Author's book publication cancelled after a tweet reporting on a WMATA employee eating on the metro

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is DCUM is full of BBQ Becky’s so of course they think this is awful. How many threads have been posted here with people asking if they should call the cops about various non-criminal irritants like music coming from the roofing crew working across the street? I posted last summer about someone at the pool calling the cops TWICE on two boys who said they had left their pool passes at home and everyone here was like “well that seems fine, they can’t swim in our pool without a pass!!!”

DCUM is predominantly middle to upper middle class who’re women who are used to tattling on people who minorly inconvenience or annoy them because they a) would never have to worry over someone else causing them to lose their job for the same and b) don’t know or care what it’s like to have to actually fear interacting with law enforcement. They’re all identifying with the author here who they see as doing nothing wrong and got her book deal unfairly taken for this.

Nope. You still don’t get it.
I grew up riding the metro from out in fairfax county. It was mostly a bunch of middle class professionals, quietly reading while we rode in. Maybe people had coffee in a thermo. I never remember seeing people eat.
People were respectful.
This is a culture clash.
I remember the pool pass post. When I was a kid ( 80’s), if we were asked to go home and get our pass, WE WALKED HOME AND GOT THE PASS.
We didn’t argue about it, because we didn’t feel entitled to behave that way.
The is absolutely about entitlement, but not in the way you think.
For the record, I don’t agree with posting the worker’s picture and think a bit of karma came into play. But this isn’t about race. It’s about expectations in public spaces and class.

What culture clash?

Civil, rule abiding and respectful vs not

You mean the same people who were okay with civil rights abuses. People need stop acting as if the past was some kind of utopia...except for the chosen few

[Anonymous]

A 14-page and running thread while we wouldn't have heard a peep if the Mertro employee had not been black.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So - a DC woman tweeted out a photo of a uniformed metro employee eating on the Metro, noting that Metro prohibits eating on the metro, and complaining about a metro employee violating the same rule metro employees ask riders to respect. The tweeter is Arab American and the metro employee she complained about is a black woman. Now her publisher and book distributor are cancelling her novel's publication as a result. (See Post article below: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/05/11/dc-pundit-shamed-metro-worker-eating-train-now-her-book-deal-is-jeopardy/?utm_term=.804898e5dbb8).

So, I agree her tweet was unnecessary and thoughtless: metro employees are low wage workers who get very short breaks, and this poor metro employee could now get fired.

But a) Metro does enforce its no eating policy, often in absurd and horrible ways, often against people of color, so is it really inherently horrendous for the tweeting author to highlight that this is a bit hypocritical? (see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-transit-police-arrest-teenager-for-carrying-chips-and-lollipop-into-station/2016/10/19/1360a014-9627-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html?utm_term=.fe6adc99091b)

And b) If she had instead posted a photo of a uniformed DC cop breaking a law that other people go to jail for breaking (maybe having an open container of alcohol, or peeing in an alley), would everyone be calling her a racist if the cop in her photo was African America - as opposed to thanking her for highlighting police hypocrisy?

And c) Her book was cancelled, WTF? Even if you think her tweet was completely thoughtless, should this really lead to her book being nixed?

I consider myself very much on the left and I think both commuters and metro employees should be able to eat on the metro without fear of arrest or discipline, and I also think low wage workers get a shitty deal, and low wage African American female workers get a particularly shitty deal. But I also think it's frightening that this tweeter's NOVEL has been cancelled because of a tweet that was, at worst, thoughtless, for which she has already apologized.

Am I missing something?

While we don’t want to jump on the race bandwagon, many Arabs are racist. They will often be obsequious to white people but dismissive or outright rude to black people. Is this writer racist? I don’t know. Would she have taken a picture of a white employee eating? I don’t know the answer to that either. I do have an issue with her publishing the employee’s picture. Regardless of the fact that she was breaking the rules, she doesn’t deserve to be shamed publicly. Metro has a system in place for complaints, and she should have gone that route.

See the bolded statement. That one gross generalization about an entire group negates the rest of your entire post. Too bad, because you had a point there when you say she should have filed a complaint rather than posting online. But blathering that "many Arabs are racist" is so vastly general and nasty that it paints you pretty poorly. Fill in any other group for "Arabs" there and it's an equally stupid generalization, and those kinds of blanket statements only make today's antagonistic environment worse, never better.

