to report a taxi driver for what I perceive as a racist remark

[treesntrees]

The taxi driver asked me for my address then jokingly (I thought) said oh you don't want to go there it is too rough. I replied that it was so quiet it was boring. He then said "It's ebola central". Not being quick witted my mouth dropped open in shock. When I had recovered my breath I said "that's a bit of a racist remark" His reply was that ebola comes from Africa and as a lot of Africans live in that road it is ebola central. My response was to stop the taxi and get out. If I had been quicker witted I would have stayed in the taxi then said sorry mate I can't pay you in case You catch Ebola. So should I put in an official complaint to the taxi firm or am I being unduly sensitive. In actual fact although there's about half a dozen African families in my road they are still very much in the minority.

No they arent sooty, they are suggesting there are alternative ways to address this particular instance of racism. You really need to listen to people instead of just ranting.

I think the cabbie sounds ignorant. He explains why he said it with what he clearly believes to be a logical explanation.

If he loses his job over this I think he will be totally baffled. I think in his head this was an attempt at humour.

That is not to say that it is remotely funny. Clearly he should not have said it. But I don't think he was necessarily being malicious so much as completely ignorant.

So of course bring him up on his comments, even report him to his employer but without someone explaining it to him I would bet that this cabbie will have no idea what he did wrong.

I've had similar "lighthearted" comments on other races and sexes when having tyres changed and having appliances fitted and just recently while having car seen to from an employee of a large popular breakdown company. Never reported as it's part of life. If it had been serioulsy bad then i might think otherwise but it just makes me take my business elsewhere. Like to know what kind of idiots i am dealing with rather than have the feeling they are keeping quiet in case.

I wonder if the OP would feel just as strong about complaining if the driver said something derogatory and discriminating about Eastern Europeans. Or, say, women and employment. Or religion. Or anything else which is supposed to be protected as much as the skin colour but doesn't see to cause quite as much upset.

For those who are worried that the taxi driver might get his heavies on to me for reporting him, he doesn't actually know my address as I hadn't given him my house number. After I pulled him up about his remark I asked him to pull over and got out of his cab before I had even reached my road. All he has is the name of my road and I don't somehow think he is going to go knocking on seventy front doors until he finds me. If his firm does say anything to him he is quite at liberty to refuse to pick me up if we are ever in a driver passenger situation again and vice versa. As it happens my late husband was African and I have mixed race children but he wasn't to know that.

I don't understand how some can say that the comment he had made wasn't racist. I would have definitely reported him in hope that he would lose his job.

not racist.
he was making a joke . not a great one.
you overreacted.

I'm disappointed and shocked that some people don't think the cabbie deserves to be reported for spouting stuff that is clearly racist in his cab.
Would he have said it if a black person had got in his cab?
Would he have said it if a white woman with mixed race children had got in his cab?
No, he wouldn't have made the comments in those situations because he knows that the comments would be offensive. What difference does it make if he says the comments to a white person? The cabbie thinks it is okay but fortunately there are many white people who can see that these comments are offensive and racist.
The cabbie made the comments because he doesn't mind shouting racist shit when in the company of people he thinks might share his views simply because they have the same skin colour as himself.
OP is right to be offended and right to make a complaint to the bosses of the cab company. Even if the cabbie isn't formally disciplined his bosses will most likely have a quiet word with him and tell him to think before he opens his offensive gob in front of passengers.
FWIW: I would feel the same if the cabbie had made offensive stereotyped offensive remarks against white Europeans, disabled people, gay people etc.

I just ran this past my dh (a black African) and he thinks it's definitely racist and also very nasty, because Ebola is so frightening and not something to joke about.
All types of racist, misogynist, homophobic etc remarks should be stamped on straight away. And op YANBU for reporting him. If he'd said this in an office or public services environment, hospital etc he'd have been hauled over the coals about it. He should know better in his particular line of work, where he meets all types of people each day.

I work In a hospital and these sorts of low humour remarks are made all the time by some staff.

Jasper I don't think the comment that he made could ever be classed as "low humour" you just don't say those kind of things.

It was a racist comment. The law states that this sort of comment is illegal. He will have been educated enough to know that. Ergo, consequences.
Anyone who thinks that there shouldn't have been consequences should perhaps spend some time in the shoes of those of us who have been beaten up or abused by such folk.

Not all taxi drivers are self employed, and even the ones that are normally work under a company name and i would expect those company's to not want somebody with those sort of ignorant views/opinions (joke or not) to be representing their company.

i think it does need to be reported, unless he has had similar reports before then i very much doubt he will be sacked, but will have a warning or at worst, a disciplinary.

Good job, OP. hope their complaints procedure is used to help him realise his misjudgement, and stop making such remarks to others in future.

It is a racist comment, well done OP thank you for not ignoring casual racist comments.

of course it is a racist remark. amusing we have moved on from the 1970's

it simply would not have been made if the area was very much predominantly white

glad you reported him not sure he will get anything more than a silly man be careful what you say as some people are too pc out there

The more reporting we do the closer to a police state we become with people reporting friends, neighbours, colleagues and others for remarks and comments. These reports affect jobs and other things.

You made it clear that you didn't like the remark, he lost a fare. That's enough.

Divide and rule. The strength of any controlling government has always been its informants - the Stasi, the North Koreans, the Nazis - all relied on people reporting others for something.

I think even if all he gets is that kind of reprimand it was still worth reporting though. Those kind of shifts in cultural attitudes about what is acceptable take time, hopefully you pulling him up on it and then reporting him may make him and the company think a bit more on this kind of issue.

Ynbu

I don't think it was racist and you are being a bit sensitive.
No need to report, just ignore.
Its the real racists that need reporting like the AA driving instructor who told me about the "jungle bunny" he had taught before me
Now he deserved to be reported, which I did. He wasn't sacked though they just gave me a different teacher.
Now he should have lost his job imo

Even when complaints are upheld, the action taken against the person who has been complained about is usually re-training, refresher, a restatement of the correct way to behave. In rare cases, formal disciplinary action may be taken, but v unlikely unless the type of incident is repeated. So for those worrying about the drivers livelihood, he will be ok unless he has repeatedly been unprofessional/ racist.

I think it is v important to report and complain about such incidents as this one. Whether racist or not ( I think it was), the customer service was abysmal, made the passenger feel very uncomfortable.

This driver can only choose to modify his behaviour if it and the impact of it are made known to him, & a complaints procedure is a good, codified method of achieving this.

It was racist. End of. I had a taxi driver remark that my road is "full of blacks". He soon shut up when I told him my dp is one of them

You're very right cricketpitch however I've read enough on this forum to realise that that sort of society would actually be very appealing to many people here.

Ahh, Cricket and amoment how considerate of you. I really enjoyed being beaten up by the NF in the seventies, my dd really enjoys the shit she gets now. Are you saying we should put up and shout up, because that's what it sounds like.