Thread by @NudderingNudnik

Very short thread:

More news from life in the cultural and political pogrom.
So, i’m sat at a desk at work, around 2 colleagues who I quite like really.
Middle aged, highly educated professionals. (I know, who let me in?)

I come up for air from what I was working on and...

..hear that they are talking “election”.

They compare notes on their constituencies:
“In mine it’s the Tories we’re up against but we’re pretty solid as a Labour seat thank goodness”
“For us it’s the Lib Dem’s who could steal some votes. But we’re pretty much a safe seat...

..so not too much to worry about”

I get my head back down sharpish and look engrossed in my screens again. Like i’m not here.
Because what if they asked me?
What could I say?
And if I did speak, what would life at work be like afterwards?

And so i’m wondering:

...are they racists or bystanders?

Or did they want me to hear?
I mean, they know.
Everyone knows i’m Jewish.
I have the name you see.
Everyone has always known.
So - were they baiting me?

Rationally I know they almost certainly were not baiting me.
But life in the midst of a pogrom does weird things to people. We get hyper-tuned in.

But mostly we just try to do as we’re told and simply disappear.
Back to the shtetl.

Ends