I’ve lived in the Middle East for 11 years, so I know a little more than you, and this is not some gross generalization. I’ve witnessed it, black Arabs have told me about their experiences, and other Arabs have discussed it with me. This is not ‘blathering’ but something that actually happens. I did not say all Arabs; I said many.

What my Arab friends tell me is that American blacks are the most racist people they have met in their lives.

Not American whites or Latinos. Blacks.

Having worked in several Arab countries, I found that Arabs are terribly racist. The poor guest workers are treated terribly and exploited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:See something say something is about TERRORISM, dumbasses! Not people eating.

Someone wearing uniform and openly breaking well-known rules could well be a security concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be awesome if we lived in a society where race didn't matter, but we live in a society where Black people routinely have the police called on them for....existing in public.

Barbeque with your friends at a grillin a park? A white lady will call 911

Stand on the sidelines of your son's soccer game? A white lady will call 911

Let your 8 year-old daughter run a water/lemonade stand without a permit? A white lady will call 911

Take your child to your own apartment complex pool? A white lady will call 911.

It is in this context that Metro Molly invoked authority to punish a Black woman for a minor infraction that may have not even been an infraction at all.

Huh? for many years Metro has very clearly said that eating in Metro cars is prohibited, period. No exceptions for employees. Where do you get the "might not have been an infraction" stuff?

And comparing this to the other examples above is a false equivalency and you should know that. Lemonade stands, pools, grilling in the park? Nothing at all like a uniformed employee sitting there in full view of everyone breaking a rule so basic that all riders know it, even if those riders want to break it too. That is not at all similar in any way to the cases you cite above. Don't try to make it another "white lady will call 911" case. And you fail to note: The woman who posted is not a white lady. Did you pay any attention to the specific details of this story, or is it just easier for you to pretend this is the same "white lady" who calls 911 on everyone?

From an earlier post...

For those of you who think the employee was the problem:

Barry Hobson, the chief of staff for the Metro workers union — Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 — said in a statement the Metro employee was taking her meal break while in transit from one assignment to another. The statement notes operators have "an average of 20 minutes to consume a meal and get to their next access point to ensure all buses and trains are on time, safe, and ready to serve the riding public.”

From the article posted by OP.

So yeah, the woman who posted is similar to all the other white women calling police bc they think they have been inconvenienced or had a disservice done to them.

Or maybe because she is a rule follower and was irritated that she waits until she gets out of the station to buy coffee while other people are eating on the trains.

Can we stop with derisive alliterative nicknames? Can you imagine the outrage if people made nicknames of the black woman bbqing or eating on the metro?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is DCUM is full of BBQ Becky’s so of course they think this is awful. How many threads have been posted here with people asking if they should call the cops about various non-criminal irritants like music coming from the roofing crew working across the street? I posted last summer about someone at the pool calling the cops TWICE on two boys who said they had left their pool passes at home and everyone here was like “well that seems fine, they can’t swim in our pool without a pass!!!”

DCUM is predominantly middle to upper middle class who’re women who are used to tattling on people who minorly inconvenience or annoy them because they a) would never have to worry over someone else causing them to lose their job for the same and b) don’t know or care what it’s like to have to actually fear interacting with law enforcement. They’re all identifying with the author here who they see as doing nothing wrong and got her book deal unfairly taken for this.

You're another poster conflating this very specific situation with the BBQ Becky types of situations. Someone above did the same thing.

If you cannot see the difference between people who create a senseless flap over a person doing a perfectly normal thing (like barbecuing in a park or using a pool or having a lemonade stand), and people who call out identifiable, uniformed employees in their own work setting, violating the rules they are supposed to enforce -- there is no getting through to you. There is a difference, whether or not you choose to engage your critical thinking skills and see it.

It’s the same. BBQ Becky claimed barbecuing in the park was against an ordinance. It perhaps technically was but it wasn’t hurting anybody just like the metro employee was technically breaking a rule but also not hurting anyone.

So breaking the rules is only a problem if it’s hurts someone?

The fat rats actually hurt a lot of people.

[Anonymous]

I agree the nicknames are not necessary, and think perhaps canceling her book contract was harsher than necessary. Had she just minded her own business, none of this would’ve happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a woman of color in a hijab cut me in line recently. Started to protest. Then realized I could end up as the next BBQ Becky. Just let her do it. On the one hand, NBD. On the other hand, does any impolite or rule breaking behavior get a pass now because, racism?

