White privilege on a Red Line train

Is utter nonsense and you sound like a fool using the term.

Treat them like animals.

Adam,
Her full description was much more disturbing and deserves to be read in full.

"Something entirely disturbing happened last night on my commute to rehearsal. Bear with me. It is a long tale. But one that is necessary to read and digest.
I was sitting in the corner of the Red Line T closest to the conductor when a group of about 8 black kids from the ages of 12-16 entered.
I automatically noticed their presence because of how absolutely loud and rowdy they were being.
Smiling to myself, because of how crazy they were all acting, I turned up the music in my headphones and bounced along with the train.
I noticed the boy sitting across from me. He entered the train with the other kids, and although also black and about their age, he clearly did not know them. From his body language it was obvious he had desperately wished he sat in another section.
At around the South Station stop the conductor’s door swung open and through my oversized headphones I could tell she told the kids to quiet down. The kids mouthed off to her and she called the MBTA security.
At this point my headphones were off and I am listening with full intent. The MBTA guard, a white man, walks on and within ten seconds announces that he is calling the police and that the train will not move until they come. He is greeted with a resounding, “Are you kidding me?” from just about everyone on the train.
I automatically zone out and think about what I was doing from 12-16.
I think about breaking into my old elementary school and stealing ice cream.
I think about joyriding my boyfriend’s lifted, bright green, Chevy blazer without a permit or a license.
I think about getting caught drinking in a friend’s backyard.
I think about trespassing on private property and swimming.
I think about getting pulled over twice in the same month, on the same road, in the same place, by the same officer, in the same car, for the same reason, and waltzing away from the scene with nothing. And I mean nothing, but “a get home safe.”
I think about every single actually illegal thing I have ever done and realized one harrowing fact:
I have never been touched by a police officer.
I have never been handcuffed.
I have never been to jail.
I have never even gotten a ticket.
I have never left an interaction with the cops with anything other than a “have a nice night.”
I wake up from my reverie and we are still parked at South Station. I tune into the conversation around me and hear the kids. Let me emphasize KIDS. Kids making a game plan for what they will do if the police start to shoot them.
I glance up at the boy across from me. He is squirming. He wants off bad. He is texting fiercely. I’m assuming he’s telling someone what we are both observing.
The girl next to me notices my presence and says,
“Sorry for messing up your ride.”
I say,
“Don’t worry about it.”
My voice catches on the last word. My throat starts to sear. She asks,
“Are you upset?”
I respond,
“Yeah, I guess I am. I just don’t understand why they are calling the cops.”
She says,
“Because we are black.”
The 12-year-old turns to the group and quietly says,
“Black lives matter.”
They all murmur in agreement.
The police arrive and everyone remains very calm. Eerily calm. Everyone is walking on eggshells. The cops step on the train and tell the kids if they get off quietly they can get on the next one and go home. The kids accept the offer and begin to clamor off. At long last the boy across from me and I are left alone.
As I begin to put my headphones back on the police reenter the car. They look at the boy and say,
“We said everyone in the group has to get off.”
The boy says,
“I don’t know them.”
The police say,
“It’s an order. Everyone in the group has to get off.”
I collect my bags. The police looks at me and says,
“Not you. You’re not in the group.”
The police places his hand on the boys shoulder and guides him off the train. In a moment of temporary rage blindness I stand up and scream,
“He doesn’t fucking know those kids.”
The police looks at me and says,
“Is that true?”
To which I say,
“Yes, and it was true when he said it too.”
The police release the boy and he sits down across from me again. We share a moment of blankness and then tears well in both of our eyes. He waves me over to the seat next to him. He says,
“That was because I am black. Wasn’t it?”
I nod. He looks down sheepishly at his shirt and says quietly,
“I’m just happy they didn’t hurt me. That would kill my mom. And she is not someone you want to mess with.”
I say the only thing I can think,
“I’m so sorry.”
He says,
“With all that’s going on in the world I am so scared all the time.”
We sit in silence for a moment and I decide to change the subject. I ask him about himself. He tells me he is is entering his junior year of high school and spending the summer working for an organization that aims to help people learn how to have healthy relationships. He says he wants to help stop domestic abuse. He tells me he is passionate about gender equality. He asks me if I know there is a difference between sex and gender. He says he wants to educate the public on that topic.
The train rattles into my station and I shake his hand. He says,
“Thanks.”
I mumble,
“Don’t mention it.”
I exit the train and watch it pull away. And then I weep. I weep in a way I never have before. My breath shortens and I begin to crumble.
I weep for Trayvon Martin.
I weep for Mike Brown.
I weep for Sandra Bland.
I weep for Alton Sterling.
I weep for Eric Garner.
I weep for all of the names I do not know but should.
I weep for their families.
I weep for their friends.
I weep for the innocent blood shed all over this country.
I weep for that boy.
I weep that I cannot remember his name because it is not as familiar to me as James or Tim or Dave.
I weep for those kids.
I weep for all of those kids.
I spend the night replaying the whole scenario over and over again in my head. And realize that three words keep running through my mind. Three words that until I heard a 12-year-old black girl say aloud to her friends as they awaited the police I did not understand. Three words that are so little but mean so much.
Black Lives Matter.
I stop crying. I become resolute. I make a pact with myself to help the world become better for those kids.
I make a pact with myself to spread this story like wildfire.
I make a pact with myself to be an ally to that beautiful boy.
It starts here.
Before you read on make a pact with yourself to join me.
Before you read on commit yourself to this cause.
Before you read on openly admit that racism is alive and thriving in this country.
Before you read on promise yourself you will say the following three words ALOUD:
Black Lives Matter.
Didn’t do it? Here’s another chance:
Black Lives Matter.
Still can’t say it? Ask yourself why?
Black Lives Matter
Here’s another chance:
Black Lives Matter.
Here’s another chance:
Black Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter.
BLACK. LIVES. MATTER."

