Video capturing racist rant on train goes viral
SAN FRANCISCO -- UPDATE: People who know the woman shown in the video, who engaged in a racist rant, have contacted ABC7 News in San Francisco. They say the woman is living with mental illness and they are concerned for her safety.
Bay Area Rapid Transit also tweeted a response to the video.
Since the presidential election, there have been some tense moments involving people who voted against President-elect Donald Trump and those who voted for him. Some immigrants also seem to be affected by the outcome.
Thursday night, an Iranian woman was publicly insulted while traveling on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). That video has been posted on Facebook and has gone viral.
Too afraid to show her face on camera, this young woman we'll call Ivet, described the battery of insults she endured from a BART passenger.
"Oh you Middle Eastern, you should go back to your country," said the woman on the BART train.
Ivet had been on the phone with her father and had asked him in Assyrian, her native language, to pick her up from the BART station. Ivet used her cellphone to record the woman.
"This woman is a stalker from the Middle East. She is a Middle Eastern terrorist. She is terrorizing citizens like me and she will probably get deported," the woman said.
Ivet tried to reason with her.
"I'm not doing anything. I'm not saying anything to you. You just need to stop," Ivet said.
"I think you are an ugly little pig who might get deported and I pray that you do. I am a citizen," the woman said.
She says at that point other passengers came to her defense and called police. Ivet isn't sure if any of that rage was sparked by the results of the election.
"It might be how some people are, I don't know her. I can't judge her," Ivet said.
A similar incident happened to a New York Times reporter Fernanda Santos who is based in Phoenix. She tweeted about it and so did the Times. She was talking on the phone in Spanish when an older man approached Santos.
"When I hung up the phone he looked at me and he said very angrily, speak English," Santos said during a Skype call with ABC7 News. "I speak four languages, which is true and then he cursed at me."
With all the anti-immigration rhetoric, Santos said she knew it was only a matter of time before this would happen to her.
