Black Rider

A young black man is verbally harassed by an older woman on a streetcar, while the other passengers remain silent. He finally exacts his revenge.

Rather than rupture himself trying to start his motorbike, a gent (Stefan Merki) decides to just get the tram. Safely ensconced, he sees a young black lad (Paul Outlaw) board and ask an elderly lady (Senta Moira) if the vacant seat next to her is free. After a disdainful glance, she ignores him but he sits down anyway. What now ensues sees her indulge herself in a serious, out loud, moan to the whole carriage that illustrates quite effectively just how bigoted and out of touch this woman is. Initially, the fellow passengers just nod and smile, but gradually they tune out and are subsequently distracted by an other passenger whose headphones are a bit noisy but nowhere near as offensive. Then the ticket inspector gets on and, well you know what they say about vengeance being sweet? Well here it’s a bit inky, too! It’s a gentle indictment of apathy, of keeping your head down and a stronger one of entrenched attitudes that say much more about their speaker than their intended target, but in the end there is a distinctly satisfying vindication that did make me smile.