PC run amok

[SuperScout]

KANSAS CITY, Kan. ? A judge has set a trial date in a discrimination lawsuit filed against Southwest Airlines by two black passengers who were upset when a flight attendant recited a version of a rhyme with a racist history.

Grace Fuller, 48, and her sister Louis Sawyer, 46, were returning from Las Vegas two years ago when flight attendant Jennifer Cundiff, trying to get passengers to sit down, said over the intercom, "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat, we gotta go."

The sisters say the rhyme was directed at them and was a reference to its racist version that dates to before the civil rights era: "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; catch a n----- by his toe."

"It was like I was too dumb to find a seat," Fuller said. Sawyer said fellow passengers snickered at the rhyme, which made her feel alienated.

The sisters are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil last week dismissed the sisters' claims of physical and emotional distress but set trial for March 4.

"The court agrees with plaintiffs that because of its history, the phrase `eenie, meenie, minie, moe' could reasonably be viewed as objectively racist and offensive," Vratil wrote. The second line of a modern version of the rhyme usually goes, "Catch a tiger by the toe."

Airline attorney John Cowden said there was no intent to discriminate against any passenger.

Cundiff, who is white and was 22 at the time of the incident, said she had never heard the offensive version of the rhyme. She said she learned the Southwest version from co-workers and used it as a funny way of getting passengers ? who are not assigned seats on Southwest ? to sit down.

Plaintiffs' attorney Scott Wissel said the sisters also want Southwest to stop using the rhyme and provide employee training to prevent such incidents.

[catman]

You have to be kidding! Just one more example of how f------ up the country is. I am more than quite sure the girl in question has never heard the "old" version of the rhyme.

Trav

[reconeil]

I'll give you odds, that besides The Stewardess never even hearing of: "The old version", she probably never heard the old or current variation of such used by one specific segment of the population. Believe it went and still goes: "...catch a honky by the toe", and for which this too believe is really-no-big-deal, even though One Proud Honky myself.

Sorry Trav, since I realize that only Black Pride constitutes one being a good American due to having great ethnic and ancestral pride. Whereas, displaying White Pride automatically labels one a Radical Right-Wing Racist, bigot and homophobe. Such being what America's highly touted EQUALITY has evolved into,...naturally only using the superior (though warped) Black Perspective.

Regardless, and all Black Racists and Supremacists aside, even the most stupid child wouldn't attempt to catch a tiger by the toe, without first using a 7mm mag. or better on the critter.

Neil