Never point out that a minority is wrong. Specifically, don’t report employee misconduct, not if that employee is an official minority. If you do, you jeopardize an employee’s job. That makes you a racist if she’s black. And that means you deserve to be trashed and have stuff taken away from you, even if nothing bad happened.
“When you’re on your morning commute & see @wmata employee in UNIFORM eating on the train,” Natasha Tynes, who is also a World Bank employee, tweeted out at 9 a.m. on Friday. “I thought we were not allowed to eat on the train. This is unacceptable. Hope @wmata responds. When I asked the employee about this, her response was, ‘worry about yourself.”
An author based out of Washington is now facing the prospect of losing her book deal after sparking an intense wave of anger Friday when she tweeted out a photo of a black Metro employee eating her breakfast.
“When you’re on your morning commute & see @wmata employee in UNIFORM eating on the train,” Natasha Tynes, who is also a World Bank employee, tweeted out at 9 a.m. on Friday. “I thought we were not allowed to eat on the train. This is unacceptable. Hope @wmata responds. When I asked the employee about this, her response was, ‘worry about yourself.”
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority account, tagged in Tynes’ tweet, responded within an hour. “Good morning Natasha. Thank you for catching this and helping us to make sure all Metro employees are held accountable. Can you confirm the time you were on the train, the direction you were headed and what line you were on?”
Tynes replied with the time and location. “Thank you for responding,” she added. “Appreciate it.”
The anger on social media came immediately. “Eating while Black,” the University of New Hampshire professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein commented. “That’s literally someone’s life. That’s their job you’re messing with.” The writer Roxane Gay replied to Tynes’ tweet, which has since been deleted. “We all complain on social media but you… don’t identify the person you’re complaining about, in a photo no less, and try to get them fired,” she wrote. “What on earth?” Others jumped in to warn Metro against taking action against the employee. Metro does ban smoking, drinking, and eating on the trains.
And still others went to the Goodreads page for Tynes’ upcoming novel, They Called Me Wyatt, to give it a one-star rating. “I didn’t actually read the book” one user wrote. “I just came here to let any potential buyers know that Natasha Tynes, the author, attempted to have a black woman fired from her job….” Another wrote, “worry about yourself snitch.”