Today fixture Al Roker is best known for being the cheery guy that pops up around breakfast time for fun banter and a look at the day’s forecast. But an alleged act of racial discrimination by a New York taxi driver had the weatherman venting some hefty frustration on Twitter.
Roker took to the social media service last night to express his completely understandable irritation with being passed over while trying to hail a yellow cab. The television veteran said he was moved to file a complaint after noticing that he was passed over as a passenger in favor of a white customer.
Filed a complaint today after getting passed up again by a NYC Yellow cab. Cabbie picked up a white guy a block away. Wonder why Uber wins?
— Al Roker (@alroker) November 22, 2015
Roker noted that racial discrimination against taxi passengers is nothing new and claimed that that it’s the “ignorant, racist” drivers that hurt the industry as a whole. He also shared that he had to explain the uncomfortable situation to his son:
This happens to folks of color every day. And while most cabbies do their job, there are those ignorant, racist ones who hurt the others
— Al Roker (@alroker) November 22, 2015
What really hurts, my 13 yr. old boy was with me and asked why the cabbie passed us. I said, "Nick, ignorant people make dumb choices"
— Al Roker (@alroker) November 22, 2015
Hopefully @nyctaxi weeds out the bad apples. Looking forward to a hearing and dealing with this. I will keep you posted
— Al Roker (@alroker) November 22, 2015
In a reply tweet, Roker outlined details of what happened when he initially tried to get in the cab:
@mariamadelyn_ he pulled up, I reached for the door, took off and went for the guy a block away. He saw me and took off for another fare
— Al Roker (@alroker) November 22, 2015
The New York Daily News was able to get a statement from Taxi and Limousine Commission chair Meera Joshi on the matter. She stresses that a cab refusing to pick up a customer because of their ethnicity is completely inappropriate and unacceptable. She praised the Today star for putting a complaint on record:
“Service refusal goes to the core of the taxi industry’s social contract with the riding public and it will not be tolerated. We’re grateful that Mr. Roker took the time to file a complaint, and I can assure him that we will investigate this thoroughly and take every appropriate action.”
The New York Daily News says they have not yet heard back from Al Roker’s reps regarding this issue.
(via New York Daily News)
