Black Women Booted From Winery Tour For “Volume” A Black women’s book club group — including one 83-year-old woman — were harshly removed from a California vineyard tour after white patrons accused them of being too loud on their train ride. The women feel that no one was excessively loud or rude and they were unfairly targeted due to being the only Black passengers on the trip. Via SFgate : What started as a joyous ride through wine county Saturday afternoon turned into a “humiliating” experience for 11 African American women, who said they were booted off the Napa Valley Wine Train for laughing and talking too loud. Accounts and pictures of the episode have been spreading across social media, spawning the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack while the women involved have questioned whether they would have been treated differently if they were not African American. “It was humiliating. I’m really offended to be quite honest,” said 47-year-old Lisa Johnson, who was among Saturday’s group. “I felt like it was a racist attack on us. I feel like we were being singled out.” The women have since been given a full refund by the train company, but continue to seek a public apology. In a statement Sunday, Napa Valley Wine Train spokeswoman Kira Devitt said the company “received complaints from several parties in the same car and after three attempts from staff, requesting that the group keep the noise to an acceptable level, they were removed from the train and offered transportation back to the station in Napa.” The women say none of them were drunk or exceptionally loud, but they singled out unnecessarily for all laughing and talking together: A short while into their trip, Johnson said a manager on the train asked them to pipe it down. “The train is set up to be with your friends, to drink wine and have a good time,” Johnson said. “We were thinking, ‘Who are we offending?’” Later on, Johnson said the manager told them that “this isn’t going to work,” and that if they didn’t “tone it down,” they were going to be asked to get off the train. “It was a bizarre thing for all of us,” she said, adding that many in the group quieted down and wondered what had happened. According to Johnson, one of the women in the same car told the group “this isn’t a bar.” “And we though, um, yes it is,” Johnson said. When the train pulled into the St. Helena station, the group had to do the “walk of shame” as they were escorted past passengers on the six other cars, Johnson said. At the station, the group was met by officers from the Napa Valley Railroad and St. Helena police departments. “People were looking at us,” Johnson said. “To get escorted into the hands of waiting police officers. That’s the humiliating part.” SMH! We wonder if the tour company will ever apologize for their behavior…
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Race Matters: 11 Black Women Kicked Off Winery Tour For Being “Too Loud”
