We've got a special guest post for our latest installment of "Crimes Against (Q)-Manity." Reader Q-Bert encountered an exceptionally rude guy on the B train this morning, snapped a pic of him, and writes:I boarded a B train at Newkirk Avenue this morning (Friday 6/12) a little after 9 a.m. I got one of the few seats available, a middle seat. In the two-seater perpendicular to my row of three was an African-American man sitting by the window who had put his wet umbrella and a dripping cup of ice water in the seat next to his.
At Church Avenue, one stop in, a Hispanic man boarded the train. The only available seat was the one with the umbrella and cup in it. The Hispanic man stopped next to that seat and asked the African-American man, in Spanish, if he could sit down. No answer. He asked again, this time gesturing to the seat. I don't speak much Spanish, but the gesture made it clear what he wanted. The African-American man turned to face him, stared, but said nothing - and didn't move anything off the seat. The guy repeated himself again. More stares, no moving.
At this point, the tension around our seats among other riders was palpable so I gave up my seat to the Hispanic guy, who promptly fell asleep in it. I got another seat a stop later at Prospect Park.
At 7th Avenue, a young white woman boarded the train, asked the African American man to move his things, and he moved the umbrella but not the cup of ice water. He motioned for her to sit down, so she moved the cup herself and did so.
On a rainy morning in Brooklyn, don't we have enough problems without seat-hoggers? Especially of the wet-umbrella variety? (Perceived) racism is just the icing on the cake.
Yikes! I thought the female man-sitter on my train this morning was annoying, but she was a saint compared to this guy. If you've got an experience you'd like to share, we'd love to hear from you.
4 comments:
I was on a very crowded Q last week where a teenage boy had slung his legs diagonally over the seats, so that he was actually taking up 3 seats instead of 1. People were trying to get his attention, tapping him on the shoulder and pointing at the seats, but every time he just turned up the volume on his ipod and stared out the window. Finally a lady with numerous shopping bags just gave up trying to get him to shift position and sat on his legs, shopping bags and all. That got him to move! I wanted to stand up and cheer.
that lady deserves an award or something. wish i'd seen that!
i LOVE crimes against Q-manity!
Oh man, you are going to appreciate the work being done at www.SeatHogs.com.
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