A train employee is winning hearts online after she decided to take a stand against racism that occurred in a train he was
The incident unfolded as a passenger on a local train started abusing another passenger for talking in Hindi and asked him to go back to his own country if he can't speak English.
The driver intervened & stopped the train asking the abuser to get off, something that was not only supported by fellow passengers but was also appreciated by the Mayor of the City.
A sixteen-old-year girl started yelling at an Indian-origin man who was “politely speaking Hindi on his phone to his wife,” on a Metlink train headed from Wellington to Upper Hutt.
Another passenger on the train told RNZ Checkpoint that, “She was saying ‘go back to your country, don’t speak that language here’,” .
The report shows that JJ Philips, the conductor, was boarding the train when one of the passengers alerted her about the berated remarks. She approached the coach where the obnoxious event took place & tried to know what exactly happened.
The report added that “The Indian passenger was just minding his own business, talking to his friend in their own language,” the passenger told Philip. “It appeared this teenage girl had an issue with him talking in his own language & she was being racist & abusive towards him.”
When the girl’s tirade continued despite warnings & her mannerism didn’t change, the conductor asked her to get off the train.
“I thought to myself, ‘no, I’m not carrying you on this train. You’re off.'” When the teenager refused to leave, she told her she was calling the cops & the girl shrugged & said “fine”.
The conductor said she had no reservations about stopping the train.
“When it comes to something like this, not at all. After what we’ve been through, in March, there’s still tender feelings out there,” the conductor said.
The standoff continued for odd 20 minutes, however, fellow passengers didn’t mind. “We were just in awe that she had the courage to say ‘this isn’t on & I’m not going to put up with it, no matter who you are & whether you’re a paying customer or not – you can get off the train & find your own way home,” Stuff, NZ reported.
According to a Transdev spokeswoman, the teenager was “acting aggressively, swearing & repeating racist comments to several customers on the train who were speaking in other languages”.
“We don’t condone this type of behavior here in New Zealand,” Phillips said.
Her move was not only applauded by passengers on the train but also by Wellington Mayor Justin Lester, who even nominated her for the city’s Civic Safety award.
The Mayor posted a detailed note on Facebook. The Mayor said he couldn’t have been prouder & thanked everyone “for standing up for another & calling out racism”.
“If good people don’t stand up & take action then bad things can happen, so it’s important that people like JJ stand up for what’s right,” Lester told Newshub.
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