Kicked off Napa wine train after laughing too loud
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 8:31 pm
"Group of black women kicked off Napa wine train after laughing too loud
The Napa Valley Wine Train is apologizing to a group of black women who were kicked off the train Saturday for reportedly laughing too loudly.
The women said their treatment was provoked by racial bias.
“It wasn’t an issue of bias,” train spokesman Sam Singer said. “It was an issue of noise.”
Wine train officials said they created noise policies long before this incident to ensure the “safety and enjoyment of all guests.”
Similar incidents occur once a month, Singer said.
But the members of the Sistahs on the Reading Edge Book Club say they were targeted because they were laughing while black.
Sparking anger on social media with many saying they are boycotting the wine train, the women’s ordeal set off the hashtag #laughingwhileblack.
It all started Saturday morning when the 11 book club members from the town of Antioch, Calif., boarded a car on the Napa Valley Wine Train. One of the members, Lisa Renee Johnson, shared a video on Facebook, describing her excitement over the tour.
“We made it, y’all. Look at us, we are getting ready to get on the wine train,” she said in the video.
As Johnson chronicled the trip through photographs and videos, the women appeared to be enjoying their experience as they sipped wine and ate appetizers.
Then two hours into the train, their girls’ trip quickly turned sour.
WOW! They paraded us through 6 cars and none of us are even drunk...the police were waiting.
The women were told they had to get off the train because they were too loud, Johnson said. One woman, she said, told her, “This is not a bar.”
The women’s laughter drew complaints from passengers aboard the train, so workers asked them three times to reduce their noise to an acceptable level, according to wine train officials.
At 1 p.m., they were asked to leave and were given a bus ride back to the train station. The trip was refunded.
But soon after the ordeal, the wine train posted a statement, which has since been deleted, on Facebook saying, “Following verbal and physical abuse toward other guests and staff, it was necessary to get our police involved. Many groups come on board and celebrate. When those celebrations impact our guests, we do intervene.”
But Johnson said their experience on the wine train was embarrassing.
“They gave us a full refund...but that's not enough,” she said. “We are totally humiliated.”
The group, she said, was paraded through six cars “on display in front of the other guests to waiting police like we were criminals.”
"Then they made a written public statement on social media that we verbally and physically abused other guest and staff...one word. Unacceptable,” Johnson said. “This can never happen to anyone else ever again.”
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Napa Valley Wine Train is apologizing to a group of black women who were kicked off the train Saturday for reportedly laughing too loudly.
The women said their treatment was provoked by racial bias.
“It wasn’t an issue of bias,” train spokesman Sam Singer said. “It was an issue of noise.”
Wine train officials said they created noise policies long before this incident to ensure the “safety and enjoyment of all guests.”
Similar incidents occur once a month, Singer said.
But the members of the Sistahs on the Reading Edge Book Club say they were targeted because they were laughing while black.
Sparking anger on social media with many saying they are boycotting the wine train, the women’s ordeal set off the hashtag #laughingwhileblack.
It all started Saturday morning when the 11 book club members from the town of Antioch, Calif., boarded a car on the Napa Valley Wine Train. One of the members, Lisa Renee Johnson, shared a video on Facebook, describing her excitement over the tour.
“We made it, y’all. Look at us, we are getting ready to get on the wine train,” she said in the video.
As Johnson chronicled the trip through photographs and videos, the women appeared to be enjoying their experience as they sipped wine and ate appetizers.
Then two hours into the train, their girls’ trip quickly turned sour.
WOW! They paraded us through 6 cars and none of us are even drunk...the police were waiting.
The women were told they had to get off the train because they were too loud, Johnson said. One woman, she said, told her, “This is not a bar.”
The women’s laughter drew complaints from passengers aboard the train, so workers asked them three times to reduce their noise to an acceptable level, according to wine train officials.
At 1 p.m., they were asked to leave and were given a bus ride back to the train station. The trip was refunded.
But soon after the ordeal, the wine train posted a statement, which has since been deleted, on Facebook saying, “Following verbal and physical abuse toward other guests and staff, it was necessary to get our police involved. Many groups come on board and celebrate. When those celebrations impact our guests, we do intervene.”
But Johnson said their experience on the wine train was embarrassing.
“They gave us a full refund...but that's not enough,” she said. “We are totally humiliated.”
The group, she said, was paraded through six cars “on display in front of the other guests to waiting police like we were criminals.”
"Then they made a written public statement on social media that we verbally and physically abused other guest and staff...one word. Unacceptable,” Johnson said. “This can never happen to anyone else ever again.”
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
