Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Black Subway Rider Won’t Back Down From Rant Against Orthodox Man

A black woman who was filmed going on a rant against a Jewish man aboard a New York subway car said she regrets dropping f-bombs — and nothing else.

Shauntaye King, who last week berated Yossi Wolfe over his Jewish identity, said she erupted because he and other riders would not give another black woman a seat on the Bronx-bound No. 4 train, the New York Post reported.

With the exception of expletives, “I didn’t say anything that would be considered derogatory or hurtful,” said King, a project manager for a construction company.

In the video, she is seen screaming at Yossi Wolfe, an observant Jew wearing a kippah: “You guys think you’re so f—king smart, but guess what? I’m gonna teach you a lesson on this f—king train today.”

Wolfe can be heard saying: “No, ‘you guys.’ I am a person. You are a person.”

When Wolfe, a Wall Street software engineer, asked why King was bringing up race, she said: “Because you’re Jewish and I said if a Jewish family got on here, somebody would have got up. That is not a racist statement. That is a factual statement.”

In the interview with the Post, she also said that during the exchange, she also told Wolfe: “You guys are a bunch of a—holes for not getting up for this woman and if a Jewish family came on this train with their carriage and their children, I can guarantee some of you would have gotten up for them.”

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.