By Neha Gopal | AsAm News
A woman wearing a green striped shirt and sporting a bob haircut unleashed a torrent of racist remarks directed at photographer Pervez Taufiq and his family, while on a United Airlines shuttle bus at the Los Angeles airport.
“Your family is from India. You have no respect, you have no rules, and you think you can push everyone. Push, push, push, push,” she spat. Despite being filmed, she pressed on, adding comments about curry and calling Indians “gross.”
The woman was identified by the Daily Mail as Arlene Bunch, a real estate agent.
According to The Scottish Sun, the incident occurred Nov. 24 aboard the transfer shuttle after a flight from Cancun. The trouble reportedly began when Bunch asked Taufiq’s young son, “What country are you from?” The seemingly innocuous question quickly spiraled into a full-blown tirade.
Children Watched Expletive-Ridden Tirade
As tensions escalated, the woman’s behavior grew more belligerent. According to the New York Post, when Taufiq confronted her, she retaliated with an expletive-laden response, threatening to record his “f–king tandoori as*.”
She capped off her performance with two icy middle fingers directed at the camera, her defiance on full display.
By this point, the atmosphere was heavy with tension, and a clean-up on the aisle of the shuttle was desperately needed.
‘Act of Racism’
Finally, another passenger stepped in, addressing a United Airlines employee: “She is out of line, she’s drunk, and we need her off the bus. She’s been on the bus cussing and screaming, she started calling racist slurs at this nice family. They didn’t do anything; she doesn’t need to be on this bus.”
Bunch was ultimately escorted off, still donning her green-striped shirt and anger.
For Taufiq’s wife, Nicole, the silence of the other passengers was deafening, she told Boston.com.
Crowd Remains Silent
“It wasn’t just the act of racism that stung; it was the apathy of the crowd, the passive acceptance that felt like silent approval,” she wrote, according to The Mint. “My husband and I felt incredibly alone. The silence from the majority, people who could have chosen to stand for decency, was deafening.”
Taufiq echoed his frustration in his own post, thanking United Airlines for eventually removing Bunch, but expressing dismay at the experience.
“Blown away these types of people still exist,” he wrote. “As photographers, we have seen a lot … but this is one we could have done without.”
The incident may have ended when Bunch was removed from the shuttle, but her words lingered, leaving the family to grapple with the hateful tirade and the stifling isolation that came with it. In the end, it wasn’t just the vile remarks that hurt—it was the silence of those who stood by and did nothing, a reminder that complicity can speak as loudly as hate itself.
