A plus-size lady from Detroit is suing Lyft for discrimination. Dajua Blanding, identified on social media as Dank Demoss, is pursuing authorized motion in opposition to the rideshare firm after a driver allegedly refused to let her into the automobile due to her weight. As a content material creator and rapper, Blanding naturally pulled out her telephone to report the encounter, which rapidly garnered 1000’s of views on social media.
“I used to be like, is that this actually occurring?” Blanding stated, per CBS Information Detroit. “I used to be harm and embarrassed.”
Within the video, Blanding is heard saying ‘I can match on this automobile,” to which the driving force responds: “Consider me, you’ll be able to’t.” Blanding’s lawyer, John Marko, claims that the driving force violated Michigan’s anti-discrimination legal guidelines which embrace weight discrimination.
“Beneath the legislation, refusing somebody transportation on account of their weight is not any totally different than refusing somebody transportation based mostly on their race or faith. Discrimination of any variety ought to by no means be tolerated in our society,” Marko instructed Individuals journal.
In mild of the state of affairs, Lyft launched an announcement to information shops stating that the corporate “unequivocally condemns all types of discrimination—we consider in a neighborhood the place everyone seems to be handled with equal respect and mutual kindness. Our neighborhood pointers and phrases of service explicitly prohibit harassment or discrimination.” Nonetheless, Blanding shared in an interview with an area Fox Information station that she simply desires the corporate to understand how hurtful the state of affairs was.
“Refusing somebody transportation based mostly on their weight just isn’t solely unlawful however harmful.” lawyer Zach Runyan stated of the state of affairs. “Think about the results if Ms. Blanding have been unable to hunt shelter after the driving force left her stranded. This might have ended even worse than it did.”
“If I hadn’t stood up, who would?” Blanding concluded. “My hope is that every one 50 states would add weight as a safety for folks.”
