It’s our job as a community to protect the children of our world, but we also have a civil obligation against using systematic racism to make the lives of Black people and other POCs more difficult than it already is for us.
For Lakeyjanay Bailey, a 21-year-old Black woman traveling from Denver to Fort Worth, the aforementioned form of prejudice became her reality after she was falsely labeled as a potential child trafficker for having her 4-year-old white adoptive sister Olivia as a travel companion.
Here’s how Bailey breaks down the whole ordeal, via ABC 7 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.”
The response Frontier Airlines gave to ABC 7 Denver completely debunked any acts of racism on their part, stating, “A concern was raised during the flight by another passenger who was sitting near the woman and child and suspected human trafficking. 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.”
Do you think the person who made the initial report would’ve done so if Lakeyjanay was white?
Let us know your thoughts by sounding off with some opinions, respectfully as always. Send opinion to info@themetrorecord.com.