You are really stretching

Oh honey, you have to perfect the look. Start at their feet and look up to their eyes; give a patronizing smile and then look them up and down. They may get ahead in line but they have been put in their place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree the nicknames are not necessary, and think perhaps canceling her book contract was harsher than necessary. Had she just minded her own business, none of this would’ve happened.

Oh I love the nicknames and turnabout is FairPlay

LUNCHING LORETTA it is!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is DCUM is full of BBQ Becky’s so of course they think this is awful. How many threads have been posted here with people asking if they should call the cops about various non-criminal irritants like music coming from the roofing crew working across the street? I posted last summer about someone at the pool calling the cops TWICE on two boys who said they had left their pool passes at home and everyone here was like “well that seems fine, they can’t swim in our pool without a pass!!!”

DCUM is predominantly middle to upper middle class who’re women who are used to tattling on people who minorly inconvenience or annoy them because they a) would never have to worry over someone else causing them to lose their job for the same and b) don’t know or care what it’s like to have to actually fear interacting with law enforcement. They’re all identifying with the author here who they see as doing nothing wrong and got her book deal unfairly taken for this.

Nope. You still don’t get it.
I grew up riding the metro from out in fairfax county. It was mostly a bunch of middle class professionals, quietly reading while we rode in. Maybe people had coffee in a thermo. I never remember seeing people eat.
People were respectful.
This is a culture clash.
I remember the pool pass post. When I was a kid ( 80’s), if we were asked to go home and get our pass, WE WALKED HOME AND GOT THE PASS.
We didn’t argue about it, because we didn’t feel entitled to behave that way.
The is absolutely about entitlement, but not in the way you think.
For the record, I don’t agree with posting the worker’s picture and think a bit of karma came into play. But this isn’t about race. It’s about expectations in public spaces and class.

What culture clash?

Civil, rule abiding and respectful vs not

You mean the same people who were okay with civil rights abuses. People need stop acting as if the past was some kind of utopia...except for the chosen few

Sure... the distant past of 2000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who think the employee was the problem:

Barry Hobson, the chief of staff for the Metro workers union — Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 — said in a statement the Metro employee was taking her meal break while in transit from one assignment to another. The statement notes operators have "an average of 20 minutes to consume a meal and get to their next access point to ensure all buses and trains are on time, safe, and ready to serve the riding public.”

From the article posted by OP.

Oh, if the metro UNION says so, we all must be wrong! I don't see how this is an issue outside of the culture now where everyone has to be offended all the time. Metro worker breaking Metro rules, rules which metro enforces (or used to enforce) arbitrarily anyway. Rather than hold metro employees to a higher standard, the internets seem to think a-ok here and the person pointing out the double-standard is the problem. Race wasn't an issue until the offended parties (including WaPo) made it one - it wasn't an issue for the woman pointing out the rule breaking.

If you don’t like the way an employee is behaving, you contact the company. You don’t take that person’s picture without permission and then post it for all the world to see. I don’t know if it was racially motivated or not, but Ms. Tynes’ behavior was unethical, and I don’t blame the publisher for dropping her. She did this to herself. Her publisher is in the business of making money first and foremost, and no company wants to be associated with someone who will affect its profit margins.

I think there's an issue of proportionality, as well.

In this case, eating on a train isn't great but it's not like the Metro employee was kicking a service dog or screaming profanities at an infant. The transgression was extremely minor - and taking the photo, tagging WMATA, seemed mostly like the author was irritated that the Metro employee wasn't deferential enough after being called out for eating. The author's reaction seemed disproportionately harsh and petty - and could have had serious consequences. It seemed like punching down, too. I think that's part of what people are reacting to - like why the h*ll would you make life difficult for a Metro employee over such a minor thing?

As for the book being canceled - blach, I don't know what I think of that. I do think the author should be publicly shamed. Losing her book contract also seems disproportionately harsh. But the publisher must have just freaked out bout what they worried would be a PR nightmare if they kept her. I think if she'd immediately apologized and explained that she was in fact having a terrible day and took it out wrongly on this Metro employee, and she'd like to make up for it, it might have blown over.

