Woman Decides To Address Race Relations On A Crowded Subway By Berating A Jewish Man After People Didn't Give Their Seats Up
NY POST – A black woman went on a rant against an Orthodox Jewish man aboard a crowded city subway train after he called her racist, video of the incident shows.
The nearly two-minute clip, posted last week by Twitter user @Chrisfrench_, begins in the middle of the heated morning confrontation between the pair on a Bronx-bound 4 train at 8:53 a.m.
“You said I’m racist so you tell me what I’m being racist towards … because you’re Jewish and I said if a Jewish family got on here, somebody would have got up. That is not a racist statement. That is a factual statement,” the woman can be heard yelling at the man as they both stand on the moving train.
Israeli national broadcaster Arutz Sheva identified the man as Yossi Wolfe, a 31-year-old Wall Street Journal software engineer.
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Oh hell yeah. I don’t get to take the subway much anymore, but this is what I miss about it. There is no better place to get an education on race relations in America. A bunch of people who are late for worked crammed in to a tiny box with a broken AC in the middle of summer hurtling through dark tunnels. Chances are good there is piss, shit, or some random form of human waste in one of the corners, and a mariachi band playing in the middle of the aisle. The perfect atmosphere for a healthy debate on race, religion, and the human condition.
Wolfe told the TV station the hubbub began after another African American woman – with three small kids – boarded the crowded train last week and no one gave up their seat for them.
“So this other lady started screaming at everyone around her, saying ‘Why are you guys not getting up? This lady’s here with her three kids,’ ” said Wolfe, who had been standing, “and then she finally said, ‘If it was a Jewish family y’all would have gotten up!’ At which point I said to her, ‘Can we please not make this a racist thing?’ ”
And that’s what set off the sunglasses-wearing woman, according to Wolfe.
She could often be heard in the video shouting over Wolfe: “You need to learn the difference between race … Judaism is not a race. It is a religion.”
The man can then be heard quietly telling the woman to “calm down.”
Ooooooh eesh. This was Wolfe’s one mistake. Anyone who has ever had a girlfriend knows the absolute last thing that should come out of your mouth is the phrase “calm down.” You want to ensure the fight isn’t ending anytime soon? Say “calm down.” It’s the equivalent of opening up a can of Zippo lighter fluid and dumping it into a bonfire.
“No, I need to calm down now because I’m schooling your a–,” the woman says. “You guys think you’re so f—king smart, but guess what? I’m gonna teach you a lesson on this f—king train today.”
Wolfe then interrupts and says: “No, ‘you guys.’ I am a person. You are a person.”
“No! No!” the woman replies.
“We are different. Understand that. You know why? Because your people treat my people different in our community! The f–k you talking about,” the woman shouts as she thumps on her chest with her hand.
Wolfe — wearing a yarmulke and his tzitzit, or traditional Jewish fringes — then says: “That’s not true.”
Another straphanger on the packed train can be heard voicing support for the woman, saying, “She’s right.”
Of course somebody chirped from the cheap seats. “She’s right.” Either stand up and get involved in the conversation or shut the fuck up from the peanut gallery.
The woman continues her rant, saying: “You treat us different in our community. You don’t even rent to us. What the f—k are you talking about?”
In an attempt to defend himself, Wolfe says: “I don’t own a house.”
“Your people!” the woman shouts. “You said I was racist, so I’m addressing your people. You said I was a racist, right? Because I brought up Judaism, right? You wouldn’t have called me racist if I said a Mexican family came on here, right? You wouldn’t have called me a racist then, right?”
Wolfe then calls the woman “hateful.”
“No, I am not hateful. Let me school you,” the woman says. “Did I say Jews are dirty? Did I say they stink?”
“And learn the difference between racism and prejudice-ism!” she shouts.
The man responds and says, “that is racist.”
SOMEBODY had some ammo in the holster! “Did I say Jews are dirty? Did I say Jews stink?” Love the phrasing. That’s like “no offense” or “Is it just me…” on steroids. She didn’t say it but she didn’t not say it. Open to interpretation. Just wanted to float those thoughts out there and let them hang for a bit.
But in the end, the woman is right – Judaism is not a race, because, despite being defined as a race by the Supreme Court in the 80s so that they could be included in anti-discrimination laws, Jews don’t like the classification because of the fact Hitler deemed them an inferior race that needed to be wiped off the map.
Should have stuck with “prejudice-ism.”
I will be addressing this further at my upcoming bar mitzvah.