Author Natasha Tynes looks set to lose her book deal after a tweet criticising a Metro employee sparked an online backlash. Photo / Twitter
Author Natasha Tynes looks set to lose her book deal after a tweet criticising a Metro employee sparked an online backlash. Photo / Twitter
Author Natasha Tynes looks set to lose her book deal after a tweet criticising a Metro employee for eating on the train sparked an online backlash.
Tynes, a Jordanian-American writer and World Bank employee in Washington, tweeted a photo showing the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority employee in uniform, eating on the Red Line, reports news.com.au.
"When you're on your morning commute & see @wmata employee in UNIFORM eating on the train," Tynes tweeted. "I thought we were not allowed to eat on the train. This is unacceptable. Hope @wmata responds."
Within an hour, transit officials had responded thanking her for "catching" the employee eating and "helping" to "make sure all Metro employees are held accountable".
Eating, drinking, smoking and littering is banned on Metro buses or trains and in stations.
— Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, #Justice4AnthonyMcClain (@IBJIYONGI) May 10, 2019
So @NatashaTynes decided to use her power as a NBPOC to get a Black Women fired for eating on a train in uniform. When I tell Black Women we are ALL we got - this is the shit I’m talking about. #AintNoSisterhoodpic.twitter.com/PGhnJtlb8Z
It also sparked the viral hashtag #EatingWhileBlack.
Tynes apologised, deleted the tweet and later set her account to private so that only her followers could see her posts. Her website was also been taken down.
After the controversy, publishing house Rare Birds Books, which was set to distribute Tynes' upcoming novel, They Called Me Wyatt, released a statement condemning the author and vowing not to publish the book.
"Rare Bird is aware that an author distributed by us, Natasha Tynes, and published by an imprint that is sub-distributed by us, California Coldblood, did something truly horrible today in tweeting a picture of a metro worker eating her breakfast on the train this morning and drawing attention to her employer.
"Black women face a constant barrage of this kind of inappropriate behaviour directed toward them and a constant policing of their bodies.
"We think this is unacceptable and have no desire to be involved with anyone who thinks it's acceptable to jeopardise a person's safety and employment in this way."
Natasha Tynes looks set to lose her book deal. Photo / Twitter
California Coldblood, Tynes' publisher, issued a statement saying: "We do not condone her actions and hope Natasha learns from this experience that black women feel the effects of systematic racism the most and that we have to be allies, not oppressors."
At the same time, social media users took to Goodreads to give Tynes' book negative one-star reviews in advance.
"Would you still go ahead and buy a book if you know it was written by a bigot who went out of her way to get an African American lady fired for eating on her way to work?" one reviewer wrote.
"I didn't actually read the book. I just came here to let any potential buyers know that Natasha Tynes, the author, attempted to have a black woman fired from her job working for the DC metro just because she was eating her breakfast when Natasha is not allowed to," another said.
"Natasha Tynes is absolutely disgusting," said another reviewer. "How are you trying to profit from being a minority while simultaneously displaying misogynistic and classist habits against black women."
The publisher has since announced it will postpone the book's publication date "while we further discuss appropriate next steps to officially cancel" it.
