If you're black or Latino and you're planning on traveling in New York City, I suggest you fill your pockets with lots of subway and bus tokens because you're going to find hailing a cab next to impossible.
The fact that it is frustratingly hard to get a NYC cab to stop for you if you are a person of color comes as no surprise. But this already next-to-impossible task just got that much more difficult thanks to Fernando Mateo, head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.

Mateo has taken to every microphone he can find to urge NYC hacks to "racial profile" a potential fare before deciding to pick-up a passenger: "You know, sometimes it is good we are racially profiled, because the God's honest truth is that 99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these drivers are blacks and Hispanics," said Mateo, who himself is of Hispanic and African-American heritage.

Mateo, a New York gadfly who seems to insert himself regularly in controversial situations, made his statement shortly after the shooting of a Queen's taxi driver. Soon after making his comments, Mateo (also the president of Hispanics Across America which like his Taxi Federation has a disconnected phone number) was quickly rebuked by civic leaders and city officials, including NYC's Taxi and Limousine commissioner David Yassky: "Choosing which passengers to serve on the basis of race is illegal, downright wrong and simply unacceptable," said Yassky.

Comments like Mateo's only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes, which we all know will leave blacks and Hispanics standing forlornly on the curb, hands outstretched, as cabs zoom by.
We can express our anger over Mateo's outrageous comments by flooding him with e-mails, if he had a working e-mail address  (the e-mails I have sent the man have all bounced back), but what real good will that do? He'll love the publicity.

What I think would be more effective is to get involved in NYC's Taxi of Tomorrow campaign. On its website and Facebook page, the campaign is seeking suggestions to improve its new fleet of cabs, which are scheduled to hit the city streets in 2014.  Specifically, there is a survey that wants to know "some of the things you're looking for in your Taxi of Tomorrow."  Personally, as an African American, topping my "taxi of tomorrow" wishlist would be a cab that would actually stop and pick me up!

In a city with 13, 237 licensed taxicabs, wouldn't it be great if one or two of those cabs would pick up passengers of color?

I urge each of you to answer Question #6 on the Taxi of Tomorrow survey. In the comment space provided suggest something along the lines of: A sign should be posted inside every taxi that clearly states that 
discriminating against people because of their race, color, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexual preference is against the law.

Please also sign the petition below urging TLC Commissioner Yassky to put the brakes on racial profiling by New York City cabbies.
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. Photo Credit: Roger Schultz

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Drop Those Clippers, and Back Away From the Shave Cream

The epicenter of crime in the black community, at least according to the Orange County Florida Sheriff's Department, is the neighborhood barbershop.


I guess anytime there is a group of more than two or three black men gathered in one place, brandishing weapons - in this case, hair clippers and scissors - and with a commonality of purpose - getting a little taken off the top - it all adds up to criminal activity.

Last year, more than a dozen Orange County deputies, all heavily armed,  stormed nine neighborhood barbershops in Pine Hills, Florida, an unincorporated area just outside of Orlando,  in a series of raids aimed at uncovering criminal activity. To their credit the deputies did make a total of 37 arrests, although 34 of those arrested were charged with heinous crime of "barbering without a license," which in the state of Florida, and probably everywhere else for that matter, is a misdemeanor.

To make matters even worse, the raids were conducted without warrants. Why bother with going before a judge to show probable cause that a crime is being committed? The heck with the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures! Instead just do like the Orange County Sheriff's department and tag along with inspectors from the Florida Department of Professional Regulation who have the authority to enter barbershops and hair salons to check for licensing violations.
Those arrested during the raids were taken out in handcuffs and transported to the county jail.

The barbers and their customers, who are predominately black, are still fuming about the way they were treated in this unprecedented police action. Several of those caught up in the sweep complained of being forced to lay on barbershop floors handcuffed for as long as an hour as deputies searched the salons.
According to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, arresting people for barbering without a license is "nearly unheard of" in Florida. As a matter of fact the paper reported that in the last 10 years there have only been three other arrests and jail bookings for barbering without a license in the entire state.

While not apologizing for the heavy-handed, civil-rights trampling police action, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings did admit that his deputies may have made some mistake. Still, he noted that the raids only targeted shops that were suspected of having unlicensed barbers.

A similar raid of black barbershops in California ended with the city of Moreno Valley being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union claiming civil rights violations. That case is still pending.

As one of the Orange County barbers targeted in the raid said: "There's a fine line between doing your job and violating a person's civil rights."

Tell the Orange County Florida Sheriff's Department and county officials to stop their unconstitutional squeeze on black barbershops and call a halt to these ill conceived raids.
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GOT A TIP FOR US? Is there a story or campaign in your area that we'd want to know about? E-mail us at humanrightstips@change.org. Please also follow Change.org's Human Rights page on Facebook and Twitter. Photo Credit: Valerie Everett

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