Работник общественного транспорта Вейла обвинен в расизме за отказ в доступе к автобусу художнику

Core Transit worker accused of racism in denying bus access to Vail artist Public transportation service admits fault, says it will take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again Growing up as a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, Terrance Greer says his mother warned him that he may face discrimination one day. But the Vail resident says he never expected it to come from an Eagle County bus driver on the way to an art competition in Edwards. “I’ve been called names before, but I’ve never had a situation where I’m denied a service like transportation and felt like it was purely based on me being a big Mexican man,” he said. Greer stands 6-foot, 1-inch tall, and has a stocky build and beige complexion. When he approached the Core Transit bus on Friday, he was pulling a 33x24x18-inch cart filled with art supplies. For a bus system that makes stops at the Eagle County Airport and drops off guests carrying luggage — regularly transporting passengers carrying 5-foot long skis and snowboards — the cart was not out of the ordinary in terms of size. Support Local Journalism Nevertheless, “as I walked up to the bus and the driver let the other passengers on first, I got the sense that there was going to be trouble,” he said. “She kind of cut the door with this weird energy. Then she said she needed to call dispatch to ask about my wagon, and I could hear the call because I was standing right there, and she literally said ‘there’s a homeless man carrying car junk.'” Greer speaks English with a standard American dialect and does not come across as homeless when he’s talking, especially when he’s discussing his art supplies. But none of that matters, said Scott Robinson with Core Transit. Even if Greer was homeless and unable to describe what he was carrying in his cart, that’s still no reason to deny him access to the free bus. “Our internal policy for refusal of service is, basically you need to be wearing clothes … and if you have an item with you, say a stroller or a pair of skis or in this case, a wagon, the policy is, for our operators, if the person can keep it under their control on the bus, then it’s OK to come on,” Robinson said. “Our buses have cameras and microphones and all those security things on them, and we took a look at it with operations and what we identified was, unfortunately, our bus operator didn’t follow our policy, and we’ll be taking internal steps to ensure that doesn’t happen again.” Greer tried to approach the window of the driver’s side to get the driver’s name, “And she wouldn’t open the window,” he said. “And she was just laughing.” Greer said he was humiliated by the incident and didn’t know what to do next, and started to become worried that he would be late for the Riverwalk Art Battle, a competition in which artists are only given a limited amount of time to create a work of art on the spot and have it judged by the audience. Two other people witnessed the incident and gave him the bus number so he could file a complaint. A few moments later, another Core Transit worker approached him and asked what happened. “He walked up to me and said ‘I just want to say that’s super messed up, I’ll make sure you get on the next bus, I’ll walk you in and I’ll tell the driver to make sure that you get all your stuff on there,'” Greer said. Of all the artists participating in the art battle, Greer was the only one who regularly uses social issues as his inspiration. And oftentimes his inspiration is the hard work he sees from people like the very Core Transit worker who denied him service, as it’s the workers of the valley who keep the economic engine running for the tourists vacationing in the area. A week earlier, Greer had participated in another art competition in Vail, in which his work depicted stylized drawings of workers holding up slabs of concrete with tourists enjoying apres-ski drinks on top of them. At the Riverwalk Art Battle, Greer composed a picture of a beautiful mountain vista with an employee housing unit in the foreground, drawing dozens of workers crammed into a small space inside the unit. But he had another image in mind. “As bad as it sounds, I just think there’s no way this would have happened to me if I was white,” he said. The next day, Greer created another piece based on his memory of the incident. But instead of depicting himself as the image he sees in the mirror, he drew the figure getting denied service as a demon with horns and a gold chain. The Core Transit bus, instead of showing the destination above the driver, has the words “No Homeless” written across the electronic display. And the silhouette of the driver has the same horns as the passenger being denied service, as a reflection of the ugliness the incident brought back upon Core Transit. “I feel like when you make a bad decision that has an impact on someone else’s life — in this case being denied transportation, which can have a very real consequence for someone — it’s your own self loathing that you project, and that gets reflected back on you when other people see it,” he said. “I’m just happy I’m able to channel my frustration into art, because that’s how I process these things. When I get out my sketch pad, everything else goes away, and art becomes my processor.”