I can't imagine a bigger white liberal magnet than a Napa Valley train. I can't imagine anything that reeks white liberal and "racism" more than calling the cops on a group of "loud" black women.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Boot ... 462939.php
Booted book club shrugs off Napa Wine Train’s apology
By Evan Sernoffsky Updated 5:54 pm, Monday, August 24, 2015
A group of African American women who are part of a book club were kicked off the Napa Valley Wine Train on Saturday. Photo: Lisa Johnson
Photo: Lisa Johnson
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A group of African American women who are part of a book club were kicked off the Napa Valley Wine Train on Saturday.
Napa Valley Wine Train representatives attempted to apologize Monday to a book club of mostly African American women who were kicked off on Saturday after employees said their loud conversation and laughing bothered some customers.
But one of the women involved in the incident dismissed the apology, saying Monday that the company was “playing the spin game” rather than accepting responsibility for the incident.
News of the episode — which The Chronicle reported Sunday — has since erupted on social media and across Internet news websites, and prompted many, including the women involved, to question whether race played a role in the banishment.
“We want to apologize to them for their experience and listen to their concerns and complaints,” said Sam Singer, a crisis communications expert hired Monday to be the company’s spokesman. “The company takes this very seriously. They recognize they have a group that feels very displeased and disrespected.”
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The women received a full refund and were given a ride in a van after they were booted off the train, but 47-year-old Lisa Johnson, one of the book-club members, said that didn’t cut it.
She said the women where humiliated and that the incident “felt like a racist attack.” She wants the company to acknowledge what it did was wrong.
“We believe that in order to apologize, they need to accept responsibility,” Johnson said Monday, saying she read an apology from the Napa Valley Wine Train, but added she had yet to speak directly with anyone from the company. “They’re playing the spin game. It doesn’t feel authentic. They haven’t acknowledged anything that they did was wrong.”
The ordeal began around 11 a.m. Saturday when the 11 book-club members set out aboard the train that runs from Napa to St. Helena through Northern California’s renowned wine region.
But after some uncomfortable interactions with a manager on the train, who repeatedly told the group to quiet down, the women were told they needed to get off because customers were complaining about their loud talking and laughing.
Johnson documented the events on her Facebook page, saying she was shocked by the treatment, especially because the other passengers seemed to be having a good time, too.
She admitted the group was at times rambunctious, but never obnoxious or intoxicated.
“Drinking, to my knowledge, was not an issue,” Singer said. “It was the noise level and respect for other passengers that was the issue.”
A company spokeswoman on Sunday told The Chronicle that guests are removed from the train about once a month.
Getting kicked off, Johnson said, was the most humiliating part of the ordeal. The group - which included an 83-year-old grandmother and a woman who uses a cane — was forced to do a “walk of shame” past other passengers while disembarking in St. Helena, Johnson said.
Making matters worse, police were waiting at the station, though, “no police action was taken,” authorities said Sunday. The company then posted — then deleted — a message about the run-in on Facebook that read in part: “Following verbal and physical abuse towards other guests and staff, it was necessary to get our police involved.”
On Monday, Johnson said the company is “not owning anything other than saying, ‘We’re sorry you had a bad experience.’ They told everybody that we were physically abusive to staff.”
Social media outrage followed the incident, prompting the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack and inspiring hundreds of people to take their aggression out on the Napa Valley Wine Train’s Yelp page.
“If a group of mature intelligent women can not ride this train for fear of laughing too loud, this is not the right environment for me,” one Yelp user wrote. “Oppressive. No laughter allowed. Don’t spend your money here.”
In wake of the backlash, Singer said “the first thing is to hear (the book club’s) side of the story and apologize and to see how they want to move forward.
“This is an issue about respect for everyone,” he added. “We want to make sure the book club feels respect.”
One of the passengers spoke with local radio station Live 105, saying they were told only one passenger actually complained.
