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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, let's stipulate that her tweet (for which she has apologized) was unnecessary and thoughtless. Let's even go further and say that her tweet reeked of racial and class entitlement.

Stipulate all that. But: Why has her book contract been cancelled?

In exactly what way is social justice enhanced by preventing her novel from being published?

That's the kind of sick sh*t that happens in totalitarian societies. Twitter mobs go after you; your friends and colleagues instantly desert you and condemn you; you become a non-person.

This does not advance racial justice. It just adds another injustice on top of the first.

I dispute the bolded. People go on social media all the time to complain about service. I have no issue with her tweet.

Except the woman wasn't in service. She was a fellow rider, probably heading to her early morning shift.

Please try to be a little more intelligent: the service is keeping the Metro clean. The employee was not doing her part, that is, she was caught breaking the rule of not eating on the Metro. What's worse, she was in uniform, therefore representing the company (it doesn't matter whether her shift had started or not).
She totally deserves to be called out.

The publisher has stupidly put itself in a weird situation where because it's so afraid of being called racist, it actually punishes the person who complained about rule-breaking, in an effort to defend the rule-breaker. Surreal and nonsensical.

[Anonymous]

Non-paywall version of the story - https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/eating-while-black-and-employed-by-metro-woman-sparks-outrage-after-tweeting-photo-of-wmata-employee-eating-on-train/65-78a8ae83-5d49-4806-9f6f-8befa30e92f4

[Anonymous]

Shame on the publisher for being so cowardly.

[Anonymous]

I have a real issue with internet shaming.
This is a tough one, because the shamer, has been shamed.
Karma’s a bitch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Non-paywall version of the story - https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/eating-while-black-and-employed-by-metro-woman-sparks-outrage-after-tweeting-photo-of-wmata-employee-eating-on-train/65-78a8ae83-5d49-4806-9f6f-8befa30e92f4

There’s got to be more background as to why they came out so strong:

A statement from book industry firm Rare Bird elicited no kindness for Ms. Tynes, calling the episode, "truly horrible."
“Black women face a constant barrage of this kind of inappropriate behavior directed toward them and a constant policing of their bodies," the statement read.

Huh???? The writer’s post was about the hypocrisy of a metro worker not obeying the rules. It read like a neutral statement. Why the backlash at the writer, to the point the book is canceled? That’s a disproportionate punishment that just feels off. Maybe the publisher is using this incident as an excuse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-paywall version of the story - https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/eating-while-black-and-employed-by-metro-woman-sparks-outrage-after-tweeting-photo-of-wmata-employee-eating-on-train/65-78a8ae83-5d49-4806-9f6f-8befa30e92f4

There’s got to be more background as to why they came out so strong:

A statement from book industry firm Rare Bird elicited no kindness for Ms. Tynes, calling the episode, "truly horrible."
“Black women face a constant barrage of this kind of inappropriate behavior directed toward them and a constant policing of their bodies," the statement read.

Huh???? The writer’s post was about the hypocrisy of a metro worker not obeying the rules. It read like a neutral statement. Why the backlash at the writer, to the point the book is canceled? That’s a disproportionate punishment that just feels off. Maybe the publisher is using this incident as an excuse?

There’s a huge upswelling of outrage on twitter including posts from prominent scholars. The publishers are responding to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-paywall version of the story - https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/eating-while-black-and-employed-by-metro-woman-sparks-outrage-after-tweeting-photo-of-wmata-employee-eating-on-train/65-78a8ae83-5d49-4806-9f6f-8befa30e92f4

There’s got to be more background as to why they came out so strong:

A statement from book industry firm Rare Bird elicited no kindness for Ms. Tynes, calling the episode, "truly horrible."
“Black women face a constant barrage of this kind of inappropriate behavior directed toward them and a constant policing of their bodies," the statement read.

Huh???? The writer’s post was about the hypocrisy of a metro worker not obeying the rules. It read like a neutral statement. Why the backlash at the writer, to the point the book is canceled? That’s a disproportionate punishment that just feels off. Maybe the publisher is using this incident as an excuse?

There’s a huge upswelling of outrage on twitter including posts from prominent scholars. The publishers are responding to that.

What dumbasses. They should have let it all die down instead of falling for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-paywall version of the story - https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/eating-while-black-and-employed-by-metro-woman-sparks-outrage-after-tweeting-photo-of-wmata-employee-eating-on-train/65-78a8ae83-5d49-4806-9f6f-8befa30e92f4

There’s got to be more background as to why they came out so strong:

A statement from book industry firm Rare Bird elicited no kindness for Ms. Tynes, calling the episode, "truly horrible."
“Black women face a constant barrage of this kind of inappropriate behavior directed toward them and a constant policing of their bodies," the statement read.

