Natasha Tynes, the author who lost her book deal after calling out a black female D.C. Metro employee for eating on the train by posting her photo on Twitter, is suing her publisher for $13 million, Buzzfeed News reports.
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In the lawsuit, Tynes alleges that the California-based publisher Rare Bird Books breached its contract and defamed her with false public statements, which led to โextreme emotional distress.โ The suit claims that she was hospitalized after suffering chest pains and anxiety attacks and that she and her family had to flee the United States temporarily because of death threats.
Shortly after Tynes postedโand then deletedโthe viral May 10 tweet, Rare Bird Books dropped a statement in a tweet of its own, saying that it was aware that Tynes had โdid something truly horribleโ when she tweeted out the photo of the black Metro employee eating her breakfast.
โBlack women face a constant barrage of this kind of inappropriate behavior directed toward them and a constant policing of their bodies,โ the statement continued. โWe think this is unacceptable and have no desire to be involved with anyone who thinks itโs acceptable to jeopardize a personโs safety and employment in this way.โ
Fortunately, the Metro worker, who was โhumiliatedโ by all the attention Tynesโ tweet brought her, didnโt face any disciplinary action from her job.
According to the lawsuit, Tyneโwho issued a tepid apology on Twitter before deactivating her accountโexplained to her publisher that โhaving not grown up in the United States, the issue of race had not even occurred to her when she made the tweet.โ Which is funny, considering Tynes, who is Jordanian American, was really leaning into that whole person-of-color thing to market her book (which will not be named in this space):
Anyway, after all the drama died down, California Coldbloodโa division of Rare Bird Books with arguably the coolest name in publishingโultimately said it would go ahead with the publication of Tynesโ bookโbut only on Kindleโs self-publishing format, Buzzfeed notesโbecause of its โcontractual obligations,โ stating in a tweet that after it recoups production and legal costs, it would donate the bookโs proceeds to the Movement for Black Lives Matter or similar organizations.
But that didnโt stop Tynes from filing the suit, claiming that the publishing company subjected โan immigrant woman of color to this racial torment for their own personal profit.โ
Is she really playing the race card?!?
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