Why reference a “lady” unless we’re supposed to assume gender is relevant? :dubious:
She said there were seats in the back of the bus, but she was apparently too enfeebled to walk that far.
If her handicap wasn’t visible she should have addressed the group in the handicapped seats & requested a space. Singling out the black chicks seems odd. Yes, they were rude. But her comment was also rude.
Middle aged woman here, currently with a brace on my broken (almost heeled) wrist; anything I need to carry can hang from a shoulder. My usual routes mean I get on the bus/light rail when there are lots of seats. I don’t used the handicapped ones because somebody truly handicapped might get on later & I’d have to move–when the seat selection was worse…
Note: In Houston buses, there are usually two handicapped seats facing each other at the front of the bus; they could hold 2 or 3 people. And two seats adjoining, holding 2 apiece. If somebody with a wheelchair gets on (the buses have ramps), the bus driver will fold two sections of the handicapped seats out of the way.
Umbrella thread here. Enjoy.
Thank you! I was reading her posts and was like, “Wait, wrist injury? Is she fucking kidding?” If some random white lady with a wrist injury, something my black ass can’t see just by looking at her, told me to give up her seat on a crowded bus, I’d tell her to fuck off too.
It seems that quite a few of her posts involve “screaming at” people for things like this. Totally normal!
A LOT of her posts involve complaining about things that happen on the bus/at the bus stop too, but if I had to ride the bus a lot, maybe mine would too. Because the bus does suck. Largely because of crazy people like her.
Thanks. That looks like some fun reading.
Random white person gets on a bus and singles out two young black women and tells them they should sit in the back of the bus. How could that have possibly been misinterpreted as racist?
Look folks I don’t think we have the full story here so it’s kind of foolish to read into things. If we just had a bit more information I think it could clear things up and shed some light on the subject. What race was the bus driver?
You don’t understand. She has a wrist injury that prevented her from sitting down in the back.
Worse yet, it was one of those chronic, late-stage wrist injuries that prevented her from standing. Luckily there was a nice white lady there with proper manners to offer her a seat. Awful white of her.
I do sympathize with the wrist injury, though. I’m a middle-aged woman with two torn shoulders, and I struggle with whether to ask for a seat (not necessarily a handicapped seat). It’s very hard for me to hang on on a crowded bus – I can’t put my arms high enough over my head to reach the hanging straps, and sometimes there aren’t lower handholds available, or even if there are, they are difficult to reach or pull painfully at my arms as the bus moves. I generally stick to keeping an eagle eye out for an open seat, and am willing to ask someone to move a bag or computer if it is taking up an otherwise available seat. I will even offer my seat to someone who looks to have more difficulty than me (pregnant, leg issue, etc.)
She also describes herself as elderly and was apparently born in 1954, according to one of Zeldar’s age tabulating threads. I have trouble considering “not yet eligible for SSA early retirement” as elderly.
You would say that. You’re old. 
So the fact that I was also born in 1954 biases my views? I’m not elderly, I tell ya!
This thread is pretty much a perfect example of why race will always be an issue in the country.
From Loach:
The OP does not say she told them to move to the back of the bus. She asked them (assuming the OP is telling the whole story) to let her sit down.
Why, Loach, did you jump to the conclusion that she asked them to go to the back of the bus? I bet I know. It’s cause the person doing the asking is white and therefore a racist. Right? An old white woman would never say something like “Excuse me, can I please sit down?” and would instead say something like “Hey, you two black girls, get to the back of the bus where you belong!”. And that is because all whites are racist. Isn’t that so?
Ya know what, I really wonder why in the hell people are so willing to start throwing out accusations of racism. The girls on the bus did it and we have a whole bunch of people here doing it with no actual evidence that the OP is a racist.
There are racists in the U.S. which sucks. However, throwing out the word racist over every damned incident when there is no evidence that racism played a part isn’t going to help the cause. In fact, it is going to hurtit.
A better response for all of us is to teach our kids respect and tell them that if they are on a bus to let the old and injured sit, no matter what color their skin.
Slee
Elderly = older than me. So I have no problem with that.
“I’ll go with Threads That Didn’t Go As The OP Expected for $100, Alex.”
Punk kid.
If by jumping to conclusion you mean reading the OP, then yes I jumped to conclusions. I don’t think that Annie is racist. But being forced to sit on the back of the bus is one of the things that is cultural short hand for racism in this country. It’s used figuratively to denote Racism. Here she literally asked black girls to sit in the back of the bus. She is not particularly elderly. She apparently is not outwardly handicapped. And she specifically asked two young black women to go to the back. Regardless of the motivation of the speaker it is ludicrous to not understand what it means culturally.