Massachusetts Bus Driver Fired for Admittedly Refusing to Pick Up a Black Passenger
Kevin Brooks a barber who commutes to the Island from New Bedford and regularly takes the VTA, was waiting to take the bus from Edgartown to Oak Bluffs after getting out of work.
Brooks told the Times he flagged down the Route 13 bus on Beach Road near Oakdale Drive in Edgartown, but it drove past him. Brooks said the buses will usually tell him they are at capacity.
Having to catch the 5:20 pm ferry out of Oak Bluffs to New Bedford, Brooks immediately called an Uber to Oak Bluffs. Arriving shortly after the bus, Brooks confronted the driver and asked why he passed him. The driver replied, “well, it’s because you are black.”
Saying he’s been called “everything under the sun” throughout his life, Brooks told the Times this comment was different. “I am from the south. If I feel racism I deal with it. For the first time in my life I had to swallow it. I’ve never felt more disrespected or belittled in my life. I had trouble sleeping that night.”