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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who made her the Metro police?

What you’re missing is that black people cannot and do not do this stuff—acting as though they are the enforcement unit for shared public space. It’s entitled behavior.

Excuse me. Who’s engaging in “entitled behavior”? The Metro employee in uniform who chooses to break the law in front of other passengers. He’s betting that no one will call him out. Talk about entitled. Metro should discipline him. Since when does race give one a pass from obeying the law, especially when one is an employee and needs to set an example for the public?

Metro used to be quite clean. But in recent months, I’ve sat on spilled milkshake on a seat, stepped over rolling cans and bottles on trains, and routinely see French fries and other litter in the Metro. It’s disgusting and unsanitary.

You haven’t even read the story, evidenced by you saying the metro employee is a he, so shut up. You can’t contribute if you won’t even read the damn story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

How is it “racist” to hold a Metro employee to obeying the law?!

[Anonymous]

All the people who say MYOB and black people would never police the behavior of others or film them, the fact that they do (also) is why we know about BBQ Becky, etc. The overreaction of calling the police is certainly a white person thing, but the public shaming of others as being racist can also be driven by people of color and their allies (such as this woman's publisher - such overreaction; as if the author were routinely "policing" black women). I suspect what happened is that this author was miffed about the Metro employee telling her to MYOB, and took revenge for that - totally stupid and immature, but could certainly be about something other than race.

The issue of public shaming is from white people, black people, Asian people. It's a problem all around, and the response is disproportionate to the "crime". Is eating on the Metro wrong? Yes. Is it proportionate to publicly shame her? No. Is it wrong to post a derogatory tweet publicly for a minor infraction? Yes. Is it proportional to have this woman's career ended? No. The Metro employee will not be fired, and would never be fired for this, but the author does potentially lose her livelihood. It certainly backfired.

Years ago, there was a Nobel laureate chemist who was speaking at a women in science conference, and made a comment about not having women in the lab because they'd be distracting. It was a clumsy attempt at a joke from someone who had mentored and supported women in science. The woman who misrepresented the comment and destroyed his career had also lied about her credentials in order to get into her position. But she was able to ruin a man's career, because the mob mentality of social media that judged without knowing or caring about fact/nuance/intent/proportionality.

We all need to be careful about trial by twitter and letting our indignation (whether right or wrong) lead to these ridiculous outcomes from minor infractions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a great example of knowing when to mind your business. And that social media is forever. Do I see people eating on the metro? Yes I do. Is it my business to post online about it? No it is not.

It would be great to start a site so that passengers can post photos of others who can’t seem to obey the law. Call them out and shame them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Photography on Metro trains is forbidden.

I would sue Ms. Tynes for “defamation of character” and “invasion of privacy!”

The Metro employee defamed her own character (such as it is) by breaking the law while in uniform). Metro should toss her out on her ass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a great example of knowing when to mind your business. And that social media is forever. Do I see people eating on the metro? Yes I do. Is it my business to post online about it? No it is not.

It would be great to start a site so that passengers can post photos of others who can’t seem to obey the law. Call them out and shame them.

Until someone posts your picture. Be careful what you wish for for

[Anonymous]

Talk about racism and the soft bigotry of low expectations - that it’s somehow unreasonable to expect a black person to obey the law. Wow!

[Anonymous]

Does anyone remember the case a short time ago where some officials associated with one of the local school districts were found to be 'illegally' sending their kids to a better school district than they were zoned for? What race were those people? It seemed to be a big public shaming for exactly the same situation - an employee breaking their own rules for personal gain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a great example of knowing when to mind your business. And that social media is forever. Do I see people eating on the metro? Yes I do. Is it my business to post online about it? No it is not.

It would be great to start a site so that passengers can post photos of others who can’t seem to obey the law. Call them out and shame them.

Until someone posts your picture. Be careful what you wish for for

Some of us actually take seriously the obligation to follow rules and laws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Photography on Metro trains is forbidden.

I would sue Ms. Tynes for “defamation of character” and “invasion of privacy!”

The Metro employee defamed her own character (such as it is) by breaking the law while in uniform). Metro should toss her out on her ass.

Did you read the article? She did NOT break the law

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Photography on Metro trains is forbidden.

I would sue Ms. Tynes for “defamation of character” and “invasion of privacy!”

The Metro employee defamed her own character (such as it is) by breaking the law while in uniform). Metro should toss her out on her ass.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that truth is always a defense against defamation of character. Bit hard to argue that a photo is lying.

[Anonymous]

Different context, of course, from this bizarre incident, but maybe the saying should be amended to, see something, say something, be sued.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Photography on Metro trains is forbidden.

I would sue Ms. Tynes for “defamation of character” and “invasion of privacy!”

The Metro employee defamed her own character (such as it is) by breaking the law while in uniform). Metro should toss her out on her ass.

Did you read the article? She did NOT break the law

Having public officials throw up their hands in frustration and declare that they're no longer going to pretend to police something that clearly is a losing battle isn't the same thing as it being okay. Especially when those officials are your bosses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Photography on Metro trains is forbidden.

I would sue Ms. Tynes for “defamation of character” and “invasion of privacy!”

The Metro employee defamed her own character (such as it is) by breaking the law while in uniform). Metro should toss her out on her ass.

Did you read the article? She did NOT break the law

Having public officials throw up their hands in frustration and declare that they're no longer going to pretend to police something that clearly is a losing battle isn't the same thing as it being okay. Especially when those officials are your bosses.

... and, for that matter, when you breaking the rules literally makes more work for your own colleagues and implicitly encourages others to do the same.

[Anonymous]

Text Metro police with a photo next time and tell them the train line, location and direction. There was an aggressive pandhandler on a train a few months ago. I texted Metro police with a description, and they boarded two stations later and hauled the guy away.