I see an Eastern European women while walking Chewie, and try to give her a wide pass.
Because they’re expected to be ‘not very friendly’ towards men of colour. Specially, when encountering a brown man in the middle of nowhere.
She turned out to be the friendliest person I met all week. We chatted and walked together for 20 mins, while our dogs played with each other to exhaustion.
Almost midnight, outside the 24/7 Tesco superstore. A young, white British (looking) lady is about to drive off with her boot (full with shopping) fully open.
I wave at her to stop. She looks at me, makes a face, and turns her car the other way to go the long way round.
I honk to get her attention, and point at the boot.
She gets out, says ‘Thanks. Bye.’, and closes the boot. I drive off.
After thought: What was I thinking, expecting a young white woman to respond to a wave from a brown man in the middle of the night?
Anil Dash is disturbed by the latest round of shooting deaths of black Americans at the hands of that country’s clearly racist police force.
He tweets a storm, including bits about Asians/Indians needing to show solidarity towards fellow Black Americans.
I respond, pathetically:
And follow it up with this:
Both those statements are true. Neither is useful.
Race, is hard.
Fail. Get failed. Try again.