AITA for asking someone to move because they were seating on someone else’s seat on Amtrack?

A train passenger recounts a tense experience on Amtrak after asking someone to move from a seat already occupied by another passenger who had briefly left.

Despite the polite request, the situation escalated when the new occupant accused them of racism, leading to intervention by the conductor and eventual security involvement. The user reflects on whether they handled the situation appropriately or should have avoided speaking up. Read the full story below.

‘ AITA for asking someone to move because they were seating on someone else’s seat on Amtrack?’

I am taking an Amtrack train today. After I sat down I made acquaintances with the person who was sitting beside me. At some point, they went to the food cart to have lunch. In the meantime, the train stopped at a station and a black man (I mention the color as it becomes relevant later) got on and took seat beside me.

For context, Amtrack doesn’t have assigned seat and passengers are free to seat at any empty seat available. I don’t really care who sits beside me, but by now I had built up a good rapport with my co-passenger. So, I politely told the new guy that someone was already sitting there. He asked if I knew them and I said no.

He got angry and told me it’s none of my business then. A conductor noticed the commotion and came up. The black man immediately accused me of being r**ist and not wanting to sit by a black person. I explained the situation and the conductor agreed (they have markers to see the destinations for each seat, so they knew I was telling the truth) and asked him to move.

At this point refused to move and threw a tantrum saying how he gets discriminated everyone. At this point, the conductor called for security and finally the guy moved saying the world is against black people.

I simply politely told the guy that the seat was taken and did not want things to escalate so far. If nobody was sitting beside me already I would have no issues with him sitting beside me. I try to treat everyone fair and equal and didn’t like being called r**ist. So, AITA? Was there anything I could do better to avoid the situation. Should I have simply kept quiet and let the other guy deal with it?

Here’s what people had to say to OP:

Active-Designer934 −  NTA but to answer your question about doing something differently – Black ppl do experience racism on the daily. Most likely, this man has experienced it every day for his entire life.

If you can imagine that he has been in this situation before and it actually was racism, perhaps this might give you some context for his reaction. Perhaps you could have said “there’s no assigned seating and I don’t mind sitting next to you, but someone was sitting there for while and went to the bathroom.

I don’t care where they sit but I just thought you should know that they are coming back and their ticket is here, so they might want their seat back” bc in point of fact it doesn’t sound like they asked you to save their seat and maybe if they had come back they would have just moved to be polite (maybe I’m wrong but it wasn’t included in the story).

Bunny_Bixler99 −  “I made acquaintances with the person who was sitting beside me.” “He asked if I knew them and I said no.” You wouldn’t have been lying if you had said the person in that seat just got up to grab some food.

You actually did “know” the person you just met because you said you had built a rapport with them. Seems that all of this could have been avoided by just saying the seat was occupied and they’d be right back. 

4th_chakra −  Should I have simply kept quiet and let the other guy deal with it? You could have, but no one here has a time machine. You were polite. Your seat-mate was only up grabbing lunch, and would be right back.

The other guy was out of line to pull the race card. And his over-board reaction should have gotten him booted off the train as well. I take the train often, and any aggressive behavior gets you dumped at the next available stop.. NTA

MohawkJones69 −  I think this is made up rage bait for several reasons:

1. I have never in almost four decades of life heard someone when told someone is sitting in a seat ask if they knew the person. It’s a weird question to ask. Why would they even ask it? Most people would assume you do know the person, otherwise why would you ask?

2. Why would OP say no? It wasn’t a philosophical question based on the nature of what it is to truly “know” someone, and OP says they “made acquaintances with” (as in, came to know) that person. For the purposes of the question the answer would have been yes. Unless of course you needed a reason for the person to get upset for the narrative to click.

3. In nearly four decades of being a black man, neither I nor any other of my kind of people have ever in my presence or a real story I’ve heard refuse to move because they thought a white person didn’t want to sit next to them. Especially if there are empty seats nearby, which from the story it sounds like there were.

Grumble about that person after moving? Sure. Glare? Probably. But not stay. Why would a person in this r**ist ass country invite an authority figure to make someone they think is r**ist against them sit next to them?

4. Most of the time, when a white person doesn’t want to sit next to me, *they* move. If they ask me to move because someone is sitting there, I assume they’re telling the truth because not only what I said above but because they presumably know the person will be back shortly. Also they would know that if a white person comes on from outside the train and takes the spot without being told anything, that would also be obvious.

5. Why would the conductor get involved? How often is there dedicated security on trains (this one is a somewhat genuine question because there are no trains where I live and I haven’t taken a commuter or regional train in years)?

It seems like a convoluted fiction designed to get reddit users angry at a black person using the “race card.” Which is easy karma, because a lot of people who use this site think that happens all the time and it’s easy for them to believe without thinking too hard about it. But the story doesn’t make sense if you think about it for more than five seconds.

Pure-Philosopher-175 −  NTA. Technically you did know the other person who was sitting there, as you’d been interacting with them enough to build a rapport. That said, it’s not the new guy’s business if you knew them or not. The other person might have stepped away briefly but that seat was taken, plain and simple.

You could have told this new gentleman “The person sitting here has just stepped away to get lunch, and we were having a conversation.” You also said the train was half empty. It’s creepy behaviour to sit next to other commuters when there are completely empty unallocated seats available.

He could also have asked you if the seat was taken before just plonking himself down. This guy sounds like a weirdo who immediately got on the defensive over a polite request to move and did not like being called out on his behaviour, so he pulled the race card.

GollumTrees −  NTA that man overreacted.

AlMirajRabbit −  NTA. Maybe this guy was having a bad day and this was the straw that broke the camels back. But you are not the bad guy for saying something. The only thing I would agree with doing is to be slightly more clear just like “hey this person just left briefly and I was saving their seat for them.

I generally don’t care who I sit with but they were already here.” If he had still pressed after that I would have probably left it for the other person. Sometimes the risk vs reward is too great.

Mobile_Following_198 −  INFO: Did the stranger you “built a rapport with” ever come back to that seat?

HolidayAside −  Black people can be oversensitive to racism because they’ve suffered a lifetime of microaggressions and full on racism. What you did wasn’t r**ist but because he’s most likely experienced it so much, it’s the default reason for him.

Original_Mammoth5289 −  The black guy was the AH, not you bro.

Did the user do the right thing by addressing the situation directly, or should they have avoided intervening? How would you handle a similar scenario? Share your thoughts below!