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Jun. 10th, 2015 11:41 pmTonight on the train I watched some people hassle someone for not taking his bag off of the seat next to him so someone could sit there. Unexpectedly, I ended up feeling that they were in the wrong.
I did not notice what was going on in the first 30 seconds of the exchange, so it is true that I do not know the whole story. But someone asked him to move his bag and whatever he said exactly, he didn't move it, and they did not let the issue drop, even after someone else had just stood up to give the person who'd wanted a seat a place to sit.
Here's the thing. It was 10:30 at night. The guy had been on the train even before I got on, and he was dressed in clothing that very clearly indicated (to me, at least) that he was getting off of work, probably from a late shift as a security guard or something, judging by the cheap blue buttondown shirt. He was on the large side, not incredibly so, but enough that it might legitmately be uncomfortable for him if the seat next to him was occupied. (And when I got off 20 minutes later, he transferred to a different train, and had a bicycle with him, so clearly his commute was not a short one.)
The people who were hassling him looked very different, or at least did not look like they were heading home from minimum-wage shift work.
Does all this make it OK for him not to move his bag? I don't know, it maybe still wasn't the nicest choice, but hassling him seemed like a really shitty thing to do. While not giving up seats (or not moving a bag from a seat) on public transit is a problem in general, I think it's important to be careful with how one does it and to be conscious of to whom one is speaking.
I did not notice what was going on in the first 30 seconds of the exchange, so it is true that I do not know the whole story. But someone asked him to move his bag and whatever he said exactly, he didn't move it, and they did not let the issue drop, even after someone else had just stood up to give the person who'd wanted a seat a place to sit.
Here's the thing. It was 10:30 at night. The guy had been on the train even before I got on, and he was dressed in clothing that very clearly indicated (to me, at least) that he was getting off of work, probably from a late shift as a security guard or something, judging by the cheap blue buttondown shirt. He was on the large side, not incredibly so, but enough that it might legitmately be uncomfortable for him if the seat next to him was occupied. (And when I got off 20 minutes later, he transferred to a different train, and had a bicycle with him, so clearly his commute was not a short one.)
The people who were hassling him looked very different, or at least did not look like they were heading home from minimum-wage shift work.
Does all this make it OK for him not to move his bag? I don't know, it maybe still wasn't the nicest choice, but hassling him seemed like a really shitty thing to do. While not giving up seats (or not moving a bag from a seat) on public transit is a problem in general, I think it's important to be careful with how one does it and to be conscious of to whom one is speaking.
