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Eleven Black Women Were Kicked Off a Train for Laughing Too Loud
Vice ^ | 8-25-2015 | Scott Pierce

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.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: alcohol; drunks; highspeedrail; highspeedtrains; racecard; train; trains; whine; wine
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To: Citizen Zed

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.


61 posted on 08/25/2015 8:30:18 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Citizen Zed
What would The Shack do?


62 posted on 08/25/2015 8:30:25 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: MortMan
Why should they be allowed to ruin the other paying customers’ experience?

I know these type of snooty, white, Obama-voting California liberals. Their experience was ruined the moment those black women boarded that train.

63 posted on 08/25/2015 8:39:26 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: Citizen Zed

IF they were white, would we even know about it? Never mind, be discussing it?


64 posted on 08/25/2015 8:41:09 AM PDT by wbill
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To: pierrem15

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.


65 posted on 08/25/2015 8:41:33 AM PDT by pleasenotcalifornia
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To: fatnotlazy

Not sure these women will get much support for their cause... This is so obviously another bogus RACISM! charge.


66 posted on 08/25/2015 8:43:21 AM PDT by uncitizen (i hate gutless people, too.)
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To: Drew68

Yours is absolutely the most racist post I have ever seen on this site.


67 posted on 08/25/2015 8:54:16 AM PDT by MortMan (All those in favor of gun control raise both hands!)
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To: Citizen Zed

Well, they are like that.

It really isn’t possible for them to be quiet or low key.


68 posted on 08/25/2015 8:55:57 AM PDT by chris37 (Heartless)
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To: luvbach1

black privilege..............like showing up for work at 10 am.


69 posted on 08/25/2015 9:06:50 AM PDT by PhiloBedo (You gotta roll with the punches and get with what's real.)
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To: Drew68
Some snooty white California liberals, the types who prefer blacks on TV as opposed to next to them, were made uncomfortable by their "less refined" behavior and got them kicked off.

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.

70 posted on 08/25/2015 9:10:56 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte (''Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small''~ Theodore Dalrymple)
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To: Citizen Zed

They were probably so loud and discourteous that no one else could enjoy themselves.


71 posted on 08/25/2015 9:20:48 AM PDT by Nep Nep
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To: Drew68

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.


72 posted on 08/25/2015 9:21:56 AM PDT by bk1000 (A clear conscience is a sure sign of a poor memory)
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To: DJ Taylor

#2 Very funny. Start making the t-shirts.
We need a thumbs up tag for the site :)


73 posted on 08/25/2015 9:22:38 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: Drew68

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.


74 posted on 08/25/2015 9:26:55 AM PDT by billyboy15
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To: Dilbert San Diego
The constant chatter and talk back and forth made it an ordeal to try to hear the movie sound track.

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.

75 posted on 08/25/2015 9:31:49 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: txrefugee

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.


76 posted on 08/25/2015 9:34:55 AM PDT by X-spurt (CRUZ missile - armed and ready.)
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To: blackdog

You forgot NO TIP.


77 posted on 08/25/2015 9:36:45 AM PDT by X-spurt (CRUZ missile - armed and ready.)
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To: Citizen Zed

With mamas like this, we can be sure to see their sons in the headlines.


78 posted on 08/25/2015 9:37:42 AM PDT by bgill ( CDC site, "we still do not know exactly how people are infected with Ebola")
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To: Drew68

I assure you, those black ‘ladies’ would not want some cracka trying to muscle in on their party.


79 posted on 08/25/2015 9:43:26 AM PDT by X-spurt (CRUZ missile - armed and ready.)
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

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.


80 posted on 08/25/2015 9:47:25 AM PDT by Rastus
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