I’ve been slacking. As the previous post shows I’ve had some stories I’ve been meaning to write. But I heard about something from a rider yesterday that needs to be told.

I’ve given this guy a ride home from work several times so we’ve gotten acquainted. Nice guy. Yesterday he was noticeably upset about an Uber ride he had earlier in the day. He’s from India here to work for a local software company on a temporary contract. He had called for a ride to move his belongings packed in luggage to a new residence. A woman driver arrived to pick him up. He loaded his stuff into her car and before he could get in she just drove off leaving him standing there.

He told me how afraid he was at that moment as everything he owned including his passport disappeared as that car drove away. I asked why he thought she had done that. He didn’t know. He reported his stuff stolen to the police and luckily they later found the luggage on the side of the road. Nothing was apparently missing.

So why did this woman drive off with this man’s belongings in her car? He didn’t know but I think I know. As a middle eastern man he was racially profiled buy the woman. She just wasn’t going to let him in her car and probably panicked. This incident has all of the appearance of an example of the growing racial and ethnic hatred in some segments of American society that is being whipped up by right wing politics from the White House to the streets of the “happiest city in America”.