Tex. tourists: We were racially profiled at eatery

Three Texas tourists accused of attacking a hostess at an Upper West Side restaurant over COVID-19 vaccination cards claim they were racially profiled and demand the firing of the hostess, who they say was the aggressor.

“This hostess clearly has some anger management issues and unfortunately her aggression and her violence led to something that three Black women are being punished for,” Texas civil rights lawyer Justin Moore said of the incident Thursday afternoon at Carmine’s.

A lawyer for Carmine’s unequivocally denied the Texas women’s accusation.

“Any claim that they were racially profiled is a complete fabrication, disingenuous, and outright irresponsible,” said the lawyer, Carolyn Richmond.

Police say the three women attacked a 24-year-old Asian hostess at Carmine’s, on Broadway near W. 91st St.

Moore claims the three women — identified as Kaeita Rankin, 44, her niece Tyonnie Keshay Rankin, both of Humble, Texas, and Sally Rechelle Lewis, 49, of Houston — had already shown their cards and had been seated when two other members of their party, both men, said they had left their vaccination cards at their hotel.

That sparked an argument, and the hostess was rude to the three women, said Moore.

When the women decided to leave, the N-word was dropped and the hostess “lunged” at Rankin, sparking the fight, the lawyer said.

Cell phone video of the clash shows that as the Texas tourists struggled with the hostess, they almost knocked over the restaurant’s hostess podium.

The video shows a man from Rankin’s party and a restaurant staffer carrying one of the tourists from the scene, said a source.

“The injuries that [the hostess] received were incurred by her being physically restrained by other staff at Carmine’s after she was called out for racial discrimination, which she took offense to,” Moore said.

The Texas trio was given desk appearance tickets for assault and released.

They’re expected to answer the charges in Manhattan Criminal Court on Oct. 1.

“The hostess is apparently poorly trained to deal with patrons and has obvious issues with black women and has a disregard for women of color,” said Moore.

The hostess was treated at the scene but was not badly hurt, Carmine’s owner Jeffrey Bank told the Daily News on Friday.

“She’s extremely shook up,” Bank said. “It’s inexcusable, ridiculous.”

Moore identified Kaeita Rankin as a Texas businesswoman with a doctorate in education.

Lewis is her assistant, according to Hawk Newsome, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter NY, who is helping the Rankin family.

“[They] were racially profiled at Carmine’s in Manhattan,” said Newsome, who plans to hold a protest in front of Carmine’s on Monday.

“The police showed up and arrested Dr. Rankin instead of arresting the person who assaulted her and those she was with.”

Rankin and her party have returned to Texas, where she has encouraged her community to get vaccinated, Moore said.

“The fact that people are using the vaccination IDs as a proxy to justify the hostess’ bad acts just adds insult to injury and does a disservice to the policy,” Moore said.

A call to Rankin was not returned. The city started enforcing a vaccine mandate last week, requiring people to prove they’ve been jabbed in order to participate in a number of indoor activities in the five boroughs.

That includes eating at restaurants, drinking in bars, working out, going bowling and catching a movie or show.

Noncompliant businesses get a $1,000 fine for the first offense, $2,000 for a second violation and $5,000 per incident for subsequent violations.

City officials said the mandate will help keep New Yorkers safe and keep pandemic anxiety at bay.

Attempts to reach the hostess for comment on Moore’s claims were not successful Saturday.