Mmm, it's amazing how often you're confronted with "life" when you use public transport. Far more so than when you're comfortably encased in your own vehicle.
Sometimes these confrontations are amusing, and occasionally they are less so...
Today I found myself waiting for the No. 16 bus on a narrow bench, sandwiched between two other ladies: an older woman who was clearly of Arab origin, and a younger black woman.
The Arab woman soon struck up a conversation about the weather and the unreliability of the bus service (those two, worldwide classics). But a minute or so into our chat, she peered round me to take a look at the black woman on the other side of the bench, then leaned towards me and commented in a hushed voice "So many foreigners around...".
It's hard to describe her tone appropriately, but let's just say the comment was made in such a way that I felt decidedly uncomfortable. And more than a little surprised.
After a brief pause, I replied "I'm foreign too, you know". It was the first thing that sprung to mind, and it is true, after all.
"Ah yes, but it's not the same. You know what I mean, don't you?" the Arab lady smiled, winking at me as though we were sharing some private understanding.
At a loss for words, and very uncomfortable at this point, I nodded and studied my shoes. I did know what she meant, and it wasn't very nice.
Luckily, my bus arrived soon after that, and it wasn't the same as hers, so I got away lightly with a polite "Bon après-midi".
I was quite shaken though.
As I sat on the bus on the way home, I thought how sadly ironic that little exchange was: there we were, three "French" woman (we probably all had French nationality), all of "foreign" origin, and one of us was making a cutting judgement on the other two based entirely on our skin colour. In what way do I have a greater "right" to live here than the black woman?
None whatsoever, of course.
And if I happen to have white skin and light-coloured eyes, this is the pure product of genetics, history and chance.
Racism remains - and I hope it always will - totally incomprehensible to me.
1 comment:
It's so easy to judge people on appearance or behaviors. I guess it must have stone age roots that explains why thousands of years of civilization didn't not get rid of it.
Lucky you to be able to choose your citizenship ;-)
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