People haven’t talked to her because nobody wants to be bothered. People want to get on the bus and go to sleep. Everyone is not afraid of her, but bus drivers are afraid of confronting someone, even gently, when it would look bad on video or if they could be accused of racism because of the interaction. There is a lot of paranoia in the community among municipal workers after the Eric Garner situation. A lot of paranoia. Yes, she does pull the race/religion card, but I think it’s because she truly believes that it’s fine to have her religion accommodated because in her country it is the central core of every public interaction. I’m going to get into trouble for saying this, but I think it will take another black woman to actually speak to her and I think that will eventually happen.
Are you sure it wasn’t told by a Christian cucumber?
It may have been retold by a cucumber.
Oh dear, now I have the “Grapes of Wrath” ditty stuck in my head.
Perhaps suggest to your neighbor to see if there are any female black Muslim bus drivers willing to take this route for a few days.
You are explaining it just fine. I think you’re wanting to cut this woman too much slack because her manner is not aggressive or confrontational. However, her impact on everyone around her is the same as if she were.
No, she is a bully. She’s a polite bully but one nonetheless. She is NOT culturally ignorant - she’s figured out very quickly that she can get away with this behavior among American passengers.
I guess one of the passengers could video bus lady not letting disabled passengers sit and get a lot of youtube hits.
It doesn’t work that way. The routes are picked three or four times a year based on seniority and there are specific processes for covering for an ill or absent driver.
I think you’re probably right about that.
Niquii, your Christian cucumber comment made me spit out my drink. I love that cc is full of smart, snarky people. My kind of people.
Do you have any visually impaired male friends with guide dogs? I’ll bet if they rode your bus a she’d move!
Or, if not, any male friends with Labradors who could pretend to be visually impaired? 
Or a black Muslim person who qualifies for priority for those seats who can board that bus at just the right time…
“The Jewish man isn’t declaring the woman to be inferior, just different from him - there is no VALUE assigned to one over the other.”
Strongly disagree with this. An Orthodox Jewish male praises God every morning, in so many words, for not making him a woman. There is not a shred of equivalency on the other side. All the religious and social authority is held by rabbis, who are men. The woman has lesser value in this worldview.
All this is his business, of course, but there is an inherent value judgment in his attempt to avoid me on a plane.
Let’s not put too fine of a point on this. Stringent O Jews have the woman provide samples of cloth that have been put inside her after her period is through - to a male rabbi who determines whether she is pure enough to go to the mikvah and resume intimate relations. Google bedikah cloth. I get to say that’s an insane, dated practice.
It is not, however, a practice that could inconvenience anyone other than the woman, her husband, and the rabbi, so I don’t care at all about it.
I also don’t care about Mormon ritual underwear, daytime fasting during Ramadan, or any other practice that only affects the people who observe it.
I do care about being asked to give up a good seat on a plane. I’m selfish like that.
True! Good point. It is their business, not mine.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this thread. Do the needs of the one ever outweigh the needs of the many? Capt Kirk & gang inconvenienced themselves greatly to rescue Spock.
There is such a thing as the tyranny of the majority. That said, I still wouldn’t give up my seat to a whining adult male, unless it meant trading a dreaded middleseat for window or aisle.
On my last int’l trip, I had a window seat in the same row as a yarmulke-wearing man in the aisle seat. Middleseat was empty. He special-ordered a kosher meal. I was a bit bashful about it, but I did opt for the pork meal.
^^^LOL!!
Why should you feel bad about a pork meal?