Caution - ignorance ahead.

As I got on the bus on Saturday afternoon after a long day of pretending to love that I chose to go to University and decided to spend my Easter break by doing what I love best (sarcasm), completing the copious amounts of assignments that I have due in the next week. I sat down next to a girl and we both shared the fact that we are SO over Uni but also have less than a year left until we're free. 

What happened next you wouldn’t believe and I struggle to believe still. I know this sounds like one of those click-bait articles where you have to follow several links and fill out a questionnaire in order to read the content of the story, but I promise, there is none of that here.

Two younger girls, dressed in a school uniform got on at the next stop and as they walked down the aisle they seemed to be surveying every person, and even glanced at me, and my outfit then one girl seemed to snicker (I’m sorry that my t-shirt was $6 from Kmart??).

After walking up the aisle, they walked back down and there was an older man sitting a seat in front of me, one girl walked up and said in  S   L   O   W speaking “could you sit over there? Me and my friend want to sit together”. 1. it’s “My friend and I”,  2. Rosa Parks would be rolling in her grave and 3. how dare they think it’s okay to place themselves on a higher pedestal than that man, creating the inconvenience for him to get up and move as opposed to them being separated for about 20 minutes. 

Much to my horror and dismay, the man picked up his things and moved to the seat, 3 seats away which the girl not so kindly pointed out to him. When the girls had sat down one muttered “why is it that all Indians smell like curry?”, the other taunted “yeah they must bathe in it” they then both laughed their heads off. The girl sitting next to me, who was also of Indian decent then leaned forward, I could see the hurt in her face, and I don’t blame her for one second. 

I swear if one of the girls had said “I don’t mean to be racist but…” I would have started a war right then and there. The fact that she didn’t say it, obviously meant that she had no idea that what she said was even remotely racist and hurtful. To be honest I don’t know which is worse. At least if she had spoken those 7 words she may have seemed the slightest bit more educated but I can’t imagine so. 

These girls must have been 14 years old, how could you mutter those words and LAUGH about it. HOW. It pained me to think too deeply about this, because she would have heard it from someone who heard it from someone etc. and ultimately would be the person who came up with this disgusting stereotype in the first place. 

Ever since I decided to take this paper, I never realised how many times I have witnessed the ideas of “New Racism” and “Micro-aggressions”. The amount of times I have heard something and thought “ooh that was a bit rough” but never acted upon it, makes me feel rather sad. Not saying that i’m an angel and have never said anything remotely racist, because i’m sure when I was younger, I would have said things as my 12 year old self which now my 20 year old self would  rather roll over and die before she said. 

These things that people say have the biggest impact in the long run. They’re called “micro-aggressions” as I recall from the 2nd lecture, the “tiny little things that happen everyday that have enormous humilities damage”. 

I remember in year 9, when I was probably the age of these girls, some boys in my class used to tease me because I’m American. “Let’s go to the mall and get a corn dog”, “skanky yanky!” - some of the things they’d say, and at the time, they really upset me, I remember telling my mom and her smiling and laughing under her breath. LAUGHING? I did not find it funny at all, and I would dread going to school. She told me to take it with a grain of salt and that people will say these things because they feel insecure about themselves, and that I’d understand why they were saying those things when I was older. 6 years on, guess who was right. This whole memory came flooding back to me when this incident happened, I wish I had said something to those girls but I was too gobsmacked.

In 5 years from now I hope these girls look back and hang their heads in shame thinking about the ignorance towards other people that they have displayed. (I'm guessing that if you can say something like that to someone once, you must have said it before). Although the man didn’t hear them, my newly found friend did, and the way she looked up when the girls laughed at their hilarious stereotype portrayed exactly how I felt in year 9. The feeling of hating the skin that you’re in, and wishing you were . Nobody should ever have to endure that feeling. 

She tapped one of the girls on the shoulder and said; “You better hope it doesn’t rain with your nose tilted at the angle, or you might drown”.

Cue the mic drop. 

Wherever you are dear friend, just know, you’re my new idol.