It’s a disturbing fact that public transportation is a hotbed for racist attacks. And even some of the country’s most liberal regions aren’t safe from the bigotry.
While riding the Portland MAX train this Saturday, three brothers heard an unidentified white man screaming racial slurs at a black woman. Emilio Herrera, 21, told The Oregonian he and his younger brothers, 18-year-old Romeo and 17-year-old Pablo, approached the man and began filming him in an effort to make him stop.
"That man was just yelling at this woman, yelling the n-word, kind of being belligerent," Emilio said. "No one deserves to be called anything like that [...] We told him to stop."
As seen in the video, the man began to turn on the three brothers after realizing he was being filmed. You can hear him say "Film me, n*gger" before attempting to hit the phone to ground. The Oregonian reported that the man eventually got off the train. But he returned shortly to yell at the brothers, demanding them to delete the footage before pushing them.
Emilio said no other passengers came to their defense or the defense of the woman who was initially attacked.
Mary Fetsch, a spokesperson for TriMet, told The Oregonian the agency is "disturbed" by the incident and that "in this type of situation, it's appropriate for riders to contact the operator and request police to respond or call 9-1-1 directly."
However, the brothers said they were skeptical of calling the authorities.
"I watch the news," Emilio explained. "We're three young brown kids, so I didn't know how that would turn out."
Soon after the footage was released, the woman who was originally targeted by the man came forward to give her side of the story. Nitasha Sweaney, 27, told the publication she was with her godmother and child when the man approached them for 75 cents. Shortly after they said no, the man reportedly flipped them off.
"I asked him 'please sit down. please just sit back down,'" Sweaney wrote in an email. "He did not listen and came about a foot away from us and was yelling racial slurs and cussing in our face. At this point the only thing I could do was hold my daughter tightly and cover her ears."
She said she has to take the MAX every day to get to work, but the incident has made her extremely alert and uncomfortable when taking public transportation.
You can see the man’s tirade in the video above.
