A commuter Karen was forced to humble up during a ride through Connecticut last week after a conductor threatened to throw her off his train for spewing intensely racist and anti-Islamic gobbledegook.
A TikTok of the hateful woman yelling at passengers has amassed thousands of views since it was posted Friday by a user named @mrwa043.
A spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Transportation confirmed to The Daily Beast that the incident happened on July 6 on a Hartford-bound train on a CT Rail inner-city commuter line.
ADVERTISEMENT
“HIJABIS VERBALLY ATTACKED ON TRAIN,” the video is captioned.
“This lady verbally attacked my mother and I on a train to Hartford yesterday evening,” the TikToker wrote.
She said that she and her mother were already seated on the train when the woman sat next to them and began ranting about how “Obama’s to blame for letting foreign exchange students” into the U.S. According to the TikToker, the woman said “illegal people” overstay their visas and law enforcement doesn’t do enough to punish them.
“However, she became increasingly more belligerent as she talked about white supremacy, FGM [female genital mutilation], and the sexualization of children,” said the TikToker. “I made the decision to record her as we feared for our safety.”
@mrwa043 HIJABIS VERBALLY ATTACKED ON TRAIN tiktok work your magic plz🙏🏽 This lady verbally attacked my mother and I on the train to Hartford yesterday evening. We were sitting next to each other, minding our business, when this lady got on the train and sat next to us. As she took her seat, she looked at us and started shouting how Obama’s to blame for letting foreign exchange students into this country. She made comments on how, in her opinion, they overstay their visas and don’t have a right in this country. She blamed law enforcement for not checking up on the status of "these illegal people". That’s when my mom mother turned to me and asked me "does she think we’re students"? I laughed at her a question and said "I don’t know". We made a decision to ignore her ignorant commentary. However, she became increasingly more belligerent as she talked about white supremacy, FGM, and the sexualization of children. I made the decision to record her as we feared for our safety. Several passengers defended us and told her to stop. Some passengers got off the train and informed train workers. I want to THANK them and the guy working on the train from the bottom of my heart for standing up for us. They are our heroes!!! Thank you for doing what’s right!!#viral #fyp #muslimtiktok #hijabitiktok #hijabis #buzzfeed #islam #islamictiktok #blacklivesmatter #awareness #racism #explore #trending #connecticut #newyork #viralvideo #viraltiktok ♬ original sound - m🌱
In the video, the white woman can be seen holding her hand up as if she’s trying to keep her face from being seen.
“Smells like feces eaters, doesn’t it?” she says to the TikToker and her mom.
The woman makes comments about sexualizing children before claiming the passengers across from her “must have a guilty conscience.”
Then, a train conductor approaches the woman and rips into her.
“Don’t talk to them like that,” he says. “You need to get off the train. Get off the train.”
But the woman claimed she had no idea what was happening. “I’m not getting off the train because I said I don’t sexualize children,” she responds.
The conductor repeatedly admonishes the woman, explains that “every person in this car” made complaints about her derogatory rhetoric, and tells her to get off the train, but she sheepishly looks out the window.
“Look at me,” the conductor tells her. “You will never ride my train again. I will look at you and tell you you cannot ride, you understand that? I cannot physically remove you, but I can stop you from getting on. Do not talk to passengers that way.
“Get off in Hartford and do not ever get on my train again. You see me, walk away.”
The woman nods and shuts the hell up.
“Several passengers defended us and told her to stop,” the TikTok wrote in her post. “Some passengers got off the train and informed train workers. I want to THANK them and the guy working on the train from the bottom of my heart for standing up for us. They are our heroes!!! Thank you for doing what’s right!!”
The Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesman said the passengers who filmed the clip didn’t file any formal complaints but the conductor, who works for a third-party train services provider called TransitAmerica Services, informed his chain of command.
He then stayed close-by for the rest of the trip “to make sure the women felt comfortable so they were able to get to their destination,” the spokesman said.
“Our public transportation system, whether it’s buses or trains, are safe, welcoming and inviting spaces, and if there is someone or something that’s not making it a safe and welcoming environment, we expect staff to step in,” he said.
“The conductor did a great job of de-escalating the situation, protecting those who were filming the video, and also everyone else on those rail cars, and directly confronting the person and letting them know it wasn’t OK.”
