Public Freakouts·
WHITE NOISE ON THE PLATFORM
On a crowded train platform, a bystander urges space for a nurse and the seizing man, while racial tensions erupt among onlookers with no clear answers.
Tell them to move, or stay quiet?
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A man was seizing on a train platform, and instead of clearing out, people started edging closer to look.
The train had stopped for a medical emergency, and the situation in the next car was already tense. People were screaming for help. The poster got up and asked if there was a doctor or nurse on the train. A nurse took her headphones out, the poster told her what was happening, and she ran over to help.
By then, most of the people nearest the man had moved back, leaving about 10 or 15 feet of space between him and the crowd. The poster moved away too. But when the train sat on standby and people began leaving the platform, some didn't keep walking. They stopped to stare. A few even boarded the train just to get a closer look.
The poster told them to keep moving and to "give the guy some privacy" and "can we please give the nurse some space to take care of him?" That was when one man, with two very young kids beside him, snapped back. He questioned who the poster was and what right they had to tell him what to do.
The poster answered that they were "no one," but that it was rude to be in someone's space while he was having a seizure. The man immediately pulled out his phone and started recording. He accused the poster of being racist and said, "oh okay this is white people rude now," along with other remarks the poster did not repeat.
The poster says they were probably the only white person on the platform and were trying to help the nurse and the man having the seizure. Still, the man kept going after they disengaged, calling them a "fat bitch," telling them to "go to the gym sometime," and saying, "why don't you try losing some weight and then you can talk." He added, "I went to the gym and lost 60 pounds, you can do it too."
The poster says that part hit especially hard because the man had a little girl with him.
Then another person on the platform backed the man up, asking, "what, we're not allowed to care about this guy?" The poster replied, "right but you're standing 15 feet away, he's hovering over the guy as he is seizing," but the defender kept yelling about, "this is what white people call rude now" and "white people rude."
Both the man and the woman left before EMS arrived.
Now the poster is asking whether they were the asshole, or whether they are missing something about "white people rude."