Are you kidding me?! 11 women kicked off Napa Valley Wine Train for 'laughing too loud'

This weekend, a normal innocent ride through the Napa Valley wine country turned into a story going national due to the actions of the management ejecting the 11 ladies (10 Black and one White) from the train car... for laughing and talking too loudly, per their criteria.  

The racially-motivated incident prompted a backlash against the company, with the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack.

Howard Yune at Napa Valley Register:

The train stopped in St. Helena, where the women -- 10 black and one white -- were escorted through the six cars and off the train before a van took them back to Napa, she told the Register Sunday afternoon.

After Johnson detailed the aborted train ride on Facebook and Twitter later Saturday -- declaring her group was guilty of nothing more than “#laughingwhileblack” -- social media users from across the country used the platform to excoriate the rail company.

[...]

“She said people were complaining and I said, ‘Who’s complaining?’ And she said, ‘Well, people’s faces are uncomfortable,'” said Johnson. “At that point, one passenger nearby said, 'Well, this is not a bar.' We reacted, 'Yes, it is a bar, a bar on wheels.'"

[...]

The expelled book club members will soon decide on their next steps, said Johnson, including whether to pursue a lawsuit or civil rights complaint against the Wine Train.

Evan Sernoffsky at SFGate.com:

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 — all wearing matching T-shirts — were all seated in the same car in adjacent tables and seats, laughing and having a good time. They and the other passengers on the sold-out train were ordering tastings and glasses of wine as they rode the 18-mile stretch from Napa to St. Helena through California’s most famous and picturesque vineyards and wineries.

And while the group — which included an 83-year-old grandmother — may at times have been “rambunctious,” they were not “obnoxious or intoxicated,” Johnson said.

David Edwards at The Raw Story:

The group of friends have all been given refunds from the train company, but they want a public apology.

However, Napa Valley Wine Train spokeswoman Kira Devitt said on Sunday that her company had “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.”

Bassem Masri (@Bassem_Masri) on Twitter with the picture featuring the racist White lady who complained about the laughing Black ladies:

This is the racist white lady who complained about ppl laughing & got 12 black ladies kicked off the #winetrainpic.twitter.com/7UJ2UCG7SP

— Bassem Masri (@bassem_masri) August 24, 2015

Lisa Johnson, one of the 11 ejected ladies, on Facebook summed it up best:

You can bet the conservatives on social media, blogs, TV, and radio will find some way to defend the egregiously offensive actions of the Napa Valley Wine Train.