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 passengersbut 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 groupwhich included an 83-year-old grandmotherand 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 Singera spokesperson for the companymaintains 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.
The multiple warning did nothing more than change the tone from happy times to “we’ll show you, MoFo”.
Why isn’t there a cell phone video of this? There probably is, but it doesn’t support the claims of racism is my guess
Yes, right up until you become annoying to others. Your noisiness isn't fun for everyone who has to listen to you. Laughing is one thing - obnoxiousness is another. They were asked multiple times to tone it down and they didn't.
Watch the black restaraunt staff run when a group of black women sit at a table. They know what’s about to ruin their shift, choke the kitchen, piss off the bartenders, and cause half the tables around them to request to be moved.
They also know they won’t get a tip.
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Unfortunately this is true enough for many black customers. This kind of ruins it for the many blacks who don’t engage in such behavior or small (or no) tipping.
I’ve often wondered if Black people have less hearing than the other races. They seem so unnecessarly loud.
And you know all others on that train were a) snooty, b) white, and c) liberals, how, exactly?
You must respect their rudeness, coarseness, hostility, and lack of respect for others.
It’s cultural, and we must respect all that, even when it is an affront to decency and civilization.
One of Derbyshire’s rules for white people is avoid areas where groups of black people are known to congregate.
Liquor stores, for instance.
A sub-rule of the above rule is that if you notice blacks beginning to congregate in a certain area, leave immediately.
The lobby of a movie theater, for instance.
None of the above is motivated by hatred or ignorance, only self preservation.
Emperor of the North: A fun, feel good movie, with hobos and murder on the rails!
It was obviously racist to ask them to pipe down three times, and even more racist to expect them to comply.
The Company already apologized. Read the article at the source.
Just heard on the "news" this afternoon that the company has back pedaled, apologized, will institute "training" for its employees and the loudmouths will get free passes.
BLACK WHINES MATTER.
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