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| Let's call a spade a Spade! |
Posted on 01/22/2004 7:23:30 AM PST by Republican Red
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Southwest Airlines is not liable for a flight attendant who upset two black passengers by using a version of a rhyme with a racist history, a jury determined Wednesday.
The two passengers, sisters Louise Sawyer and Grace Fuller, were heading home from a Las Vegas vacation nearly three years ago when flight attendant Jennifer Cundiff, trying to get passengers to sit down, said over the intercom, "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat, we gotta go."
The sisters say the rhyme was directed at them and was a reference to a racist version that dates to before the civil rights era.
The sisters filed a federal lawsuit against the airline claiming they were discriminated against and suffered physical and emotional distress. Judge Kathryn H. Vratil ruled last year that the case could proceed to trial, and it began on Tuesday before an eight-member jury.
The jury returned its verdict in favor of the airline Wednesday evening.
Attorney Scott A. Wissel, representing the two women, said in his opening statement that they were humiliated and degraded when Cundiff used the phrase, and decided to sue out of frustration after Southwest Airlines would not take their complaint seriously.
Cundiff, who is white, testified that she had used the rhyme before on other flights. She said Southwest Airlines encourages employees to use humor to help make flights more fun and memorable.
She testified that she was confused why someone would complain about the rhyme. It was not until later that she learned about the racist version, she said.
She might be correct about that, except that a jury of HER peers would have been too dumb to figure out where the courthouse was and show up for jury duty. Besides, the "jury of ones peers" applies to criminal trials, not civil (and even if it did apply in civil cases, it would be more fair to apply it to the defendant like in criminal trials, not to the plaintiff). Duh!
I heard both the eenie, meenie and Brazil nut n-versions, and I didn't grow up in the south. I had an uncle who was fond of such language. We called him Uncle Bigot.
If you really want to confuse people, call them Brazil toes!
That sort of caller is a gift to a talk show host!
Was Bing Crosby's White Christmas playing on the music system?
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| Let's call a spade a Spade! |
He also had a problem with Rickey Williams, Willie Mays, Whitney Houston and Barry White.
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| (Source of photo: films) |
Nope. Believe she said, "Eeenie, meenie, minie, moe...pick a seat we've got to go." Or something close to that.
Well the caller managed to make it up.
These women were just looking to win the lottery ... nothing more.
Just like another poster wrote ...
U Sue ..
U Lose ..
U Pay ..
I miss the days when the Italian could be called a "wop", the Irish a "Mick" etc, and it was an affectionate way of speaking amongst our mixed groupings.
Every time there are lawsuits over stuff like this I wonder why anyone would hire a person who could turn out to be a hypersensitive employee in a legally-protected class. Imagine having either one of these two women in small business. The possibility of a frivolous lawsuit just because one of them was "offended" is too great a risk to take.
The legal fees and the drain on the owner's time would be enough to sink any small business.
And, the owner would probably have to keep employing and paying the disruptive employee or risk a further discrimination suit.
These women should have to cover SW Airlines legal bill in fighting this ridiculous suit.
I agree, but there'd have to be some sort of mechanism to determine frivolity, or tons of legitimate lawsuits would never occur, on fear of losing.
MM
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