An NYC subway ride to work turned into an abuse-laden experience for one transgender woman when a fellow subway rider became aggressive and transphobic. The woman decided to take measures into her own hands and record the incident, which has gone viral with over 130,000 views as of Wednesday.
Pearl, a Taiwanese transgender woman, was riding the 6 train from the Bronx into Manhattan on April 28 when she transferred to the 4 express at 125th Street. On that train, a woman began verbally abusing her and even got up to strike her before exiting the train at 42nd Street, according to Pearl's Facebook page.
Pearl recorded four videos altogether, but only posted one to her social media account. Once the woman sees the phone trained on her, she tries to block her face, but then takes things to an even more hate-filled level: She turns her transphobic rant into a xenophobic one.
"What are you going to do? Send it to China? What the f-ck they going to do?" she asks. She spends the next several seconds talking about how China's "president" is a "p-ssy" who won't "do sh-t" with any weapons.
After she's through going off on China, the woman turns back to Pearl's appearance. "How are we supposed to act with you? What should we do with you? Because this sh-t right here ain't appropriate for my child," she says. There is no child present in the video.
Pearl wrote on Facebook, "That happens all the time. But it's my first time recording it." Facebook users responding to her post encouraged her to report the incident to MTA.
As disturbing as the woman's behavior is towards Pearl, what's perhaps more upsetting is that not one person stands up to help.
