Posted on 08/25/2015 7:35:06 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
Getting wine-drunk on a train in Napa Valley sounds pretty good if you're the guys from Sideways or the parents in Bob's Burgers, but it's apparently a lot less fun if you're a black woman with a loud laugh.
A group of 11 women, members of the Sistahs on the Edge book club, were kicked off the Napa Valley Wine Train last Saturday for allegedly being too loud and disturbing other passengers—but the women say it was because of their race.
One of the book club's members, Lisa Johnson, chronicled the event on Facebook, igniting an outcry across social media and inspiring the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack.
"I felt like it was a racist attack on us," Johnson later told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We were being singled out."
According to Johnson, the train's manager approached the group—which included an 83-year-old grandmother—and said that the ladies would have to leave if they "didn't tone it down."
"The train is set up to be with your friends, to drink wine, and to have a good time ... We were thinking, 'Who are we offending?'"
The real humiliation, said Johnson, came from being escorted on a "walk of shame" through the rest of the train cars before the women were asked to leave at the next train station stop.
The Napa Valley Wine Train gave each of the women a full refund after the fact, but Johnson is holding out for "a public apology for the humiliations they caused to us as professional women." They are considering taking legal action.
According to the Chronicle, Sam Singer—a spokesperson for the company—maintains that the incident "wasn't an issue of bias. It was an issue of noise."
The Napa Valley Wine Train did not immediately return VICE's request for comment.
I don’t care if it’s racist, I think we all know there is a certain type of black woman who can’t help herself from sharing their conversation with the entire bus, train, plane, restaurant, movie theater, etc.
I know these type of snooty, white, Obama-voting California liberals. Their experience was ruined the moment those black women boarded that train.
IF they were white, would we even know about it? Never mind, be discussing it?
Yes, I ran into that elitist mentality as a teacher with administrators and parents. They made all kinds of excuses for bad behavior in others. They had low expectations for all but not for their own children. I was considered an elitist for having high expectations for everyone.
Not sure these women will get much support for their cause... This is so obviously another bogus RACISM! charge.
Yours is absolutely the most racist post I have ever seen on this site.
Well, they are like that.
It really isn’t possible for them to be quiet or low key.
black privilege..............like showing up for work at 10 am.
These wine-tasting train rides are made for snooty wine-tasters. It's a wine tasting event, not a wine-swilling-until-you're-drunk-on-your-ass obnoxious event. I'll side with the snooty types. They deserve to have their snooty events without having it trashed by uncouth drunks.
They were probably so loud and discourteous that no one else could enjoy themselves.
You’ve used the term “snooty white liberals” three times on this thread. Perhaps the drunk women were just being obnoxious and loud and were asked to leave after repeated warnings. Perhaps it wasn’t about race until the drunk woman played the race card. I don’t think loud, drunk, obnoxious whites would have been tolerated either. Had they been white, this would not be a news story.
#2 Very funny. Start making the t-shirts.
We need a thumbs up tag for the site :)
Doesn’t matter. The fact is there were complaints and based on these complaints multiple warnings were issued by the conductor who is THE authority on the train.
At that point it is incombant on the group to ACKNOWLEDGE the authority and tone it down. If they felt mistrated they had the right to address it After the train ride.
Using your logic anyone can behave as they please because they are the sole arbitor of wheter or not their behavior is approprite.
Your experience reminded me of seeing a movie when I was in Nairobi many years ago. It was a B movie filled with car chases and explosions. We were the only two white faces in the theater. The conversation was so loud you couldn't hear the movie (not that it mattered much) and it only stopped during the short time a car chase or explosion was happening. It was a big social event.....in Kenya. Go figure.
We must have been at the same restaurants. Then again this is SOP with more than a few black women.
Makes ya wonder exactly what profession they were professional in.
Its smiley face when the effects of liberalism comes back to bite liberals.
You forgot NO TIP.
With mamas like this, we can be sure to see their sons in the headlines.
I assure you, those black ‘ladies’ would not want some cracka trying to muscle in on their party.
Tena had to tone that commercial way down. The woman singing and the woman laughing were so obnoxious. I know I reached for the mute. Now, they’ve both been dialed back to reasonable.
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