Southwest Airlines Discrimination Lawsuit-"eenie, meenie, minie moe"-SW did not discriminate

kshb.com ^

[chance33_98]

Southwest Airlines Discrimination Lawsuit

A jury in Kansas City, Kansas Federal Court says Southwest Airlines did not discriminate against two African American passengers.

Regardless of the verdict, the two Kansas City sisters who brought the complaint maintain that they feel a flight attendant made a racial rhyme at their expense. Three years ago, Louise Sawyer and her sister were the last two to board a flight. In an effort to get the two passengers to their seats, first year Southwest Airlines flight attendant Jennifer Cundiff used a widely used rhyme:

She said "eenie, meenie, minie moe get a seat we've got to go."

Cundiff says she was trying to be humorous and entertaining.

However, Sawyer says, "if she wanted to produce humor, she could have found something better to say than that." Cundiff says she didn’t know the history of the rhyme. But what was a nursery rhyme to one person, was a racial epithet to another. An old rhyme used to include a racial slur.

Louise says her sister became so upset she experienced physical and emotional injury.

The sisters then talked about it and sent a complaint to Southwest. Had the airline given the sisters an apology and offered to remedy the situation Louise says they would have moved on and refrained from bringing a complaint.

The jury deliberated only 45 minutes after the two day trial. Jurors didn't reward the compensatory or punitive damage the sisters asked for.

[explodingspleen]

Wow, court excercises common sense.

You might wanna repost this in latest/breaking.

[AlbertWang]

These two ladies caused harm to SW. Lawyer fees, bad publicity, etc.

Shouldn't they pay SW for the expense and suffering?

[prairiebreeze]

A clear thinking jury. Amazing. There maybe some hope....

Prairie

[bereanway]

Let's see, moe and go rhyme. Yep, that's definitely racial.

[boomop1]

Gold diggers get the shaft and rightly so. I hope the case wasn't pro bono.

[Procyon]

I'm watching the AIRLINE reality mini-series on A&E. It seems SW has a good set of employees but the mangiest gaggle of passengers always looking to get a free ticket, a free hotel room, a scratched bag repaired or they threaten to sue.

[boomop1]

We should have as the UK has loser pays, but 3/4s of the lawyers would be out of work and sqeeling like broke dick dogs.

[auboy]

The jury deliberated only 45 minutes after the two day trial. Jurors didn't reward the compensatory or punitive damage the sisters asked for.

Too bad the sisters don't have to pay Southwest compensatory and punitive damages… and the cost of their "lawsuit.

[Bonaparte]

All it takes is one politically correct judge to clog up the courts for three years with a frivolous action like this. One of the "offended" parties claimed she had a "grand mal" seizure when she got home. This is a serious medical incident, and yet, curiously, the other sister did not seek medical attention. Just more lying scum looking to cash in on a quick settlement for their "victimhood." I'm proud of Cundiff and Southwest for standing up to these thugettes and their scumbag lawyer. If all corporations were like them and Denny's, Jesse Jackson would be out of business.

[Enterprise]

Eenie, meenie, minee, moe

Gold diggers get the shaft and rightly so

[gg188]

Let's see, moe and go rhyme. Yep, that's definitely racial.

Guess the Southwest filght attendant should have said,

"If the seat fit, you must sit."

[BykrBayb]

If you asked my son to complete the rhyme, he would probably say "Eenie, meenie, minie moe. Catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let him go. Eenie, meenie, minie moe." That's the way I learned it, and taught it him. It wasn't until after I had taught it to him, that learned how it originally went. Being white doesn't mean we were spoon-fed racism. And anyone who thinks it does, is a racist.

[Piranha]

The next line of the nursery rhyme is, "Catch a tiger by the toe." In many versions, the word isn't "tiger", but instead is a racial epithet.

[Sacajaweau]

I was taught the old way but I never considered it offensive as it wasn't said for that purpose.

[Klein-Bottle]

One cannot be expected to research the origins of a children’s rhyme before repeating it. I have chanted that rhyme using “tiger” more than a hundred times and never imagined that it is offensive to anyone (except maybe tigers).

Just because someone is offended, does not imply offense was meant. If it did, then nothing could be said, because almost everything will offend someone.

[staytrue]

Cundiff says she was trying to be humorous and entertaining

SW's employees are notorious for making jokes. If you fly SWA, you should expect to laugh at least once during the flight. I find their humor quite charming.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Exactly. I'm 35 years old, and until I heard of this ridiculous case last year, I had NEVER heard a different version of this rhyme. It was always "tiger." I had no idea any other racist version existed, and neither did this flight attendant.

The plaintiff was so upset it caused her physical and emotional injury???? Give me a break! Nice to see justice was served.

[arm958]

It wasn't until after I had taught it to him, that learned how it originally went. Being white doesn't mean we were spoon-fed racism. And anyone who thinks it does, is a racist.

I learned the non-racist version as a kid too. I'm 45 years old and it wasn't until a year ago that someone told me that the rhyme formerly used the "N" word. I was dismayed.

[Richard Kimball]

Just a couple of jerks playing "Wheel of Fortune" with the judicial system. There's a breed of lawyers who love this kind of stuff, and if the lawyer had performed the primary tasks of lawyers today, jurisdiction-shopping and jury profiling, the sisters would have come away with a nice settlement. Isn't it great that two people can take up six months of time and two days in a court room to see if they can extort money from a company? And people wonder why businesses are off-shoring.