A student says she recorded racist tormenters who called her a “big black dog” and appears to perform a Nazi salute at her on a train.
The group of white men also seemingly mock the Black Lives Matter symbol and refer to other BAME passengers as “dogs” and “mutts”.
Rosedona Williams shared footage on Facebook, saying it shows a white man racially abusing her and other black and Asian people on the train.
She referred to the incident as “truly traumatising” whilst on the train to Aberystwyth last Sunday (30/05).
British Transport Police are investigating the incident.
Rosedona said the abuse lasted the entire journey, from Borth until Aberystwyth, which takes around 20 minutes, and she filmed around a minute of it on her phone.
The third-year microbiology student at Aberystwyth University said this was the second time in her six years living in the town she has been “subjected to verbal racial harassment and abuse”.
Blatant racism
But she added she has “never experienced blatant racism to this extent” before.
In a Facebook post, Rosedona said: “I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone that has shared and commented on my recent post and reached out to me privately to show support, I really appreciate it.
“It’s been an emotional couple days and I can truly say that this experience was truly traumatising and has left an emotional scar, but I know I will eventually be OK.”
She was on the 8.51pm train from Machynlleth back to Aberystwyth, when a group of white males and females boarded the train.
Rosedona said: “The older guy in the blue shirt, seen in the video, initially stopped when he got on the train, where I sat, and said ‘hello sister’ and raised his hand in the air. To which I just ignored him.
“He went on to his seat and said to his friends ‘oi there’s a big black dog over there’, to which I looked up and saw he was referring to me.
“He then started chanting loudly ‘there’s a dog on the train’ and his friends joined in.
“Then he saw that there was another black guy at the front of the train and said to his friend ‘oh actually there are two dogs on the train’ and changed his chant to ‘there are two dogs on the train’.
“This continued for several minutes with all of them raising their hands, appearing to mimic the Black Lives Matter sign, laughing and jumping out of their seats.
Nazi salute
“I saw the older guy also raising the Nazi salute several times, whilst chanting that ‘there are two dogs on the train’.
“He then saw that there were three Asian people on the train and told his friend ‘aye there are three mutts as well’ and started chanting ‘there are three mutts and two dogs on the train’.
“He went on to say other derogatory things as well, referring to our culture and us bringing it to Aberystwyth.”
British Transport Police have said that they will be investigating the incident, and have informed Rosedona that they have since identified the main individual who instigated the abuse.
She added: “I truly hope that they will all be held fully accountable by the law in due time for their vile racist actions. No human being, no matter the colour of their skin, should ever be subjected to such vile racial verbal abuse, it is humiliating.
“Let’s continue to work on doing better and being better human beings, because this sort of incident should have never happened and cannot be tolerated. Now it is out of my hands and I’ll just have to wait and see what the outcome of the police investigation is.”
A spokesperson for the transport police said: “BTP is investigating a report of a racist incident that occurred on Sunday, 30 May, on board a train between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth.
“Enquiries are ongoing. Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to contact BTP by texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference 629 of 30/05/21.
“We would also encourage anyone who has been a victim of hate crime to contact us on the same channels.”
Transport for Wales said they “utterly condemn this abhorrent behaviour and are treating this report very seriously”.
Video – contains distressing footage
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