Bus driver fired for telling passenger he didn't pick him up 'because you're black'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Independent


'I’ve never felt more disrespected or belittled in my life'

Emily Shugerman New York
@eshugerman
2 hours ago

A Massachusetts bus driver has been fired for telling a prospective passenger he was passed by for a ride because he was black.

Kevin Brooks, a barber from New Bedford, told a local news outlet he was trying to take the bus home from Martha’s Vineyard this week when the vehicle inexplicably failed to stop. The Martha’s Vineyard Transportation Authority (VTA) said the bus was full, but the driver failed to turn on the exterior sign saying so.

Trying to make a ferry home, Mr Brooks said he took an Uber to his destination, where he arrived shortly after the bus.

There, he approached the driver and asked why he had been passed by. The driver initially said the bus was at capacity, but changed his tune when Mr Brooks challenged him.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/driver-racist-marthas-vineyard-fired-black-kevin-brooks-a8446561.html

[Honeycombe8]

1. Sounds like he was being sarcastic, when Brooks didn't believe the bus was full.

But really, he shouldn't have made that crack. I hate to see someone lose a job for making a sarcastic crack. (I'm assuming he meant it, like, "Oh, yeah..right...I didn't pick you up because you're black, is that what you're saying?&quot

I rode the bus to work in a big city for a while. They seemed to be in bad moods often. It must be a stressful or unpleasant job.

[Beakybird]

2. It's Martha's Vineyard, a resort island

No excuse for making that statement.

[Snellius]

10. This is not typical of MV

Passionately liberal (except when Dershowitz's on the Chilmark Tavern porch), Democratic, proud of it's civil rights heritage, long a haven for prominent African-Americans like Henry Louis Gates and Obama. Large black community in Oak Bluffs. There has to be more to this story. Vineyarders would run this guy to the ferry fast.

[yardwork]

4. What evidence is there for thinking that the driver was sarcastic?

[Honeycombe8]

6. It's obvious?

The bus WAS full. The driver told him it was full. Brooks didn't believe him.

If he didn't believe the bus was full, what is the reason that Brooks thought the bus passed him up? It's a common complaint I've read about...the black people are passed up by cabs and such. So I think that's what Brooks may have thought, and the bus made a crack about it, when Brooks didn't accept the reason the driver gave.

He shouldn't have said that, of course. No excuse for that. But bus drivers I've encountered aren't known for their people skills and calm demeanor.

[yardwork]

9. Is there evidence that the bus was full?

[Honeycombe8]

11. Yes.

The MV Transit Authority, and the bus driver.

Any evidence it wasn't full? Mr. Brooks arrived AFTER the bus, so he didn't see it with the passengers on board.

That's what I think, anyway. It sounds like a crack. People don't usually walk around, while working for a company, telling black people they are refusing to serve them in the name of their employer, because they're black. And Martha's Vineyard or not, rich people don't ride buses as a rule; buses cater to a wide variety of races & ethnicities. Esp govt buses.

[LisaL]

5. That's what it sounds like to me as well.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Ya gotta give the driver points for honesty.

He was wrong of course, but at least he gave an honest explanation.

[Honeycombe8]

7. That's not the reason. The bus driver gave the reason. The bus was full.

The article says the bus was, in fact, full, according to the transit auth or bus co.

[Sunlei]

8. He should have said, sorry sir the bus was full, instead of smartass comment that got him fired.

[LisaL]

12. He did say it originally. Read the OP.

When the man didn't believe him, the "smartass comment" was made.