from: Iceman7525
to: cj@thiscrazytrain.com
date: Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 8:09 PM
subject: Selfish observations from the Kitchener afternoon train
Hi. Love your blog; It aptly describes daily travel "on the Go".
The 4:45PM Union to Kitchener train fills up pretty fast; seats are a premium.
I'm one of the first to board at 4:35PM, and get a seat next to a pretty woman. Next to us an East Indian woman gets on, sits across from both of us in a quad, and promptly drops her purse and shopping bag next to her. I assume she'll take her bags off if someone needs a seat.
A blond girl gets on a few minutes later, looks around for an empty seat, spies the empty on in our quad and asks the woman if someone is sitting in the seat. The East Indian woman says she's "saving it for her friend to arrive". The girl goes past us to look for an empty seat.
A minute later the girl comes back and asks to sit in the empty seat. The woman repeats she's saving it for her friend again.
Both the pretty woman and I look at the woman incredulously; what nerve! The pretty woman now tells the East Indian that saving the seat is uncouth and the girl deserves the seat in no uncertain terms. Sheepishly the woman removes her bags and keeps them on her lap.
All through the ride the three of us are ignored as though It was that woman's right to keep a seat from someone!! She got off at Malton and ignored us. The girl thanked us for standing up for her.
There's always someone...
14 comments:
I witnessed something similar yesterday. Less than a minute before the train was due to depart, I head a woman loudly informing someone that they couldn't saved a seat for a friend. else. :-)
(Said 'friend' did not materliase before the train departed...)
I am sooooooooo glad people are finally standing up to these seat hogs!
I was wondering if "the friend" ever showed up???
And while there are some people that would call you out for referring to the woman as "East Indian" instead of just saying "this woman", I've got no problem with it and I will just leave it at that.
The friend missed the train. I think the friend missed the train total is about 35 million at this stage.
Great to see people calling this person out for being a seat hog!
This post says alot about the contributor than the people described.
The contributions to this web site - esp the pictures seem to suggest that it is the blondes and pretty people who are often the transgressors of common courtesy.
What was the point of describing one person by their presumed ethnic background (not everyone comes from where you think) and not the others? What was tthe point of descibing each person unless it was felt it has something to do wtih the behaviour described?
It merely reflects how the writer thinks.
Of course there always plausible deniability that is was anything else but what it really is.
It's also a good way to tell people apart. I mean, which would you rather say, the woman standing to the woman next to me (for example), or the black person?
Plausible deniability rears its head N-Train.
This continues to say more about the writer than the situation described. Of course you would not know other way to say what is in your mind.
Education
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.847/abstract?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+24+March+from+10-14+GMT+%2806-10+EDT%29+for+essential+maintenance
Meh, I don't care about the whole descriptor thing. In fact, it might be a good idea. If I took that train and saw a similar looking woman doing the same thing, I would think she was the same as the story above and that she has fictious friends.
Now we enter the arena of racial profiling.
Looking similar based on racial aspects is exactly how we get there.
Anon, if you think ID-ing somone who is inconsiderate of others as racial profiling, then you have issues.
We are not the police. We are not defence attorneys. We are simply people who pay for a service and should be treated as equal. If a certain individual (as vaguely identified as above) is a serial seat hog, we have every right to admit as such.
If it was the stinky white woman that takes the train with me in the morning, who hogs seats, then yes, I would call her out as such (as I just did).
You Anon, need to unclench and realise that this is a blog. And East Indian is not that great of a descriptor for racial profiling as you seem to think it is.
All for going after seat hogs but using ethnic descriptors vs pretty blonde is quite telling of the poster as much about the seat hog.
If I was in the same situation, I would have thrown her bags onto the ground and see if she liked that
So, how is "pretty blond" not an ethnic descriptor Anon?
Especially considering how 99% of blondes are white.
It works both ways. In your case, you are discriminating against white people in your determination to not profile based on physical characteristics.
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