Mother blasts airline after worker demanded proof that her mixed-race baby son was her child

An upset mother blasted Southwest Airlines after one of its workers demanded proof that her mixed-race baby son was her child.

Basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb says she was flying home from Denver to Oakland in California Monday when a Southwest agent questioned whether one year-old Jordan was hers.

She showed the agent Jordan’s passport, but says the woman was unsatisfied and demanded to see Jordan’s birth certificate, asking ‘How do I know you’re the mother?’ Gottlieb did not have her baby’s birth certificate to hand, and says the agent eventually relented and let her board the flight.

But she was so incensed by the interaction that she took to Twitter to blast Southwest for the ‘racist’ encounter.

Mother blasts airline after worker demanded proof mixed-race baby son was her child

(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 10, 2017 shows a Southwest Airline pilot as he checks his plane from the cockpit window at a gate at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington,DC. A cracked window forced a Southwest Airlines passenger jet bound from Chicago to Newark to divert on May 2, 2018, two weeks after a midair engine explosion shattered a window on another of the company's Boeing 737s. The airline told AFP that the crew diverted the plane to Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport for "maintenance review of one of the multiple layers of a window pane" and that the flight landed "uneventfully.""The aircraft has been taken out of service for maintenance review, and our local Cleveland employees are working diligently to accommodate the 76 customers on a new aircraft to Newark," it said in a statement. Flight 957 "maintained pressurization" as there are multiple layers of panes in each window, the airline said. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel SLIMDANIEL SLIM/AFP/Getty Images

Gottlieb wrote: ‘I’m appalled that after approximately 50 times flying with my one-year-old son, ticket counter personnel told me I had to “prove” that he was my son, despite having his passport.

‘She said because we have different last names. My guess is because he has a diff. skin color.’ She later told KPIX: ‘It hurt my feelings. It made me feel less than. ‘I was rattled, I think. I was a little bit shocked.

‘It is my responsibility to say, “Hey, this happened, this isn’t OK.” ‘And maybe somewhere down the line, that helps my son, who is biracial.’ Southwest said they are investigating the incident.

A spokesman added: ‘We always strive for the best experience for anyone who entrusts us with their travel.’