Furious woman lashes racist tram commuter travelling with her feet on seat for rude comments

A Melbourne commuter has outraged fellow passengers after she sat with her feet on the seat and launched into a racist rant.

A furious commuter has called out a racist woman on a Melbourne tram, who was travelling with her feet on the seat and refused to move for non-white passengers.

The commuter said the woman had been sitting in the seat with her feet up, watching Snapchat stories on her phone, refusing to move her legs or allow others to sit down on the tram.

When she did finally move her feet, she made a comment to other commuters that she would only move for “someone from my country”.

The incident happened on a tram travelling through south west Melbourne, with students and people from different backgrounds.

“Scum today that refused to take her feet off the seat after being repeatedly asked,” the commuter wrote, posting a picture of the woman on Reddit.

“Then moved for a caucasian student, loudly saying ‘happy to move for someone from my country’ and smirking.”

A racist passenger has caused outrage, putting her feet on the seat and making racist comments to passengers.

“The one of the left of the photo was one of her mates,” the woman who posted the photo explained.

“The person on the right was the student. She kept bumping his bag with her grubby feet. He had the patience of a saint … I wanted to snap her damn foot off just watching her do it for 30 mins.”

The commuter said she often experienced racism on trams, “once every other month”.

Other commenters said they felt they may have known who the woman was, from descriptions of her behaviour.

“I think I’ve encountered her before … Everyone was trying to ignore her. But one older lady actually spoke back to her and took a bullet for everyone else,” one commenter wrote.

Some commenters said she should have confronted the woman,

“She needs to be held responsible for her words and for her actions,” a commenter said.

But the woman said confronting the racist commuter didn’t seem safe.

“I’m a female travelling alone, walking alone back to my car,” she wrote. “I know better than to engage with these idiots. What if they get off at the same stop?

“I wish I could say something, but honestly there’s no way my telling off would stop them next time.”

One comment pointed out that the two seats being taken up were orange coloured, reserved for people with a disability or pregnant women.

“Oh goodness. I really hate people who perpetuate the stereotype of ‘Aussies are racist’,” one commenter wrote. “I’m so sorry that you were treated badly.

“Feet on seats is disgusting, people don’t want dirt on seats. Yuck all around.”

“Agreed — you don’t deserve it, unfortunately the type of behaviour of this person is found in more places than we’d like,” wrote another commenter. “Luckily I think most people are willing to be your mate within reason.

“On the one hand, we should sympathise with her that this is the best that she can do — it’s not the behaviour that attracts many friends.

“On the other, you’re under absolutely no obligation to suffer insufferable dickheads that are beyond redemption. Life’s too short.”

Originally published as Furious woman lashes racist tram commuter travelling with her feet on seat for rude comments