Woman calls another woman a N-word on a NY subway.

[onatRainN]

There is a viral video doing the rounds for those that don’t know.

Does anyone know why the woman was being harassed by the group in the first place?

Bit vague OP for anyone who has no idea what you're talking about. Which woman was being harassed? The one who used the racist slur? How would any of us know why she was being harassed? Why is any woman harassed? Do the general public usually get informed of the harassers' motivations?
Maybe describe the video you've seen in detail and your own opinion on it, so we can give ours on whether you're being unreasonable or not.

We evolved living in small groups of around 50 people, and the offences and disagreements we needed to engage with were those that happened among those 50 people.

We’re now encouraged to engage with the offences and disagreements of the whole world and have an opinion on an altercation between two strangers 3000 miles away. No wonder we’re all going completely mad.

Not being in New York, what business is it of mine?

YABU.

Are you trying to find an excuse for this woman’s racism? Because there is no excuse.

If she was being harassed, it wasn’t because anyone was black (unless of course, the woman was being racist to them before and that’s why they all started filming and the group were shouting at her). People with all skin colours can “harass” other people, simply because they are people. It’s a thing people sometimes do. It has absolutely nothing to do with race. Calling them the N word is simply
racist. It has no link whatsoever to what they were doing. She wouldn’t shout racial slurs at a white person harassing her… the exact same action. It wasn’t their actions that brought that word out, it was her racism.

I would've thought that happens hundreds of times a day on the NY subway. Slow news day perhaps?

From the very scanty information given, I'm assuming a woman was harassed on the subway, and she is a racist? I'm not really sure what our takeaway is meant to be here. Harassment of women on public transport is not unusual, and nor is racism, so there's every chance that the two groups 'racist' and 'victim of harassment' will intersect now and again.

No idea what video you're referring to, but what has why she's being harassed in the first place got to do with anything?!
Why are you trying to excuse racism? (I'm assuming that's what it's about due to your "n" word in the title)
Nothing someone does justifies the use of racist language like that towards them .

Oh yes, certainly do - they thought she stole their cigarettes

That is a horrible thing to happen but unfortunately I should think something like that happens every day.