Tagebuch: September 2007

Dear Diary,

It is true that older people are privileged when it comes to seating in the subway. It is also true that many others fail to show respect for this privilege. However, when a person fails to get up from a seat, this should not be an invitation to bigotry.

Thus when two Asian teenagers failed to get up from their seats in the half crowded subway – because they had been ordered to, not asked – two middle-aged Austrian women exploded.

"Chinesische Scheisse!" soon filled the whole subway. And that was just the beginning. The insults quickly got more personal. Soon their fists hit the glass that separated them from the occupied seats.

The two youngsters sat quietly.  Their breathing intensified and after about five minutes of insults one of them got up, but was quickly grabbed by other passengers who tried to calm him down. The subway stopped; somebody called the police.

The two women knew that the other passengers would not allow the two adolescents to get anywhere near them. The insults continued; the women blamed their poverty and unemployment on immigrants, and repeatedly told the two boys they were not welcome in Austria. Then the two women got out of the subway, but stayed on the platform.

For some reason the train did not start right away. The driver and dozens of people were trying to cover the boys’ ears from the screams that kept coming. There was still no sign of the police. It had been 15 minutes.

The two women were still screaming "Auslaender raus," as the train finally rolled away.

People surrounded and tried to comfort the two emotionally shaken and scared boys. But no one, not a single passenger, at any single point during the whole episode, ever told the two women to shut up.