Women Kicked Off Wine Train In Napa: Hate Crime Or Honest Mistake?


On August 22, a book club made up predominantly of African American women was kicked off Napa Valley’s Wine Train. The club’s members believe their ejection was a result of racism rather than policy, as the tour’s organizers insist.

The book club, five out of six of the members of which are black, was enjoying their train trip through Napa’s vineyards by snapping selfies, making videos for sharing on social media, and drinking wine (the primary purpose of the tour). In the middle of all this, a neighboring white passenger told them to keep it down, as the train was “not a bar” and one of the train’s employees had to come to tell the group to keep their noise level down. In the aftermath of the events, the company even went so far as to accuse the women of “verbally and physically abusing” the staff members and other guests. At the next stop, the women were forcefully escorted off the train.

In the few days since the incident, the news has gone viral. This is mostly because, as the group claims, the ejection was an act of racism.

Lisa Johnson, one of the book club’s members, said “I felt like it was a racist attack on us. I feel like we were being singled out.”

She continued by saying “I have been a black woman all of my life and I know exactly what [racism] feels like and that’s exactly what it feels like to me.”

The Wine Train organizers have also taken back their claim that an assault of any kind was committed by the book club’s members, although, according to the New York Times, they maintain that the incident was not based on racism. Instead, they say, it was an act of policy that would have applied to anyone making noise.

“The Napa Valley Wine Train does not enjoy removing guests from our trains, but takes these things very seriously in order to ensure the enjoyment and safety of all of our guests,” Wine Train spokeswoman Kira Devitt told SFGate. She also noted that they have to kick passengers off the train about once per month.

The company has offered the women a refund for the tour and another complimentary tour for 50 people on which, the company says, the women and their guests “can enjoy [themselves] as loudly as [they] desire.” The offer was presumably meant as a way to placate the women, but they say they still want a public apology.

“They’re not apologizing for parading us down those five train cars and giving us to the police; they’re not apologizing for making us stand in the dirt for 20 minutes in the hot sun with an 85-year-old senior and somebody else who is just recovering from surgery,” Johnson said, referring to two of the book club’s members.

[Image via Tim Mosenfelder, Getty Images.]

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