Unanimous group silence. Warning: Racism

[Nikko-chan]

BG-- I am in college, and in order to get to school I rely on the public bus system. I take one bus from home, and then take another bus to school about fifteen to twenty minutes later. This means I have to be at the station for a bit before I board the second bus.

So, today I am waiting in the bus station, and a woman comes out from the back area of the station and starts asking people for a lighter. Caps just to show the loudness. I'm gonna white this out because it includes racism so if you don't want to read..

Woman: HEY YOU, YOU GOT A LIGHTER?
Man she was addressing: No.
Woman: *asking a young man standing far away from her* HEY WHITE BOY, YOU GOT A LIGHTER?
*cue silence and mortification from everyone that heard her*
Woman: *trying to defend herself* HEY I WAS RIGHT! HE'S A BOY, AND HE'S WHITE, SO I CALLED HIM WHITE BOY!


We unintentionally did a Group Complete Silence on her and she got flustered... I don't really know what else we could have done in this situation other than ignore ignore ignore.

Just wanted to share that with you all.

[jaxsue]

Having been on mass transit often, I ignore the people that act like this. Honestly, I worry that engaging them in any way would make things worse; some of them (IME) seem unstable.

[BeagleMommy]

Sounds like the group response had the desired effect (in a way).  She was forced to defend her uncouth statement and unnecessary loudness.

[Nikko-chan]

Thank you for your responses... sorry I am so late in responding but my computers been a bit... erm... under the weather.

[RiverSong]

Wow  I think the response was definitely appropriate.

[jmarvellous]

I think silence was the appropriate response.

But I wouldn't give people that much credit, I guess. They were probably not silent as a protest of the content of her speech, but rather because she was yelling in public, and most people don't know what to do with that no matter the content. In my experience, this is the norm -- particularly when it appears that engaging the speaker would not do anything to further understanding or compassion.

[evyse]

I wouldn't have known what to say, so I think silence is natural unless someone was very angry about the topic.