The New York City subway is one of the largest public transport agencies in the world, and serves approximately 3.6 million riders each day, according to the MTA‘s official statistics. With such a high level of footfall, arguments between passengers is a fairly common occurrence, though it’s rare for disagreements to get as heated as a screaming match that happened recently. Captured on video by a witness, two New York subway riders were recorded having a full on verbal altercation in front of a packed train, and it soon devolved into homophobic and hateful language.
The video is just shy of a minute long, and opens on a bustling New York subway train. Right away, two individuals can be seen bickering with each other. On the left we have an Asian man stood up sporting a long black coat and a light blue shirt, and on the right we have a female POC sat down in a beige coat. It’s unclear what sparked the altercation between the two of them, as the buildup before the argument is not included in the footage. It’s worth noting, however, that the woman admits to having called the man a “f*ggot” before the camera starts rolling.
Off the bat, the man declares shrugging his shoulders, “And I’m a f*cking f*ggot. What are you gonna do about it? I’m an Asian f*ggot and you’re a black woman. What are we gonna do about it?” To this, the woman replies nonchalantly, “So what? So what? I called you a f*cking f*ggot. So what?” After a brief back and forth, however, the man begins to lose his cool.
“I am! I am! I am! What are you gonna do about it, huh?” shouts the man. “You’re mad. You’re mad. You’re just a mad f*ggot.” the lady says dismissively. “You’re mad too, b*tch. You’re mad too, b*tch. You’re just a dumb a** b*tch and you know it.” fires back the man. In blasĆ© fashion, the woman utters the words, “Okay. Okay.” However, things intensify even more as the man becomes unhinged, screaming, “OKAY! OKAY! OKAY!” in a mocking tone.
Interestingly, however, another passenger chips in to defend the irate man, saying, “But you called him a f*ggot, b*tch.” It’s here where the woman plays the race card, declaring, “Oh, two white men ganging up on a black woman.” The passenger chimes in again with, “How about a straight person calling two gay people f*ggots? Oh, a straight person called me a slur!“
As the video continues to make the rounds online, social media users flooded the comments sections with their thoughts on the verbal altercation. Over on Reddit, one user exclaimed, “the irony of playing the race card right after dropping the F bomb, she wants to be a victim so f*cking bad” with another commenter writing, “just a part of what makes new york city so magicalš¤£” Meanwhile, over on Instagram, another netizen weighed in saying, “Love how everyone’s on their phones like nothing is happening“