Anyway, as a communications professional she should have known ebtter than to issue that tweet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh but they’ve given the author a nickname

Metro Molly

Uh, she’s Arab. Should be Metro Mona.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who think the employee was the problem:

Barry Hobson, the chief of staff for the Metro workers union — Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 — said in a statement the Metro employee was taking her meal break while in transit from one assignment to another. The statement notes operators have "an average of 20 minutes to consume a meal and get to their next access point to ensure all buses and trains are on time, safe, and ready to serve the riding public.”

From the article posted by OP.

Oh, if the metro UNION says so, we all must be wrong! I don't see how this is an issue outside of the culture now where everyone has to be offended all the time. Metro worker breaking Metro rules, rules which metro enforces (or used to enforce) arbitrarily anyway. Rather than hold metro employees to a higher standard, the internets seem to think a-ok here and the person pointing out the double-standard is the problem. Race wasn't an issue until the offended parties (including WaPo) made it one - it wasn't an issue for the woman pointing out the rule breaking.

If you don’t like the way an employee is behaving, you contact the company. You don’t take that person’s picture without permission and then post it for all the world to see. I don’t know if it was racially motivated or not, but Ms. Tynes’ behavior was unethical, and I don’t blame the publisher for dropping her. She did this to herself. Her publisher is in the business of making money first and foremost, and no company wants to be associated with someone who will affect its profit margins.

I think there's an issue of proportionality, as well.

In this case, eating on a train isn't great but it's not like the Metro employee was kicking a service dog or screaming profanities at an infant. The transgression was extremely minor - and taking the photo, tagging WMATA, seemed mostly like the author was irritated that the Metro employee wasn't deferential enough after being called out for eating. The author's reaction seemed disproportionately harsh and petty - and could have had serious consequences. It seemed like punching down, too. I think that's part of what people are reacting to - like why the h*ll would you make life difficult for a Metro employee over such a minor thing?

As for the book being canceled - blach, I don't know what I think of that. I do think the author should be publicly shamed. Losing her book contract also seems disproportionately harsh. But the publisher must have just freaked out bout what they worried would be a PR nightmare if they kept her. I think if she'd immediately apologized and explained that she was in fact having a terrible day and took it out wrongly on this Metro employee, and she'd like to make up for it, it might have blown over.

Anyway, as a communications professional she should have known ebtter than to issue that tweet.

DP. To the PP -- do you actually use Metro? To commute, not just occasionally? I'd bet that the author had seen people eating on trains many times and this time -- an employee clearly having a full-on meal -- was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

When what you call "extremely minor" infractions of eating add up and add up, the result is rats, mice, stench, trash. Have you ever ridden subways in other cities where eating is not only allowed, it's done all the time? It's sickening and you can watch the rats scurrying along platforms and see the food trash left on seats and on floors. Metro is far from perfect but at least it's not as nasty as many other subways. But in the minds of many here, it's fine to let "minor" infractions go because it's just the one time, right? And the next time will be just one little infraction. And the time after that. No matter who's doing it.

I know the union official said the employees have only 20 minutes to eat. What is the union doing about that crappy situation for the employees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a woman of color in a hijab cut me in line recently. Started to protest. Then realized I could end up as the next BBQ Becky. Just let her do it. On the one hand, NBD. On the other hand, does any impolite or rule breaking behavior get a pass now because, racism?

You are really stretching

Oh honey, you have to perfect the look. Start at their feet and look up to their eyes; give a patronizing smile and then look them up and down. They may get ahead in line but they have been put in their place.

See this is why white women are so annoying. Nobody is intimidated by your smug eyeballing lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the metro employee for this:

"You worry about yourself."

That is perfect advice.

So that’s an acceptable thing to say when you are caught doing something wrong? I’m so going to use that next time I get pulled over for something.

Cop: “ma’am, I pulled you over because you were doing 75 in a 55mph zone.”

Me: “worry about yourself.”

PP would LOVE me. And DCUM would be so proud!

That would be the cop’s job.

Questioning the metro worker eating and posting that photo was not Metro Mandy’s job.

So what you are saying is that unless it it your job, no one can call out another person for doing something wrong? So if one of the off leash morons in my neighborhood has his dog off leash, because I’m not Animal control I can’t tell him it’s illegal to have your dog off leash in our county, and then request him to leash his dog, because it’s NOT MY JOB TO DO THAT?

This is priceless.

. . . and so the right response would have been to contact Metro police who can issue citations for eating in the Metro? Because the best thing to do to POC is to involve law enforcement?

How about people just following the law/rules? Worry about yourself by doing what is legal instead of trying to slide by?