11 Women Kicked Off Napa Valley Wine Train For #LaughingWhileBlack

[ariesgem]

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A group of Black women say they were “humiliated” after being kicked off the Napa Valley Wine Train tour in California because a White woman complained about them laughing loudly.

The 11 women, all members of the “Sistahs on the Reading Edge” book club, were met by police as they were escorted from the locomotive, according to a Facebook status posted by one of the group’s members, Lisa Renee Johnson. The woman who complained reportedly said “this is not a bar,” when expressing her annoyance.

Interestingly enough, the Napa Valley Wine Train serves, well, wine.

In response to the outrage, which prompted the #LaughingWhileBlack hashtag on Twitter, the Napa Valley Wine Train posted a message to their Facebook page defending the decision to escort the women off the train, writing that it was necessary to get the police involved.

The post was deleted, but Johnson managed to grab a screenshot:

Denying the accusation that the book club directed “verbal and physical abuse” towards guests and staff, Johnson told The San Francisco Chronicle that the experience was offensive. “I felt like it was a racist attack on us,” she told the paper. “I feel like we were being singled out.”

One of the women involved was an 83-year-old grandmother.

http://hellobeautiful.com/2015/08/24/black-women-napa-valley-wine-tour/

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The lady who complained...


A couple of members of the book club

[HassleCat]

1. What do they expect?

You get 11 women together and fill them full of wine, and there will be some raucous laughter. Would they have done the same thing to a bunch of golfing doctors? A group of frat boys? A bunch of cops?

[npk]

2. As someone who is loud, or has a louder voice than most people...

I have often been told to keep my voice down when at restaurant or other places. These women were laughing too loud, seems ridiculous to kick somebody off the train.

[csziggy]

3. I guess our needlework group better not book a ride on that train

We tend to get pretty loud and raucous when we're together though we do get quieter while we're all stitching. We have a once a year public stitching day in the library and get lots of dirty looks when we're talking together. I hope the library doesn't get any ideas from the Napa Wine Train!

What's funny is we're a group of older white ladies and usually we don't have any wine or other spirits to perk us up!