiger by the toe." |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2004-1-23 12:05:24 PM |
| #4 Every flight attendent on SW seems to be a standup comedian. My favorite is the procedures for emergency oxygen masks: "Place the mask over your face and breath normally. Then assist the child or adult acting like a child next to you." |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-1-23 12:02:46 PM |
| #3 This lawsuit was a joke, but it's pretty unbelievable that they managed to assemble an all-white jury in KCK. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-1-23 11:57:38 AM |
| #2 They think this is bad? Recently on a flight from Atlanta our Flight Attedant gave out this instruction: " If we do crash over water, we ask that you kill the youngest child first so they don't have to suffer. " The whole pre-flight explanation was Satire like that. It was great. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-1-23 11:56:44 AM |
| #1 In theory, the jury could have made an award to the airline for damages and legal costs, and should have. I feel I can state without fear of contradiction that seizures are not caused by children's rhymes. They are, however, a potent indicator of brain disease. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-1-23 11:48:16 AM |