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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