Thomas MacMillan Photo
At 8:30 p.m., Angel Ogden Stanley and her five kids climbed into a Metro Taxi. Moments later, they were back on the street, after the cab driver allegedly subjected them to racist epithets and then spat on Stanley’s 6‑year-old daughter.
That’s Stanley’s version of what happened last week on Tuesday evening.
Stanley, who’s black, said she was trying to get home from a visit to her mother’s house with her kids when a white Metro Taxi driver started dropping the word “nigger” and telling her black people are “born dirty.” The driver then offered to “give [her] kids a bath” and spat on little Jaday, Stanley said.
It’s an incident that Stanley has struggled to understand and that she worries has left her 6‑year-old deeply confused and upset.
In a statement, Metro Taxi president Bill Scalzi dismissed Taylor’s accusations: “We have reviewed the complaint and have no reason to believe it has any merit. Our driver, [who] has been with Metro Taxi for 23 years without any previous customer complaints, denies the accusation.”
Stanley is not willing to let the matter drop. She has reported the incident to the police. Her lawyer, Michael Jefferson, said he will work to have the driver removed from his cab and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“This guy’s a lunatic,” Jefferson said. “He’s a danger.”
This isn’t the first allegation of racial epithets being used by Metro Taxi cabbies. In May 2009, another Metro Taxi customer complained of receiving a voicemail filled with the word “nigger” after a taxi mix-up led to a lost fare.
Here’s what happened on Tuesday night, according to Stanley:
Stanley, who’s 25, was visiting her mom in the Farnam Court housing project on New Haven’s Grand Avenue, where she grew up as the youngest of 14 children. She had her four kids, ranging from 1 to 6 years old, with her, as well as her 14-year-old niece, for whom she’s legal guardian. At around 8:15, she called Metro Taxi for a ride back to her house in Ansonia.
Ten or 15 minutes later, Metro Taxi cab number 181 showed up. It was driven by a heavyset white guy who looked to be in his mid-50s.
“We all got in the back seat,” Stanley recalled. “I said, ‘Do not pull off. Can we discuss the fare? Can I have a flat rate?’”
Stanley said she often negotiates a flat rate with cab drivers for out-of-town trips. She’s never had a problem before.
“My flat rate is $50,” she recalled the cabbie telling her.
She told him that was way more than she usually pays. He said his price was firm.
“It’s too steep for me,” Stanley said. She told him she would cancel the cab and call another. She got out of the car with her kids. But 3‑year-old James wouldn’t leave the backseat. “Mommy, I want to go home,” he said.
“Come on, James,” she said.
“You don’t want to pay me?” the cabbie asked Stanley, she said.
“Pay you for what?” she replied.
“This is why I don’t pick up niggers now,” the cabbie then reportedly said. Stanley said he used a normal tone of voice.
“Excuse me?” Stanley said. “What did you say?”
“You heard me, bitch,” the cabbie said, according to Stanley. He repeated his statement.
“You black niggers are always looking for a handout,” he reportedly went on. “You don’t do what you’re born to do and that’s pick cotton. Go back to the plantation.” Stanley said he told her black people were “born dirty.”
Stunned, Stanley didn’t respond. She reached in and “snatched” her son from the back seat. “I’m going to pray for you,” she said to the cabbie.
“You know what, I’m going to give your kids a bath,” the driver allegedly said.
“And that’s when he spat on my daughter,” Stanley said.
The driver spat out the window, hitting 6‑year-old Jaday on her arm, she said.
Then he stepped on the accelerator and the cab “squealed” away.
“Mommy, he’s nasty, he spat on me,” Jaday said to her mom.
Stanley said she had never before experienced anything like it in her life. It was like a scene you might see on TV about another person’s life, she said. When it happened to her, she was shocked. “I was literally stuck and frozen. I had no words to give [the driver] back.”
Recovering, Stanley picked up the phone and called Metro Taxi. She spoke with a supervisor about what had happened. He apologized, she recalled.
“I can’t tell you not to call the police,” the supervisor said, according to Stanley. “But we can handle this civilly and I can send another cab to you.”
“This is not about the ride anymore,” Stanley said.
She then called the police. The dispatcher told her that an officer would be sent to speak with her. “We waited, and waited, and waited. No police car,” Stanley said.
Meanwhile, another Metro Taxi pulled up. “This is a complimentary cab,” the driver said.
Stanley refused it. The driver, a black man, asked to hear what had happened. Hearing the story, he said cabbies have been complaining about that driver making racist comments about other drivers. “Go all the way with this,” the cabbie told Stanley, according to Stanley.
Eventually, Stanley got a ride home from a friend.
The next day, Stanley was taking Jaday to her first day at Conte/West Hills school via a public bus. “We get on the bus and my daughter asks me, ‘What’s a nigger?’” Stanley said.
She told her not to worry about it and changed the subject. Later, she went to the police station and reported Tuesday night’s incident.
The next day, Thursday, Stanley again took her daughter to school. Jaday again asked her question. She was clearly still processing Tuesday’s incident, and struggling to understand the meaning of what happened. “Mommy the guy called you a bitch and a nigger. He spat on me.”
“I don’t have a response for her,” Stanley said. She said she does her best not to expose her children to casual uses of the word “nigger” or “bitch.” She asked Jaday what she thought the driver meant when he used those words.
Jaday said, “I think he was calling you beautiful in an angry way,” Stanley recalled.
Like her daughter, Stanley said she’s also struggling to come to terms with the cabbie confrontation. “I know it happened, but I don’t feel like it happened,” she said.
Stanley said an apology from Metro Taxi won’t suffice. Money won’t help either. “I want it acknowledged in public,” she said. She said she wants public recognition that black people still face vicious racism. “We are still living a slavery life.”
Jefferson Calls For Conviction
“I don’t know why he hasn’t been arrested,” said attorney Jefferson of the cab driver. “When adults feel like they can do that to children, they need to be removed from our society.”
“I think he’s sick. God knows what’s next,” Jefferson said. “He should lose his license.”
Jefferson said he plans to monitor closely the cab driver’s arrest and eventual conviction, to ensure he is prosecuted fully. He said he may pursue a civil suit against the cabbie and Metro Taxi in the future.
“I’m very angry about this,” Jefferson said. If the cabbie spits on even children, “the rest of us don’t stand a chance. He’s a danger.”
Thank you, Ms. Stanley, for standing up and speaking about this. Most people would not be as brave, as determined. But please don't hide the meaning of the N-word from your daughter. Tell her, and tell her about Ruby Bridges, Dr. King, and everyone who fought for her. And make her proud of going to school, and not being hateful, like that man was towards her.