Huh???? The writer’s post was about the hypocrisy of a metro worker not obeying the rules. It read like a neutral statement. Why the backlash at the writer, to the point the book is canceled? That’s a disproportionate punishment that just feels off. Maybe the publisher is using this incident as an excuse?

There’s a huge upswelling of outrage on twitter including posts from prominent scholars. The publishers are responding to that.

What dumbasses. They should have let it all die down instead of falling for it.

Hmm I think they’re smart to get ahead of it. Her bad tweet could have caused to rest of their catalogue problems. She’s basically an uber driver that’s been let go, many more to fill the roster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, let's stipulate that her tweet (for which she has apologized) was unnecessary and thoughtless. Let's even go further and say that her tweet reeked of racial and class entitlement.

Stipulate all that. But: Why has her book contract been cancelled?

In exactly what way is social justice enhanced by preventing her novel from being published?

That's the kind of sick sh*t that happens in totalitarian societies. Twitter mobs go after you; your friends and colleagues instantly desert you and condemn you; you become a non-person.

This does not advance racial justice. It just adds another injustice on top of the first.

I dispute the bolded. People go on social media all the time to complain about service. I have no issue with her tweet.

Except the woman wasn't in service. She was a fellow rider, probably heading to her early morning shift.

Please try to be a little more intelligent: the service is keeping the Metro clean. The employee was not doing her part, that is, she was caught breaking the rule of not eating on the Metro. What's worse, she was in uniform, therefore representing the company (it doesn't matter whether her shift had started or not).
She totally deserves to be called out.

The publisher has stupidly put itself in a weird situation where because it's so afraid of being called racist, it actually punishes the person who complained about rule-breaking, in an effort to defend the rule-breaker. Surreal and nonsensical.

NP +1

It's actually racist to NOT hold African Americans to the same standard. It's like a public statement/acknowledgement that black people aren't civilized, and just can't help themselves but break the rules and eat and make a mess wherever they want and so let's just try to ignore it. Kind of like how people make excuses for small children.

It's frankly insulting. And it's sad that society has come down this far that literally everything is racist now unless proven otherwise.





It's sad, really.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that woman was correct in posting the tweet with the woman's picture, but I also do not think this was race related.

Never once did the chick mention anything about race. Not everything is about race.

However, I'm glad she got the backlash and had her book canceled. Be a trash human, get trash consequences.

I've never been on the Metro during my morning commute and not seen at least 5 people eating and/or drinking. I board at Wiehle, which has a Starbucks on the plaza above the platform, and most commuters stop off there before entering. These are commuters of all races.

I think the no food or drink rule is stupid and a waste of resources to try to enforce. Instead, maybe try policing the homeless setting up camps down there and urinating all over the place. Or the ones who will threaten the tourists loading money on their cards. Or maybe they should allocate those resources to figuring out their significant decline in ridership over the past few years. I guarantee you, no one you ask the question of "why do you not take Metro anymore?" is going to answer with "oh, there's too much eating and drinking on board!" No, it's always reasons like unreliable, closes too early, safety concerns (both mechanically and in terms of the homeless).

[Anonymous]

I was just telling my husband about this tonight. While I am a POC and consider myself to be incredibly liberal, I just can't with all this. The WMATA employee was clearly in the wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that woman was correct in posting the tweet with the woman's picture, but I also do not think this was race related.

Never once did the chick mention anything about race. Not everything is about race.

However, I'm glad she got the backlash and had her book canceled. Be a trash human, get trash consequences.

I've never been on the Metro during my morning commute and not seen at least 5 people eating and/or drinking. I board at Wiehle, which has a Starbucks on the plaza above the platform, and most commuters stop off there before entering. These are commuters of all races.

I think the no food or drink rule is stupid and a waste of resources to try to enforce. Instead, maybe try policing the homeless setting up camps down there and urinating all over the place. Or the ones who will threaten the tourists loading money on their cards. Or maybe they should allocate those resources to figuring out their significant decline in ridership over the past few years. I guarantee you, no one you ask the question of "why do you not take Metro anymore?" is going to answer with "oh, there's too much eating and drinking on board!" No, it's always reasons like unreliable, closes too early, safety concerns (both mechanically and in terms of the homeless).

Sometimes the no food/drink is a way to police things like homelessness in a way that a democratic city will allow.

[Anonymous]

Most of the people posting about it also don’t live in DC. BART and CTA have way different rules about eating than WMATA.

[Anonymous]

Photography on Metro trains is forbidden.

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

[Anonymous]

I travel with my 3yo by metro every day and feel guilty about discreetly feeding him snacks, but now plan to just do it in the open. The rules are over.