Family Who Filmed Racist Rant on Airport Bus Hopes to Identify Harasser and Press Charges

A Massachusetts family who was the target of a racist rant on a United Airlines bus wants to press charges against the woman who made the remarks against them.

Professional photographer Pervez Taufiq, whose work has been featured in publications like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, captured the now-viral incident on his cell phone. He told WBZ in an article published on Tuesday, Dec. 3, that he wants the unidentified woman to face consequences.

“I certainly would love it if someone found her, and we could press charges against her and then realistically for her to get the very loud message that she’s one of very few and there are a lot more people like us,” he said.

Taufiq, his wife Nicole and their three children were on a flight from Mexico to California when a woman sitting next to their 11-year-old son in business class allegedly began yelling at their younger son, who is 4.

“She’s yelling at him, the 4-year-old, and says ‘shut up, just shut up,’ ” he told WBZ. “And I snapped, and I said, ‘Don’t you ever speak to my son that way. You have no right.’ ”

The woman also allegedly called his family  “tandoori” and “stinky,” Taufiq told NBC News.

His son told him the woman “asked if I was Indian, and I said yes, I was Indian,” Taufiq told WBZ.

The family and the other passengers then got on a United bus to take them to the airport.

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Once on the bus, Taufiq said the woman, who is White, allegedly made racist comments to his family, leading to a heated exchange. He posted the aftermath on his Instagram page on Nov. 24. In the clip, she is seen sticking up her middle fingers as she tells Taufiq, “Your family is from India. You have no respect,” adding, “I’m American” and calling them “crazy.”

Although Taufiq tells her he and his family are also American, she replies, “No, you’re not.”

A staff member is heard trying to intervene and Taufiq asks for her to be removed from the bus. Although the employee says they cannot remove her, the woman voluntarily steps out of the vehicle to speak to workers standing outside the doors. A fellow passenger also speaks to staffers from inside the bus and tells them that the woman made him uncomfortable with her foul language and “racist” comments, asking that she not be let back on.

Taufiq explains at the end of his video that police onsite were looking to arrest her and that she had been placed on a no-fly list.

“This is not acceptable and if you see it, stand up, say something, be with the person that’s going through this,” he told WBZ.

Nicole, who also works as a wedding photographer, told WBZ that their family has been to 34 countries and never had to have a conversation about racism with their children until now.

“He’s dealing with it in different ways,” she told the outlet of how the 11-year-old is coping. “Like, every day is a new question, a new angle. I think he’s still trying to process this whole experience in his own way, and I think that’s just hard to watch.”

Taufiq told NBC News that United has not reached out to his family yet.

“We don’t really know where things are,” he continued. “I haven’t heard a peep out of United.” 

When reached by PEOPLE, United Airlines declined to comment.