How I lost my faith in London
The cold indifference of other Londoners to my racist attack shows how systematic discrimination gets ingrained
There is a gut-wrenching scene in Michael Haneke's Code Inconnu, where Juliette Binoche is verbally abused on a Parisian metro train by a Turkish youth, and no one seems to notice. Just as things look set to get out of hand, however, an older Turkish passenger intervenes. I wasn't so lucky.
Last Saturday, I took a night bus from Marble Arch. At the next stop, four young men – about 16 to 20 years of age, all white – boarded the bus, looked around, and within a few minutes sat down surrounding me. I don't know why I caught their attention, but I cursed myself for reading Walden on a late-night bus. Then the abuse began.
"Hey Paki … did you not listen to Prince Harry? Get the fuck out of this country, you brown monkey … "
"Fairer than other Pakis … maybe his mum was a slut."
"You stink, like the rest of them do … soaked in curry, did ya?"
"Mowgli, you get paid in bananas or tikka masalas?"
Several other passengers boarded the bus at the next few stops. The young men, however, continued undaunted, imitating the behaviour of monkeys, playing with my book, and continuing the verbal assault.
I didn't have the nerve to confront them, fearing further aggravation. Two black men, standing on the concertina area of the bendy bus, laughed initially and then egged the gang on. Two other men of south Asian origin sitting further along stared helplessly at what was happening. At least 20 other passengers were on the bus, most of them older than the four youths. I shifted my eyes in every possible direction to ask for support. None was forthcoming.
Near King's Cross, after 15 minutes of torment, things became physical, as the relatively sober gang began to prod, pull and pinch me. I swiftly got out of the bus and climbed into the nearest taxi. Behind me, I saw that the gang had followed me.
London - Centre of the Great Leap Forward in Race Relations
FROM THE GUARDIAN
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Hi,
ReplyDeleteI came across your blog today. I'm a Brit living in Japan.
One time I was on a train back to Liverpool from visiting my hometown, and a group of white young men came onto the full train. They yelled "oi! You with the black boots, come over here and talk to us or I'll nick your handbag!!" I looked around and the only girl with black boots was me. I tried to ignore them, but they came up to me and was in my face yelling stuff. Despite the fact that the train was full, no one, not a single person, helped me. I got off the train early and caught the next one back to Liverpool.