This is an amazing post. Thanks for sharing. What can we do about how people, in this case the cop, see things. I doubt he was trying to intentionally group all of the black people on the train together, but he did so instinctively. We can provide training to police on when and when not to use deadly force, as evidenced by the difference between how BPD and other, poorly trained, police forces around the country react to similar circumstances. But getting someone to change their instinctive perception when grouping people together? That is a huge challenge if it is something that can even be changed at all.

Thank you so much for posting this.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

White Guilt on an increasingly crappy blog.

I've ridden the T since I was a high school kid. A group of kids (12, 14, 20) can be loud and rude and crude regardless of color and are. Sometimes they are drunk, sometimes they are just loud. I have seen, in 30 years, cops brought in maybe twice and honestly, just because it is public transit do we need to hear other people shouting and blasting a song from their iphone speaker at a high volume?

Two stories:
-Several weeks ago, my daughter and I were on the green line and it stopped at Kenmore. There was a white family with four kids, aged 6-10, who, when the train cleared and the conducter said it would stand by for 3 mins, began jumping on the seats and bars swinging their legs like it was the playground. One came close to hitting another rider, and the parents were all 'be careful!' the rider also white, walked out, and came back with a cop from the platform who shouted at the kids to knock it off and it wasn't a playground and asked where their parents were and told them tell the kids to act right and sit down. The parents rolled their eyes and told the kids to sit. They got off the next stop. Should people have just accepted it?

Several years ago on the red line going towards Ashmont, group of black teens (12-16 I'd guess) were being loud, cursing, trying to grab some other girl's purse, and a T worker came on and told them to ease up, and they cursed at him (he was also black) and told him to go work at McDonalds or some nonsense, so they stopped the train at JFK and two cops come on, and a similar scene unfolded where they were told to get off the train, and two of the group did the 'whole I don't know these n-words!!" even though they were the instigators. So...either you can have kids being kids, or you use your judgement based on what you know. A few folks shouted out 'yes they are!' and they were all taken off the train, cursing and calling the cops pigs and eff you all, etc.

I truly believe that there is an issue with the cops and blacks, but anyone who is surprised by this is either stupid or never listened to rap songs from 25 years ago. That doesn't mean all blacks are criminals, and that doesn't mean all cops are going to shoot a black person. Does shouting 'black lives matter!' every time a black person acts badly or has an encounter with police give them a pass? Suddenly a bunch of douchey kids are victims?

People want to talk about how divided America is. Why don't you go to Europe and see how blacks are treated? How about tribal warefare and poverty in Africa, do you cry for every person of color murdered because of a tribal feud when the government falls? What about southeast asia when the governments murder criminals with no trial.

BLM has turned into an anti-policre rant - and as a person who isn't black, a loud black person acting like a thug on the subway, is the same as a loud white person, or a loud asian person, acting like a thug on the subway - a possible danger.

If you don't want to be labelled, stop acting like a stereotype. Its the subway, sit your ass down, and keep the convo free of curses and at a reasonable volume.

I'd like to believe this story is true, but I don't, although I notice it has been shared 36,000 times from her FB page. Was there anyone else on the train or a police log?

White privilege? Do all white people experience this phenomenon called "white privilege" ?? Or was it an attempt to attract and increase the number of racist comments to this post? I am white and in no way do I experience so-called white privilege. Especially on the Orange Line!! LOL Go ahead. Block me.

This sounds completely unbelievable to me. How many times have you seen a pack of loud and rowdy kids on the T, and how many times have you seen them get kicked off? Kids, black and white, are obnoxious on the T every single day. But I've never seen anyone alert a conductor over rowdy kids. That's just part of public transportation. I've seen a lot worse on the T, people who were loud and angry and threatening, and even then I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've seen someone actually kicked off a train in the last 15 years. And then the girl swears at the cop and he responds nicely because she's white? Okay.

I don't doubt that this sort of thing happens, but I really don't believe it happened on the T or that this girl witnessed anything like this.

Any Red line users recall a significant delay last night? She says the train was parked at South Station for "around half an hour" - that would lend to serious delay. No reference to what time this happened other than at night, but I can't imagine it was that late if we are talking about 12 year old kids as she says.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2016/07/22/mbta-black-lives-matter/