I don’t think anyone’s saying she’s actually racist. Just a clueless nutjob.
And the fact that so many people jumped to the conclusion that it was racist just lets you know how many offenderatti we have on this board. I’m starting to wonder if the reason we rant and rave about them so much is that they are here.
I don’t know about the woman’s past history, but there is nothing in this thread to justify it being racism. She didn’t tell anyone to go to the back of the bus. She said there were seats in the back, but she simply asked the girls to let her sit down. We were informed about the seats in the back in order to let us know that the girls had a place to sit.
I’ve just never understood this desire to make up your own version of events. Sure, the OP may not be telling the truth, but that’s true about every single post on this board. Is it not easier to take it as given that what people say is true, for the sake of discussion? Having multiple versions of events just means that people will be talking past each other, essentially having totally different conversations.
Oh I’m not offended. OP is mildly racist, probably even less so than Paula Dean, or that cleark that wouldn’t let Oprah see a bag. So don’t lump me in with the offenderatti, I hate those jerks. The teenage girls were kinda being jerks, and the OP is kinda racist. Everybody in this story sucked, except for the nice White Lady who gave OP a seat. How very White of her, indeed!
I must be missing something here, that is an observation the OP made, not something she said out loud to the girls.
At no point did the OP say that she asked the two girls to sit at the back. Nothing in that entire first post suggests that.
They themselves are reported as making a statement about the back of the bus, not the OP.
Come on people, it was only four short lines to read. Are you that eager to cry “racist” or does the OP’s history mean you are all prejudging?
Let’s try this exercise - If I ask you to get up out of your seats in front (which she did do), and the only other open seats are in the back (which was how I read that statement), where else can you go to sit on the bus? Effectively, I have asked you to sit in the back (or stand, I suppose)
The back of the bus is for whites only!
And asking someone to give up a seat is not asking them to move to the back of the bus even if the only available seats are in the back. The girls still have the option of standing.
I think there are two best practices that could be put in place. One is that we assume that anyone asking for the handicapped seat is actually handicapped relying on the social contract to keep most people honest but knowing that a certain percentage of people will abuse this. Enforce the contract by heaping scorn on those who do not move. The second is that buses institute a handicap sticker system where the disabled person applies for a card/pass that must be shown to the driver before sitting in that area.
Little help please? I’ve looked over the Bang Bus site but have so far been unable to locate this episode.
Does the site have an elderly category? Check there.
That is, almost, what we have now. The last part is actually frowned upon. Fact is that you do not know who is disabled by looking at them and people should not have to be placed in a circumstance of explaining their conditions. MS is not apparent to the naked eye for example and having to tell strangers about it is a bit much for a place to sit. These girls deserved to be politely reminded what seats they were occupying and what rules are supposed to apply to all Blacks and Whites alike regarding handicapped seating. If they then refused to move then no conflict is indicated. The unenforcable but usually complied with social contract was for them to believe the claim of disability no more questions asked and get up and for the op to move on and ask the next person if they did not.
I’m going more with the op being Tobiasoid than overtly racist. I can just her looking shocked when someone tried to point out how it sounded and saying “What?”
You’ve answered your own question haven’t you?
The location of other empty seats is absolutely none of the OP’s concern. If she is entitled to the disabled seat and the girls aren’t then that’s all that matters. I suspect Rosa Parks would have told them to shut their pie-hole and vacate the seat.
It sounds to me like the girls were being stroppy little madams who didn’t fancy walking the 5 yards to an empty seat, regardless of where it was.
“teenagers can be awkward and ill-mannered - more news at 11”
Except they had no reason to believe that she actually needed the seat.
Only because you didn’t seem able to
That doesn’t mean that on that bus, asking them to change seats wasn’t the same as asking them to move to the back, which you seemed to have trouble grasping. Not saying it was right or wrong, but that was the practical effect.
Until she asked them you mean?
