When Snitch-Tweeting Goes Wrong and Proves POC Solidarity is a Scam
I don’t know how many of you are on Twitter enough to have caught when Jordanian author, Natasha Tynes, tweeted a photo of a Black woman who is a transit worker in D.C. eating on the train, which is against the rules. I lived in the D.C. Metro area for a few years, and, after having lived in New York City, the cleanliness of the Metro was astonishing. There aren’t any “pizza rats” and the no-food policy is a big part of the reason. I appreciate why the rule is in place. I also understand why it’s frequently broken. People are busy; they have long commutes; they’re hungry. It would never have crossed my mind to appoint myself as the food intake monitor on whatever car I was riding in. Tynes had no such qualms. She didn’t just accost the woman and tell her to stop eating. She took a photograph of her without her consent, posted it to Twitter (again without consent) and tagged the transit authority’s account. It was a clear attempt to get the worker in trouble and disciplined or even fired. I think Tynes thought her smug, superior snitch-tweets would garner her high fives. Instead, the Twitter response, “Dracarys!” was directed at Tynes not the woman she targeted.
The mob Tynes had hoped to unleash on a hungry stranger morphed into a multi-headed Hydra and turned on her viciously. Her book’s distributor, Rare Bird Books, cut ties…
