XPost: alt.politics.radical-left, alt.drugs.heroin, alt.journalism.criticism   
   XPost: alt.arguments   
   From: eddie.lynch@outlook.com   
      
   Act like niggers, get treated like niggers.   
      
   What started as a joyous ride through wine county Saturday   
   afternoon turned into a “humiliating” experience for 11 African   
   American women, who said they were booted off the Napa Valley   
   Wine Train for laughing and talking too loud.   
      
   Accounts and pictures of the episode have been spreading across   
   social media, spawning the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack while the   
   women involved have questioned whether they would have been   
   treated differently if they were not African American.   
      
   “It was humiliating. I’m really offended to be quite honest,”   
   said 47-year-old Lisa Johnson, who was among Saturday’s group.   
   “I felt like it was a racist attack on us. I feel like we were   
   being singled out.”   
      
   The women have since been given a full refund by the train   
   company, but continue to seek a public apology.   
      
   In a statement Sunday, Napa Valley Wine Train spokeswoman Kira   
   Devitt said the company “received complaints from several   
   parties in the same car and after three attempts from staff,   
   requesting that the group keep the noise to an acceptable level,   
   they were removed from the train and offered transportation back   
   to the station in Napa.   
      
   The incident began when Johnson and her book club, the Sisters   
   on the Reading Edge, embarked around 11 a.m. for their annual   
   trip through wine country — an adventure they had been planning   
   since November.   
      
   Johnson, a self-described social media fanatic, posted pictures   
   on Facebook, documenting the entire episode as it unfolded.   
      
   The women — all wearing matching T-shirts — were all seated in   
   the same car in adjacent tables and seats, laughing and having a   
   good time. They and the other passengers on the sold-out train   
   were ordering tastings and glasses of wine as they rode the 18-   
   mile stretch from Napa to St. Helena through California’s most   
   famous and picturesque vineyards and wineries.   
      
   And while the group — which included an 83-year-old grandmother   
   — may at times have been “rambunctious,” they were not   
   “obnoxious or intoxicated,” Johnson said.   
      
   Several passengers, she said, even came up to them to take   
   pictures, and asked about the romance novel they were reading   
   for their club.   
      
   But a short while into their trip, Johnson said a manager on the   
   train asked them to pipe it down.   
      
   “The train is set up to be with your friends, to drink wine and   
   have a good time,” Johnson said. “We were thinking, ‘Who are we   
   offending?’”   
      
   Later on, Johnson said the manager told them that “this isn’t   
   going to work,” and that if they didn’t “tone it down,” they   
   were going to be asked to get off the train.   
      
   “It was a bizarre thing for all of us,” she said, adding that   
   many in the group quieted down and wondered what had happened.   
   According to Johnson, one of the women in the same car told the   
   group “this isn’t a bar.”   
      
   “And we though, um, yes it is,” Johnson said.   
      
   What came next, she said, was the worst part of the afternoon.   
   When the train pulled into the St. Helena station, the group had   
   to do the “walk of shame” as they were escorted past passengers   
   on the six other cars, Johnson said. At the station, the group   
   was met by officers from the Napa Valley Railroad and St. Helena   
   police departments.   
      
   “People were looking at us,” Johnson said. “To get escorted into   
   the hands of waiting police officers. That’s the humiliating   
   part.”   
      
   But Chief Jeff Hullquist of the Napa Valley Railroad Police   
   Department said there “was no police action taken” at the   
   station.   
   “When someone is removed from a train, they have to be dropped   
   off at a station, and our policy is if someone is let off the   
   train we’ll stand by,” he said. “We keep them safe until someone   
   can get them.”   
      
   “The Napa Valley Wine Train does not enjoy removing guests from   
   our trains, but takes these things very seriously in order to   
   ensure the enjoyment and safety of all of our guests,” Devitt   
   said, adding that about once a month guests need to be removed   
   from the train.   
      
   Johnson said despite their treatment on the ride, the company   
   has worked with them. They were given a refund, provided with   
   free pictures, and a van was sent to pick them up.   
      
   “The people in the station were absolutely wonderful,” she said,   
   ready to let the incident go.   
      
   But that’s when someone from the company posted an account of   
   the incident on Facebook. Johnson was miffed.   
      
   “Following verbal and physical abuse toward other guests and   
   staff, it was necessary to get our police involved,” the since-   
   deleted post reads in part, which Johnson captured in a screen   
   grab and re-posted to Facebook. “Many groups come on board and   
   celebrate. When those celebrations impact our other guests, we   
   do intervene.”   
      
   The post was quickly taken down and the company reached out to   
   the women to make amends, she said.   
      
   Devitt said the company is “conducting an internal audit to make   
   sure all of our policies were followed and options were offered.”   
      
   “They knew they were out of place,” Johnson said, but added that   
   she “wants a public apology for the humiliations they caused to   
   us as professional women.”   
      
   Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-   
   mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky   
      
   http://www.chron.com/news/article/Black-women-humiliated-after-   
   getting-kicked-6460912.php   
         
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)