You mean you wanted me to repeat what you’d already said about standing? I think we all saw clearly that you had answered your own question.
She didn’t ask them to change seats though did she? No matter how much you want to shoehorn that intent in there. She asked them to give up the seat she was entitled to, they could have done so and…shock horror! they could have stood if the thought of sitting in a racially sensitive location gave them so much of a fucking problem. Standing is a fairly common occurrence on buses you know.
I think the above is something that* you* seem to have trouble grasping.
I took the central light rail in Seattle the other day and most of the people seemed pretty nice. There are some seats with signs that ask you not to store luggage under them as they are reserved for people with disabilities. So this guy in a wheelchair comes onto the train and what does the dude with his two kids sitting in those chairs do? He gets up, he puts the seat in the upright position so the chair will fit and he and his kids move.
It’s okay to sit in the seats designated for the handicapped when they’re empty. But be prepared to move when someone else needs those seats.
Maybe the girls’ wrists were too badly injured for them to stand. It happens, you know.
I still don’t see what was wrong with asking one of them to give up the crip seat. I’m a little bothered by her asking them both to move, if someone wanted to be offended they could feel like she didn’t want to sit next to one of them.
I have trouble being entirely sympathetic with the OP, because I’m older than her and have significantly more disabilities than a bad wrist, but would sprawl on the bus floor like a tortoise on his back (Hi, Leon! How’s your mom?) before I asked for a crip seat. Can I even call it a crip seat? Probably not. That’s just me, if you see someone fighting off the paramedics who are trying to jump start his heart because I’m fine, dammit, I just need a little minute here, that’s me.
People who need handicapped seats don’t usually carry around those little placards you get for hanging on your rear view mirror, the social contract should be that we take their word for it, like the pregnant woman I gave up my seat for. I asked her how far along she was, and she said, “Around 15 minutes, and am I tired.”
Anyway, my take on this is that the OP seems a little over entitled to me, 59 years old with or without a bad wrist isn’t handicapped in my book, but the children in the handicapped seats were as well, because you don’t ask for proof of disability before getting up, hence my comment about parents, they should be the ones to teach that. I’m more ageist than racist, I don’t expect most teens to be well socialized. When over entitled people interact with each other, friction is bound to occur.
Annie, listen up. you have a history of not acting right, and until you change that about yourself, you’re going to continue having unpleasant interactions with people. those are just off the top of my head, other links were provided upthread. and that’s just what you’ve told us about. since people tend to paint their actions in a positive light, you must be an absolute joy to deal with in person.
as many have pointed out, you are not elderly, but you are old enough to know better.
There have been some allusions to Tobias from Arrested Development. I haven’t watched that show, but this seems like a situation that Larry David might find himself in (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”). There were two comments made that, I am convinced, had absolutely no racial motivation, but reasonably came across as racist.
The OP knows she’s physically handicapped, and older than two girls sitting in the handicapped/pregnant/elderly seats, so she asks them to move. And she reasons it’s not even that much of an imposition: there are still free seats on the bus, albeit all the way in back. But what comes from that is:* a white woman with no visible handicap demanding that two black teenagers move to the back of the bus*, which is of course the most symbolic framing there is for both racial discrimination and the resistance against it.
The teenagers don’t move, but someone else does. The OP sits down, remarking sarcastically that perhaps the two are pregnant, since they insisted on retaining seats reserved for the pregnant, elderly, or handicapped, and they were not handicapped or elderly. But what comes from that is: a white woman speculating aloud that two teenage black girls were pregnant, which again plays directly into an unfortunate racial stereotype.
I’m not usually one to jump on the “It’s racist” bandwagon, but in this case I think you have a Larry David-esque (or Tobias-esque) comedy of errors that, to an outside observer, would look suspiciously racist.
I don’t believe Annie-Xmas is remotely racist. But in this instance, she was completely tone-deaf to the racist implications of what she was saying.
She *wanted *it, but that doesn’t mean she *needed *it.