If you haven't heard, Donald Trump getting elected president appears to have given his supporters carte blanche to say and do whatever the fuck racist shit they want. And there's not much more to that. A recent subway altercation, caught on camera, basically sums up the heightened post-election tension.
As nation seethes, a charged clash on a Metro subway train
On Friday, a man riding on the Metro Green Line in Maryland was caught on cellphone video harassing another man on the crowded train. The unidentified white man demands to know whether the passenger -- who is out of frame but described by other passengers as Southeast Asian in appearance -- about wearing deodorant.
"It's America. Welcome to America," the man yells. "Deodorant! What do you think?"
Fortunately, the video shows others on the train quickly jumping to the passenger's defense, questioning this white guy's shouty asshole entitlement and election-emboldened anti-immigrant rage.
"This isn't your America," someone interjects from the background.
"What is he supposed to respond to?" an unidentified woman asks.
"Does he know what deodorant is?" the man demands. "Is he ever going to wear some, in America?"
"Who are you that he needs to answer that to?" another passenger asks.
According to the Washington Post, the other passengers surrounded the target of the rant and attempted to keep the altercation from escalating. Someone used the train's emergency intercom to summon the Metro operator. Transit police officers boarded the train, and the man who started the confrontation got off, though it's unclear if he got off at his stop or was ordered off.
Look, this happened days after a highly contentious, racially-charged (among other flashpoints) presidential election. This guy never made any mention of Trump, but the spirit of Trump's xenophobic, anti-immigrant rhetoric was all up in his rant. This was not simply about personal hygiene.
Why is it that when anyone starts a statement with "This is America..." these days it usually means they're about to say something shitty? This is apparently what we're looking at for the next four years.
