By now everyone has seen this video. If you have not, take a look. This is what happens when people reach their limit. Perhaps the most difficult was reading the comments.
Everything from the bus driver should be reprimanded/fired to she has anger issues. The customer could have had a non-visible disability so she should not have asked him to leave the seats for those disabled and move back. I have seen arguments about gender that you should not do this to a woman and men saying it is not about gender. Perhaps the most alarming comment was by a black man who said “bet you if the guy was black, she would not have yelled as much.” Wow, all I can say for a black man he really believes the press that black men are scary. This man seriously, has issues.
They have been a few in support of the driver but if we step back, let us look at the bigger picture. A rider asks the man not sit in those seats designated for disabled, elderly and pregnant. The bus driver then gets involved and asks the customer to sit elsewhere. He responded by calling her a crazy c*nt. He proceeds to call her a bitch, whore, tells her to suck a c*ck and yells F-you while giving her the middle finger and threatening to spit on her.
The bus driver is in her small enclosure. She is boxed in. He has the whole bus and the exit. She could have ignored him but that empowers him and would leave her absorbing his rage and feeling less about herself. She chose to fight back and repeatedly say “Get off my bus”. Still trapped behind the plexi-glass her voice gets stronger, higher, louder that is her only defense.
The language of hate is in his words – c*nt, whore, bitch, suck a c*ck. Tell me the equivalent language that exists for men? A*shole? D*ck? None of these words have the demeaning quality or sexual content as derogatory terms for women…still don’t think it is about gender? What about the fact the bus driver is black and a woman ? You don’t think there is any interaction there? Tell me that this is not about gender, about race or about power.
These are hard times. People are at their limits and the pandemic just makes it worse. I applaud the older gentleman who intervened and ushered the offending customer off the bus. The sad state of the world is that a woman or a minority could not stop this man because our voices are still not the same as white, male voices. If you think I am wrong, look at the video below where a TTC bus driver gets verbally attacked asking a customer to lower his music or put on headphones. He gets threatening and physically pulls at the plexi-glass where the driver sits. A brown male TTC rider intervenes, he is cursed out and told to “go back to Pakistan” but he succeeds in getting the man off the bus. This video is only a month old.
All I ask is that you step back from a situation and see it through the eyes of those different from you.
