Riot Act (Portugal Bus Story)
Several people have asked about the "riot" that was eluded to in Sierra's Xmas letter, so I'm including the story here for those interested.
Jonathan had a conference in Lisbon in the summer, so we all went together, along with Karen and Bradley, our good friends from here. When we arrived in the airport, Karen and Bradley offered to take our luggage with them in a taxi, and we opted to go the public transit route since we didn't have a carseat for Sierra.
When we got on the bus, there was clearly a disruption going on, and it took us a bit to figure it out since we don't speak Portuguese. Our Spanish helped us a bit, plus people's body language. The bus was really full, and apparently (before we got on) a slightly older white man had gotten on and seemed to assume that a younger black woman would stand up so that he could sit down. The woman's boyfriend was taking it out with him for being racist. They were yelling and pushing and shoving each other.... mind you, there was no where to shove because the bus was literally wall to wall people. The other people on the bus were taking sides, and a group of about 15 or 20 people were shouting and jostling.
When we got on, a black man on the other side of the bus saw me with the baby and promptly hopped up and offered me his seat. This was very nice except that suddenly we were in the middle of things.... part of the "issue". The man kept saying something along the lines of, "Of course I'd let a woman with a baby have my seat, that's different," etc., etc. Of course, it was after we had already sat down that we sort of figured out the context and everything that was going on.
I don't think we were in real danger, but it definitely was a bit scary to have a full-on fight going on inside the crowded bus we were on. We decided that there are different kinds of risk and safety, so when we returned to the airport after the conference, we got a cab and held Sierra on our lap.
Jonathan had a conference in Lisbon in the summer, so we all went together, along with Karen and Bradley, our good friends from here. When we arrived in the airport, Karen and Bradley offered to take our luggage with them in a taxi, and we opted to go the public transit route since we didn't have a carseat for Sierra.
When we got on the bus, there was clearly a disruption going on, and it took us a bit to figure it out since we don't speak Portuguese. Our Spanish helped us a bit, plus people's body language. The bus was really full, and apparently (before we got on) a slightly older white man had gotten on and seemed to assume that a younger black woman would stand up so that he could sit down. The woman's boyfriend was taking it out with him for being racist. They were yelling and pushing and shoving each other.... mind you, there was no where to shove because the bus was literally wall to wall people. The other people on the bus were taking sides, and a group of about 15 or 20 people were shouting and jostling.
When we got on, a black man on the other side of the bus saw me with the baby and promptly hopped up and offered me his seat. This was very nice except that suddenly we were in the middle of things.... part of the "issue". The man kept saying something along the lines of, "Of course I'd let a woman with a baby have my seat, that's different," etc., etc. Of course, it was after we had already sat down that we sort of figured out the context and everything that was going on.
I don't think we were in real danger, but it definitely was a bit scary to have a full-on fight going on inside the crowded bus we were on. We decided that there are different kinds of risk and safety, so when we returned to the airport after the conference, we got a cab and held Sierra on our lap.
posted by BB at 4:52 AM
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