Author Natasha Tynes may lose book deal after reporting a Metro employee for eating.
Popular in News & Politics
- The One Way Trump Could Surprise Us Now
- White Nationalism’s Most Famous Young Escapee Has A Warning
- Alito’s Explanation for the Upside-Down American Flag Honestly Makes It Worse
- Many Young Voters Have Turned on Biden. But a Different Group Just Might Rescue Him.
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.
AdvertisementAnd 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.”
Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementMany accused Tynes of participating in the kind of racism that has compelled a number of people—mostly white—to report black people for napping, canvassing, babysitting, grilling, mowing, staying in an Airbnb, and hanging out in a Starbucks. Tynes, who is Jordanian-American and has described herself as a “minority writer,” has not addressed the race elements of the criticism, but by Friday afternoon she had tweeted out a short apology. “I apologize for a tweet I posted earlier today, which I have since deleted,” she wrote on Twitter. “I am truly sorry.”
AdvertisementHer critics on Twitter were not appeased. “Natasha, what you did was so horrible you need to explain why you did it in paragraphs/pages,” the journalist Yashar Ali wrote. “Not bullet points and certainly not a tweet.”
The writer Nichole Perkins also suggested Tynes’ apology didn’t suggest she understood why people were upset. “Do you understand that you wanted her disciplined for not catering to your demands?” she wrote. “Some WOC solidarity you got there.”
Rare Birds Books, the publishing house that was set to distribute Tynes’s upcoming novel, announced by the evening that it had decided not to do so after all. “Black women face a constant barrage of this kind of inappropriate behavior directed toward them and a constant policing of their bodies,” the company wrote in a statement. “We think this is unacceptable and have no desire to be involved with anyone who thinks it’s acceptable to jeopardize a person’s safety and employment in this way. We are currently taking appropriate actions to cancel Ms. Tynes’ novel They Call Me Wyatt, within our distribution network, and are strongly urging Tynes’ publisher, California Coldblood, to consider other appropriate actions.”
California Coldblood also said in a statement it was aware of the incident. “We do not condone her actions and hope Natasha learns from this experience that black women feel the effects of systemic racism the most and that we all have to be allies, not oppressors,” the company said in a statement. “As for the book’s publication, we are working with our distributor to take appropriate next steps.”
It remains unclear if the employee in the photo has faced any disciplinary actions from Metro.
Tweet Share Share Comment(责任编辑:行业动态)
- World’s first ‘meltdown
- North Korea warns against Security Council meeting on missile tests
- Facebook finally, finally, finally lets you put GIFs in comments
- Possible papal visit to North Korea revisited
- Tesla's big software update includes something called 'Night Curfew'
- 厚植精神文明沃土 培树司法文明新风
- China's leading the next big phone trend with sliding cameras
- The Thursday Slatest newsletter.
- Under decade of Kim's rule, North Korea makes strides in nuke, missile capabilities
- 20 Places to Eat Dumplings and Noodles for Lunar New Year
- The White House just brutally burned Australia's Prime Minister
- Donald Trump says U.S. is letting China “rape” it on trade.
- North Korea urges full vigilance against Omicron coronavirus variant
-
The first mass-market model train sets were produced in 1891 by German manufacturer Märklin (a compa ...[详细]
-
Google's Project Sunroof will guilt you into getting solar panels
Google is hoping that some good old-fashioned peer pressure will push more people to embrace solar e ...[详细] -
North Korea urges full vigilance against Omicron coronavirus variant
In this photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, Aug. 31, a worker disin ...[详细] -
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and two other states vote.
There was Super Tuesday I. Then Super Tuesday II. There was also a Super Tuesday III, maybe? Child’s ...[详细] -
Our galaxy might crash into Andromeda. What would happen to Earth?
Our Milky Way galaxy is a cannibal.It has grown by consuming other galaxies. Yet, it too, may be des ...[详细] -
China should help steer North Korea toward denuclearization: Pentagon spokesman
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby / AP-YonhapChina has the ability to help steer North Korea toward a di ...[详细] -
突破家鱼人工繁殖世界难题,推动中国水产种业振兴丨记珠江所创立70年
突破家鱼人工繁殖世界难题,推动中国水产种业振兴丨记珠江所创立70年_南方+_南方plus这里诞生了新中国第一尾人工繁育鱼苗,近20年来选育出十多个国家级水产新品种,在水产种质资源保护、育种技术、制种生 ...[详细] -
The wife of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk has been recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and cereb ...[详细]
-
本报讯近日,市教育局班子成员碰头会召开,听取近期有关工作落实情况汇报,安排部署下一步重点工作。会议要求,要狠抓工作落实,全面推进教育各项工作。全力推进川西教育中心建设,扎实开展省、市示范性普通高中、义 ...[详细]
-
How Apple's App Store turned into a scammer's paradise
Apple's App Store has a problem.Shady developers are gaming the App Store's policies and its search ...[详细]
This shark lives for centuries. Scientists discover how it resists aging.
Microsoft Surface Pro review: Super familiar and still super good
- Ruling bloc seeks tougher sentences for deepfake sex crimes
- 获官方表彰!国联水产集团以“冠军品质”助力第19届亚运会
- Under decade of Kim's rule, North Korea makes strides in nuke, missile capabilities
- 高等教育自学考试本科学习和毕业证书申请有变化
- Tesla reveals Cybertruck has sold more than DeLorean
- North Korean leader visits Samjiyon city in first public activity in more than one month
- 雅电集团高空作业为输电线路安装避雷器