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WASHINGTON, D.C. – When you stick your hand out, you expect the cab to stop. But there’s a certain type of guy out there who feels like he’s always getting passed by.

“I get upset when they don’t stop, but then, it’s hard to take a taxi when you’re black,” says Craig Brown from Southeast Washington.

“It’s too hard to get a cab in D.C. because D.C. is biased,” says Man Thomas from Northeast D.C.

A growing number of black men in the District say an age-old problem is getting worse.

“You’ll flag down and they go past you,” Brown says. “Then they’ll stop down the street for a white person.”

So Fox 5 decided to put D.C.’s cab drivers to the test.

Meet Darryl Brown and Rick Yarborough. Darryl’s a Fox 5 Photographer. Rick is Fox 5’s Investigative Producer. They both went to college, they work in the same place, and they are the same height and build. They’re wearing similar clothes—a sports coat and a backpack– leaving just one big difference. Darryl is black and Rick is white.

For our test, Darryl tries to hail a cab the same time as Rick, who will stand about 10 yards farther down the street. We start in Capitol Hill, where the cab drives right past Darryl and picks up Rick instead.

We repeat the experiment at some of the most popular spots in the District: Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, and Friendship Heights. Cabs skip Darryl and pick up Rick three out of five times.

“That’s inexcusable. That is racial discrimination,” says Nathan Price.

Price is the Chairman of the D.C. Professional Taxicab Drivers Association. He says many taxi drivers do discriminate because they’ve told him they’re afraid of being robbed.

“Everyday we leave home, there’s no guarantee we’re going to return home,” he says. “In this town, particularly, it’s one of the most dangerous jobs you have is driving a cab.”

Price says he and other drivers want the District to require better education and testing to combat racism. But he says they haven’t received any support from the D.C. Taxicab Commission.

“These things are unacceptable,” he said. “But the city has allowed it to take place.”

D.C. Taxicab Commissioner Leon Swain refused Fox 5’s repeated requests for an interview.

But our investigation found the Commission does get race related complaints like, “once the driver saw I was black he changed his mind– I watch three other white people get into this cab.”

A man trying to leave a Wizards game at the Verizon Center reported, “Eight different cabs passed me to pick up passengers that had lighter skin tones.” He asked, “Do I have to get a white person to hail a cab for me??”

And another said, “It hurt to know that this driver refused service to me solely on the color of my skin (despite being dressed professionally, as if that should matter).”

Do clothes make a difference? Our guys ditched the work clothes for sweats and jeans and hit the same spots. Three out of four cabs pass by Darryl once again to pick up Rick.

“They can’t get a cab. They have to ask a white friend to call a cab for them,” says Don Kahl at The Equal Rights Center. “They can’t go to areas where they live and work and that’s simply not acceptable in our nation’s capital.”

Kahl says The Equal Rights Center has conducted tests similar to ours for more than 25 years, yet the government continues to ignore their recommendations like requiring drivers to get diversity training, conducting sting operations and increasing fines.

Most importantly, Kahl says the District needs to start enforcing the rules that already exist.

“We honestly believe that not enough is being done at any level,” he says.

Meaning, when you try to get a ride in this town, you might just get left behind because of the color of your skin.

Have you been discriminated against? All you need is the name of the cab company and the taxicab number to file a complaint with the DC Taxicab Commission. Click here for more information.

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